bdd - Python Behave sharing data between features -

i'm starting python behave want make api testing thing.
stumbled upon may not valid question is: can share data between features? store in db or files maybe there 'builtin'?

or invalid , shouldn't share data that, or maybe it's possible inside feature?

in practice looks like:

i have make request endpoint, in response number required make request that's needed tested.

yes, can, , trivial. in same directory have feature files can create file named environment.py. in it, can put:

def before_all(context):     context.db = whatever 

the before_all hook run before tests , whatever set there available features. use this, instance, create new selenium instance used tests in test suite. context.db above database connection. kind of sharing fine.

what share should read-only or resettable known state between tests. not practice share writable resources between tests. makes hard figure out went wrong when test fails , makes tests dependent on each other. if have failure on test c depends on , b cannot ask behave run test c. have ask run a, b , c.

if decide go against best practices , anyway, should aware new values set on context scoped feature , scenario. if before_all hook sets context.foo = 1 , feature sets context.foo = 2. when feature b runs after feature a, see value 1 context.foo because behave have removed changes made feature (the changes made feature "scoped" feature a.) now, have remember how python stores values. if hook sets context.foo = [] , feature context.foo.append(1), feature b see context.foo has value [1] because context.foo contains reference array , calling append changes array itself. possible work around scoping. still not advisable, though.

last checked, features run in alphabetical order. can force order specifying features on command line: behave b.feature a.feature