Inspecting generated code

SpecBinder turns each spec file into a Java class at build time. The Test Code pane shows that class beside the spec file.

The Test Code pane

To see the generated class, click the Test Code button in the top-right corner of the spec file's editor. The class opens in a pane beside the spec file.

The pane opens on the generated *Scenarios class. Tabs along the pane's toolbar list every class behind the spec: the generated class, the concrete test class, and any base class or interface that implements one of the spec's steps.

Each tab is a full editor, so the IDE's usual notice — generated files should not be edited — appears above the generated class. A spec file that has never been generated shows No test code found for this spec instead of an empty pane.

Test Code opens the generated class beside the spec

The concrete test class, one tab along

Back to the generated class

The pane opens on the generated class; the tab beside that switches to the concrete test class.

Linked ranges

Put the caret on a spec line and the line generated from that spec line is highlighted in the generated class, joined to the spec line by a band across the divider. The pairing runs both ways: a caret on a line of the generated class highlights the spec line behind that Java line.

In the spec file	Pairs with, in the generated class
Feature: title	the class declaration
Rule: title	the @Nested class declaration
Scenario: or Scenario Outline: title	the test method declaration
Background: title	the set-up method declaration
A step	the call generated for that step — the call in the same scenario, even when the step appears twice
A data-table row or doc-string line	the line that builds that row, or the same line of the text block
An Examples row	the same row of the @CsvSource block
A tag	the @Tag annotation
A description line	the same Javadoc line, or @Description line

A comment line pairs with nothing. Edit a scenario, a title or a tag and that line stops pairing until the generated class catches up, so a lit line always means this is what that spec line became, never what an older version became.

Highlight Matching Lines , at the right end of the pane's toolbar, switches the highlight and the band off and on. The one switch covers every document the pane can show, and the colour lives under Settings → Tools → SpecBinder → Split view, as Linked-ranges colour.

Caret on a step: the call generated for the step lights up

The next step, the next call

Caret on a call: the step behind the call lights up

The Scenario title pairs with the test method

One spec line, one generated line — and the band across the divider follows the caret in either pane.

Staying on the generated class

Follow caret in spec file , beside Highlight Matching Lines, decides whether the pane changes files as the caret moves. Switched on, a caret on a step opens the class that implements the step — the concrete test, or a base class or interface — scrolled to the step method. Following is for reading the step implementations; a step nothing implements, and every line that is not a step, still opens the generated class.

For reviewing the generated class, switch Follow caret in spec file off and pick the generated class's tab. The pane then holds still: only the tabs change the file on screen, and every step pairs with the call in the generated class instead of sending the pane to the concrete test class. With following off the pane does not scroll by itself either — scroll the generated class to the scenario under review, and the band across the divider shows where each line went.

Follow caret in spec file: off

The step stays paired with the generated call

With following off, a step that ShoppingCartTest implements still pairs with the call in the generated class — the pane stays on ShoppingCartScenarios.

Navigation

The Test Code pane shows the generated code beside the spec file. To open that code in a full editor tab instead — with more room to read, or to continue from there into the step methods — hold Cmd (Ctrl on Windows and Linux) and click a line in the spec file:

Cmd+Click in the spec file	Opens
Feature:	the generated class
Rule:	the @Nested class
Scenario: / Scenario Outline:	the @Test / @ParameterizedTest method
Background:	the generated @BeforeEach method
A step	the step method — the concrete one when implemented, otherwise the abstract declaration
A quoted value, doc string or data table	the matching parameter of the step method
A tag	the @Tag annotation
An Examples cell	the @CsvSource annotation

Cmd+Shift+Click on a step goes to the call in the generated method instead of the step method. An outline placeholder such as <qty> stays in the spec file and goes to the matching column of the Examples table.

The way back uses the same gestures: Cmd+Click on the generated class, a @Nested class, a test method or a @BeforeEach method lands on the Feature:, Rule:, scenario or Background: line, and Cmd+Shift+Click on a step call lands on the step — the occurrence in that scenario, when the same step appears in several.