How to use common/shared "blocks" between cucumber features?

I'm new to cucumber, but enjoying it.

I'm currently writing some Frank tests, and would like to reuse blocks of cucumber script across multiple features - I'd like to do this a the cucumber level if possible (not inside the ruby).

For example, I might have 4 scripts that all start by doing the same login steps:

  given my app has started
     then enter "guest" in "user-field"
     and enter "1234" in "password-field"
     and press "login"
  then I will see "welcome"
  then *** here's the work specific to each script ***

Is there any way to share these first 5 lines across multiple scripts? Some kind of "include" syntax?

Solution

Generally there are 2 approaches:

Backgrounds

If you want a set of steps to run before each of the scenarios in a feature file:

Background:
     given my app has started
     then enter "guest" in "user-field"
     and enter "1234" in "password-field"
     and press "login"
     then I will see "welcome"

Scenario: Some scenario
    then *** here's the work specific to this scenario ***

Scenario: Some other scenario
    then *** here's the work specific to this scenario ***

Calling steps from step definitions

If you need the 'block' of steps to be used in different feature files, or a Background section is not suitable because some scenarios don't need it, then create a high-level step definition which calls the other ones:

Given /^I have logged in$/ do
    steps %Q {
         given my app has started
         then enter "guest" in "user-field"
         and enter "1234" in "password-field"
         and press "login"
         then I will see "welcome"
    }
end

Also, in this case I'd be tempted not to implement your common steps as separate steps at all, but to create a single step definition: (assuming Capybara)

Given /^I have logged in$/ do
    fill_in 'user-field', :with => 'guest'
    fill_in 'password-field', :with => '1234'
    click_button 'login'
end

This lends a little bit more meaning to your step definitions, rather than creating a sequence of page interactions which need to be mentally parsed before you realise 'oh, this section is logging me in'.