Using multiple runners to launch your specifications tests

When using the maven plugin, you usually want to test a java application that is accessible in your project. This is the most basic case.
Now suppose that you want to take advantage of a launch of the plugin to also test your C# part of your application. You will be able to do it using the Runners.

What is a Runner

A Runner is a command that can be defined to launch a specification test.
Testing a Java application will probably be something like

java -cp <my_classpath>:greenpepper-core.jar spec.html

Note: It's actually more complicated but I put this for the sake of simplicity.

For C# you will like something like:

GreenPepper.exe -a fixtures.dll;system-under-test.dll;external-dependency.dll spec.html

In the maven plugin the two lines will be defined in 2 Runners.

Example of Runners configuration

In the below configuration, we will associate runners to specification repositories: * JAVA Spec repository has the runner java * C# Spec repository has the runner csharp * Spec repository has no runner specified. It will be managed by the default runner.

    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <type>com.greenpepper.repository.FileSystemRepository</type>
            <root>../specs/default</root>
            <name>Spec</name>
            <projectName>PROJECT</projectName>
            <systemUnderTest>SUT</systemUnderTest>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <type>com.greenpepper.repository.FileSystemRepository</type>
            <root>../specs/java</root>
            <name>JAVA Spec</name>
            <projectName>PROJECT</projectName>
            <systemUnderTest>SUT</systemUnderTest>
            <runnerName>java</runnerName>
        </repository>
        <repository>
            <type>com.greenpepper.repository.FileSystemRepository</type>
            <root>../specs/csharp</root>
            <name>C# Spec</name>
            <projectName>PROJECT</projectName>
            <systemUnderTest>SUT</systemUnderTest>
            <runnerName>csharp</runnerName>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <runners>
        <runner>
            <name>java</name>
            <forkCount>2</forkCount>
            <cmdLineTemplate>java -cp {classpaths} {mainClass} {inputPath} {outputPath} -r {repository} -f {fixtureFactory}</cmdLineTemplate>
            <mainClass>com.greenpepper.runner.Main</mainClass>
            <includeProjectClasspath>true</includeProjectClasspath>
        </runner>
        <runner>
            <name>csharp</name>
            <forkCount>2</forkCount>
            <cmdLineTemplate>GreenPepper.exe -a {classpaths} {inputPath} {outputPath}</cmdLineTemplate>
            <includeProjectClasspath>true</includeProjectClasspath>
        </runner>
    </runners>

Default Runner

In the configuration example shown above, the repository named Spec will have its specifications launched by the Default Runner which is the JAVA runner embedded in the greenpepper maven plugin. See the Runner page for more information on the default runner.

tips: You can exclude the default runner if you are in a context in which you don't need it. Use the excludeDefaultRunner parameter for that purpose.