interactive-pause.md

Interactive Pause

It can be difficut to write a successful test on the first attempt. You will need to try different commands, with different arguments, before you find the correct path.

Since Codeception 3.0, you can pause execution in any point and enter an interactive shell where you will be able to try commands in action.

Now this Interactive Pause feature is available in MFTF. All you need to do is to set ENABLE_PAUSE=true in .env.

Check [pause on codeception.com][] for documentation and a video to see Interactive Pause in action.

In short, when a test gets to $I->pause() step, it stops and shows a console where you can try all available commands with auto-completion, stash commands, save screenshots, etc.

Generation Time

A <pause> action in xml will always be generated into php regardless if ENABLE_PAUSE=true is set or not. However, when ENABLE_PAUSE=true is set, an additionalpause() action will be generated in _failed() hook for a test, so that the test may pause on failure at run time.

Execution Time

To use Interactive Pause at run time, there are two types of MFTF commands to use:

MFTF Run Commands

When ENABLE_PAUSE=true is set, the following MFTF run commands support Interactive Pause.

vendor/bin/mftf run:group

vendor/bin/mftf run:test

vendor/bin/mftf run:manifest

vendor/bin/mftf run:failed

Note: MFTF run command's `--debug` option is different from Codeception `--debug` mode option.

MFTF Codecept Run Command

You can also use MFTF's wrapper command to run Codeception directly and activate Interactive Pause by passing --debug option. You do not need to set ENABLE_PAUSE=true for this command.

vendor/bin/mftf codecept:run --debug

You may want to limit the usage of this Codeception command with arguments and options for `acceptance` only, since it is what is supported by MFTF. You should also change `acceptance` to `functional` when using this command when referring to Codeception documentation.

References

pause on codeception.com