BDD Tests: Ensure Article Quality & Reliability
Hey guys! Today, we're diving deep into the world of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and how we can use it to ensure the quality and reliability of our articles. Specifically, we'll be focusing on adding BDD tests for a test article, ensuring that it meets our expectations in terms of content structure, links, images, and responsiveness. Let's get started!
Why BDD Tests?
Before we jump into the specifics, let's quickly recap why BDD tests are so valuable. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a software development process that focuses on defining the behavior of a system in a way that is understandable to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. This approach uses simple, human-readable scenarios to describe how the system should behave. BDD tests are automated tests written in this style, making them an excellent tool for verifying that our articles function as intended.
By using BDD, we can ensure that our tests are not only thorough but also aligned with the actual user experience. This helps us catch issues early in the development process, leading to more robust and user-friendly content. Plus, these tests act as living documentation, clearly outlining the expected behavior of our articles. This approach is especially beneficial for content-heavy websites, where maintaining consistency and quality across numerous articles can be challenging.
Setting the Stage: Our Test Article
For our example, we'll be using a hypothetical article located at /2025/07/08/08-comparing-anker-power-packs.html. This article is unlikely to be removed, making it a stable target for our tests. Our goal is to create BDD tests that verify several key aspects of this article:
- The presence and correctness of tags.
- The structure of the post header and title.
- The validity of images within the article.
- The display of date and author information.
- The existence of specific links in the footer.
- The presence of the main menu at the top of the page.
- Responsiveness on desktop views.
By focusing on these elements, we can ensure that our article adheres to our website's standards and provides a consistent experience for our readers. These tests will also help us prevent regressions, where changes to the website's code inadvertently break the article's functionality or layout.
Test Scenario 1: Basic Article Structure and Content
Our first test scenario will focus on verifying the basic structure and content of the article. We'll use a BDD framework (like Cucumber or Behave) to write our tests in a natural language format. Here's a breakdown of the steps we'll cover:
1. Navigating to the Post
The first step is to ensure that our test can navigate to the correct article. We'll use a Given statement to set the initial condition:
Given we've navigated to the post at /2025/07/08/08-comparing-anker-power-packs.html
This step ensures that our test starts with the article page loaded in the browser. It's the foundation upon which all subsequent checks will be built.
2. Checking for Tags
Next, we'll verify that the article has a set of tags displayed in a navigation element. Each tag should link to a corresponding /tags/tag-slug page.
Then it should have a set of tags in a nav, each linking to a tags/tag-slug place
This test ensures that our article's tags are correctly implemented and provide proper navigation to tag-related content. This is crucial for site organization and SEO.
3. Verifying the Post Header
We want to make sure that the article has a post header, typically within an <h2> tag. This helps structure the content and provides a clear visual hierarchy.
Then it should have a post header in an H2
Ensuring a proper header structure is vital for both user experience and search engine optimization. A well-structured header helps readers quickly grasp the article's main points.
4. Validating the Page Title
The page title is a critical element for both SEO and user experience. It should include the post title and the term
