In SpecFlow how can I share data between steps/features?

Question

I have 2 features that use a common 'When' step but have different 'Then' steps in different classes.

How do I access, for example, the ActionResult from my MVC controller call in the When step in my two Then steps?

Answer 1

Use the ScenarioContext class which is a dictionary that is common to all the steps.

ScenarioContext.Current.Add("ActionResult", actionResult);

var actionResult = (ActionResult) ScenarioContext.Current["ActionResult"];

Answer 2

Currently I am just using a static class with static properties for all data that I want to share between steps. I am not sure how well that would work with MVC though since I have not used it with SpecFlow.

Answer 3

In SpecFlow 1.3 there are three methods:

1. static members
2. ScenarioContext
3. ContextInjection

Comments:

1. static members are very pragmatic adn in this case not so evil as we as developers might first think (there is no threading or need formocking/replacing in step-definitions)

2. See answer from @Si Keep in this thread

3. If the constructor of a step definition class needs arguments, Specflow tries to inject these arguments. This can be used to inject the same context into several step-definitions. See an example here: http://github.com/techtalk/SpecFlow/tree/master/Tests/FeatureTests/ContextInjection/