Syntax Highlighting

Gherkin Keywords

All Gherkin keywords are highlighted using colour and bold font

No '*'

Note that using * (asterisk character) as a step keyword is not supported as it does not improve readability of the examples

User Story Keywords

The commonly used set of user story keywords (As a, I want to, So that) can be entered in the Feature title section like below:

In order to

Instead of “So that” you can use “In order to” so that you can start with the why

User story keywords don’t need to be at the start of the line and you can use either lower or upper case as needed

The 'to’ part in the “I want to“ keyword can be omitted and in the “As a” keyword you can enter either “As a“ or “As an”

Simple Step Parameters

Simple parameters (those that are on the same line as the step keyword) can be highlighted by simply wrapping them in single or double quotes

Scenario Outline Parameters

<> delimited step parameters which are used as part of Scenario Template or Scenario Outline are highlighted automatically in orange

Use autocomplete

Use autocompletion support to quickly populate Examples table header section with the names of the parameters that you have used in parameterized steps above. Simply press 'Ctrl+Space' to bring up the auto completion menu

Scenario outline parameters are also supported inside tabular step parameters

Doc String Step Parameters

Doc strings are highlighted in purple colour

Backticks ```

The use of backtick characters instead of quotes is supported

XML Step Parameters

If you enter 'xml' after the opening characters of a doc strings parameter then any XML that you enter before the closing doc strings characters is automatically syntax highlighted

Comments

Comments are highlighted in grey colour

Comments spanning several lines can be conveniently folded using fold/unfold gutter icons

Questions & Answers

A comment prefix character '#' is used followed by ‘Q`:' or 'A:’ to highlight questions and answers respectively. Or the more elaborate version: “Question:“ and “Answer:”

Tip - you can turn off the showing of gutter icons on the left via an editor menu option shown below

Invalid text

If there is any text that according to the Cucumber Gherkin syntax does not belong to any of the Feature file elements, then it is underlined in red and an error icon is shown in the gutter

Note that such errors to be highlighted the 'Errors' option in the Gutter options drop down menu must be turned on as shown below