The Cucumber Book – Imperative vs. Declarative

restricted_content.feature

Feature: Cucumber Book v1 Imperative Steps P91
  These are the scenarios from the Cucumber Book showing Imperative vs. Declarative style
  I think the ideas in the book are great but I think that the examples can go further.

  # Imperative example from the book
  Scenario: Redirect user to originally requested page after logging in 
    Given a User "dave" exists with password "secret"
    And I am not logged in
    When I navigate to the home page
    Then I am redirected to the login form 
    When I fill in "Username" with "dave" 
    And I fill in "Password" with "secret" 
    And I press "Login"

  # Declarative example from the book
  Scenario:  Redirect user to originally requested page after logging in 
    Given I am an unauthenticated User
    When I attempt to view some restricted content
    Then I am shown a login form
    When I authenticate with valid credentials 
    Then I should be shown the restricted content

  # I think that the declarative example is still too close to the solution
  # How would I write the declarative example?
  # There is a challenge here. There's no context.
  # What is the business domain?
  # For now, let's keep it generic...

  Scenario: See the originally requested material once you know who I am
    Given I am an anonymous person
    And I have tried to view some restricted material
    When I prove that I am an authorised person
    Then I should see the restricted material
    
    # Notice that I've left out "Then I am shown a login form".
    # I wouldn't do that because I won't be able to prove who I am unless that happens
    # I'd write that differently anyway... more like: "Then I should be asked to prove that I'm authorised"

  # Now, let's say it's a magazine site with articles available only to paying subscribers
  Scenario: Read the originally requested subscriber-only article once you know who I am
    Given I am an anonymous reader
    And I have asked to read a subscriber-only article
    When I prove that I am a subscriber
    Then I should see the subscriber-only article