Formatters and Reporters

behave provides 2 different concepts for reporting results of a test run:

• formatters

• reporters

A slightly different interface is provided for each “formatter” concept. The Formatter is informed about each step that is taken. The Reporter has a more coarse-grained API.

Reporters

The following reporters are currently supported:

Name	Description
junit	Provides JUnit XML-like output.
summary	Provides a summary of the test run.

Formatters

The following formatters are currently supported:

Name	Mode	Description
help	normal	Shows all registered formatters.
json	normal	JSON dump of test run
json.pretty	normal	JSON dump of test run (human readable)
plain	normal	Very basic formatter with maximum compatibility
pretty	normal	Standard colourised pretty formatter
progress	normal	Shows dotted progress for each executed scenario.
progress2	normal	Shows dotted progress for each executed step.
progress3	normal	Shows detailed progress for each step of a scenario.
rerun	normal	Emits scenario file locations of failing scenarios
sphinx.steps	dry-run	Generate sphinx-based documentation for step definitions.
steps	dry-run	Shows step definitions (step implementations).
steps.doc	dry-run	Shows documentation for step definitions.
steps.usage	dry-run	Shows how step definitions are used by steps (in feature files).
tags	dry-run	Shows tags (and how often they are used).
tags.location	dry-run	Shows tags and the location where they are used.

Note

You can use more than one formatter during a test run. But in general you have only one formatter that writes to stdout.

The “Mode” column indicates if a formatter is intended to be used in dry-run (--dry-run command-line option) or normal mode.

User-Defined Formatters

Behave allows you to provide your own formatter (class):

# -- USE: Formatter class "Json2Formatter" in python module "foo.bar"
# NOTE: Formatter must be importable from python search path.
behave -f foo.bar:Json2Formatter ...

The usage of a user-defined formatter can be simplified by providing an alias name for it in the configuration file:

# -- FILE: behave.ini
# ALIAS SUPPORTS: behave -f json2 ...
# NOTE: Formatter aliases may override builtin formatters.
[behave.formatters]
json2 = foo.bar:Json2Formatter

If your formatter can be configured, you should use the userdata concept to provide them. The formatter should use the attribute schema:

# -- FILE: behave.ini
# SCHEMA: behave.formatter.<FORMATTER_NAME>.<ATTRIBUTE_NAME>
[behave.userdata]
behave.formatter.json2.use_pretty = true

# -- SUPPORTS ALSO:
#    behave -f json2 -D behave.formatter.json2.use_pretty ...

More Formatters

The following contributed formatters are currently known:

Name	Description
allure	allure-behave, an Allure formatter for behave.
html	behave-html-formatter, a simple HTML formatter for behave.
teamcity	behave-teamcity, a formatter for JetBrains TeamCity CI testruns with behave.

The usage of a custom formatter can be simplified if a formatter alias is defined for.

EXAMPLE:

# -- FILE: behave.ini
# FORMATTER ALIASES: "behave -f allure" and others...
[behave.formatters]
allure = allure_behave.formatter:AllureFormatter
html = behave_html_formatter:HTMLFormatter
teamcity = behave_teamcity:TeamcityFormatter

Embedding Screenshots / Data in Reports

Hint 1

Only supported by JSON formatter

Hint 2

Binary attachments may require base64 encoding.

You can embed data in reports with the Context method attach(), if you have configured a formatter that supports it. Currently only the JSON formatter supports embedding data.

For example:

# -- FILE: features/steps/screenshot_example_steps.py
from behave import given, when
from behave4example.web_browser.util import take_screenshot_and_attach_to_scenario

@given(u'I open the Google webpage')
@when(u'I open the Google webpage')
def step_open_google_webpage(ctx):
    ctx.browser.get("https://www.google.com")
    take_screenshot_and_attach_to_scenario(ctx)

# -- FILE: behave4example/web_browser/util.py
# HINTS:
#   * EXAMPLE CODE ONLY
#   * BROWSER-SPECIFIC: Implementation may depend on browser driver.
def take_screenshot_and_attach_to_scenario(ctx):
    # -- HINT: SELENIUM WITH CHROME: ctx.browser.get_screenshot_as_base64()
    screenshot_image = ctx.browser.get_full_page_screenshot_as_png()
    ctx.attach("image/png", screenshot_image)

# -- FILE: features/environment.py
# EXAMPLE REQUIRES: This browser driver setup code (or something similar).
from selenium import webdriver

def before_all(ctx):
    ctx.browser = webdriver.Firefox()

See also

• Selenium Python SDK: https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/docs/api/py/

• Playwright Python SDK: https://playwright.dev/python/docs/intro

RELATED: Selenium webdriver details:

• Selenium webdriver (for Firefox): selenium.webdriver.firefox.webdriver.WebDriver.get_full_page_screenshot_as_png

• Selenium webdriver (for Chrome): selenium.webdriver.remote.webdriver.WebDriver.get_screenshot_as_base64

RELATED: Playwright details:

• https://playwright.dev/python/docs/api/class-locator#locator-screenshot

• https://playwright.dev/python/docs/api/class-page#page-screenshot