package Test::BDD::Cucumber::Manual::Architecture;

=head1 NAME

Test::BDD::Cucumber::Manual::Architecture - Structural Overview

=head1 VERSION

version 0.53

=head1 INTRODUCTION

This short document exists to give you an idea how the different components of
this distribution fit together.

=head1 MODELS

The core of a Cucumber-based test suite are the feature files and the step
definitions files. By convention, these are saved under C</features/> and
C</features/step_definitions/> respectively.

The feature files are encapsulated by the classes in
C<Test::BDD::Cucumber::Model>.

                  one to one
 TBCM::Feature<----------------->TBCM::Document
      |                               |
      +-------------------+           |
      | has many          | has a     | has many
      V                   |           V
 TBCM::Scenario           +----->TBCM::Line
      |                            ^  ^
      +----------------------------+  |
      | has many                      |
      V                               |
 TBCM::Step---------------------------+

=head1 EXECUTOR

We build up a L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::Executor> object, in to which we load the
step definitions. We then pass this in a L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::Model::Feature>
object, along with a L<Test::BDD::Cucumber::Model::Harness> object, which
controls interaction with the outside world.

=head1 EXTENSION

Extensions allow hooking into the execution of the steps, with pre- and post
hooks for steps, scenarios, features and the entire execution. Extensions
can provide additional step directories from which steps will be made
available. The feature and scenario stashes are passed to the extension hooks
allowing for a means of communication between the hooks and the steps.

Extensions - when loaded by the pherkin test executor - receive their
configuration from the pherkin.yaml configuration file, which works
similar to L<the configuration of extensions in
Behat|http://docs.behat.org/en/v2.5/guides/7.config.html#extensions>.

Note: when using extensions in combination with the
C<TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::Feature> plugin for C<prove>, there is no
guarantee that the C<pre_execute> and C<post_execute> hooks execute
exactly once or even execute at all.
This is a current limitation to be lifted in a future release.

=head1 AUTHOR

Peter Sergeant C<pete@clueball.com>

=head1 LICENSE

Copyright 2011-2016, Peter Sergeant; Licensed under the same terms as Perl

=cut

1;
