This feature is supported in the Ultimate edition only.

The following is only valid when PHP Plugin is installed and enabled!

With IntelliJ IDEA, you can praactice behaviour-driven development by running scenarios using the Behat framework. Currently IntelliJ IDEA supports integration with Behat 3 and Behat 2 versions.

Native support of Behat in IntelliJ IDEA includes:

  • Recognition of and coding assistance for .feature scenario files and .php scenario definition files.
  • Support of Gherkin syntax in .feature files: Feature, Scenario, Given, When, Then, And, and But keywords.
  • Recognition of @given, @when, and @then annotations in definition files.
  • Setting correspondence between scenarios and their definitions through regular expressions in accordance with the PCRE standard for Behat 2.4 and PCRE+ for Behat 3.0. Turnip expressions are also welcome.

On this page:

Before you start

  1. Make sure the PHP interpreter is configured in IntelliJ IDEA on the PHP page, as described in Configuring Local PHP Interpreters and Configuring Remote PHP Interpreters.
  2. Make sure the PHP and Behat plugins are installed and enabled. The plugins are not bundled with IntelliJ IDEA, but they can be installed from the JetBrains plugin repository as described in Installing, Updating and Uninstalling Repository Plugins and Enabling and Disabling Plugins. Once enabled, the plugins are available at the IDE level, that is, you can use them in all your IntelliJ IDEA projects.
  3. Configure the PHP interpreter to use Behat with, as described Configuring Remote PHP Interpreters. Note that Behat 3 requires PHP 5.5 and higher.

Downloading and installing Behat

You can acquire Behat in the following ways:

  • Download the behat.phar archive.
  • Use the Composer dependency manager.

Downloading the behat.phar archive

  1. Download behat.phar at the Behat Downloads page.
  2. Store behat.phar on your computer:
    • To get full coding assistance in addition to simply running Behat scenarios, store behat.phar under the root of the project where Behat will be later used. In this case, IntelliJ IDEA will include it in indexing, so references to Behat classes will be successfully resolved and you will be able not only to run scenarios but also provided with full coding assistance.
    • If you only need to run Behat scenarios and you do not need any coding assistance, you can save behat.phar outside the project. In this case, IntelliJ IDEA will only run Behat scenarios without providing coding assistance.

Installing Behat using the Composer dependency manager

Before you start, make sure Composer is installed on your machine and initialized in the current project, see Using Composer Dependency Manager.

  1. On the main menu, choose Tools | Composer | Add Dependency.
  2. In the Add Composer Dependency dialog that opens, select the behat/behat package from the Available Packages list, possibly using the search field. The list shows all the available packages, however, the packages that have been already installed are marked with a tick.

    Choose the relevant version from the Version to install drop-down list.

  3. If necessary, expand the Settings hidden area and specify the advanced installation options. In the Command line parameters text box, type the additional command line parameters to adjust the add dependency procedure. For example, to have the package added to the require-dev section instead of the default require section type -dev. For more information about Composer command line options during installation, see https://getcomposer.org/doc/03-cli.md.
  4. Click Install.

When you click Finish, the create-project command is invoked with the selected package. This results in creating a Composer project whose configuration and structure depends on the selected package, see https://getcomposer.org/doc/03-cli.md#create-project for details. After that a IntelliJ IDEA project opens.

Configuring the Behat installation in IntelliJ IDEA

  1. Open the Settings / Preferences Dialog by pressing ⌘,⌘,⌘,⌥ F7^ ⌥ S or by choosing File | Settings for Windows and Linux or IntelliJ IDEA | Preferences for macOS. Expand the Languages & Frameworks node, and then click Behat under PHP.
  2. On the Behat that opens, specify the location of the Behat executable file or behat.phar archive and the PHP interpreter to use Behat with. This PHP interpreter can be installed either locally, or in a Vagrant virtual environment, or on a remote host, or in a Docker container. For information on configuring PHP interpreters, see Configuring Local PHP Interpreters and Configuring Remote PHP Interpreters.

    The central pane of the page shows a list of configured PHP interpreters that are associated with Behat installations. The list contains at least one item (Local) which cannot be removed. The contents of the right-hand pane depend on the type of the selected interpreter. To use Behat with a local PHP interpreter:

    1. Choose Local.
    2. In the Behat Library area, specify the location of the Behat executable file or behat.phar archive.
    3. Click ../../Shared/refresh.png next to the Path to Behat directory or phar file text box. IntelliJ IDEA detects the version of Behat and displays it below the text box.

    To use Behat with a remote PHP interpreter, click the Add toolbar button ../../Shared/new.png in the central pane and do one of the following depending on your workflow:

    • To use Behat in a Vagrant environment:
      1. In the Behat by Remote Interpreter dialog box, choose the desired PHP interpreter configuration in a Vagrant environment. When you click OK, IntelliJ IDEA returns to the Behat page.

        IntelliJ IDEA displays the appointed PHP interpreter configuration in the CLI Interpreter field. The field is read-only, to update the chosen interpreter configuration or create a new one, click the ../../Shared/browseButton.png whereupon IntelliJ IDEA brings you to the Interpreters dialog box.

      2. In the Behat Library area, specify the location of the Behat executable file or behat.phar archive in the target Vagrant virtual environment. For example, if you installed Behat through the Composer dependency manager, the location is vendor/bin/behat.
      3. Click ../../Shared/refresh.png next to the Path to Behat directory or phar file text box. IntelliJ IDEA detects the version of Behat and displays it below the text box.
    • To use Behat on a remote host with SSH access:
      1. In the Behat by Remote Interpreter dialog box, choose the desired PHP interpreter configuration on a remote host. When you click OK, IntelliJ IDEA returns to the Behat page.

        IntelliJ IDEA displays the appointed PHP interpreter configuration in the CLI Interpreter field. The field is read-only, to update the chosen interpreter configuration or create a new one, click the ../../Shared/browseButton.png whereupon IntelliJ IDEA brings you to the Interpreters dialog box.

      2. In the Behat Library area, specify the location of the Behat executable file or behat.phar archive on the target host.
      3. Click ../../Shared/refresh.png next to the Path to Behat directory or phar file text box. IntelliJ IDEA detects the version of Behat and displays it below the text box.
    • To use Behat in a Docker container:
      1. In the Behat by Remote Interpreter dialog box, choose the desired PHP interpreter configuration in a Docker container. When you click OK, IntelliJ IDEA returns to the Behat page.

        IntelliJ IDEA displays the appointed PHP interpreter configuration in the CLI Interpreter field. The field is read-only, to update the chosen interpreter configuration or create a new one, click the ../../Shared/browseButton.png whereupon IntelliJ IDEA brings you to the Interpreters dialog box.

      2. In the Behat Library area, specify the location of the Behat executable file or behat.phar archive on the target host.
      3. Click ../../Shared/refresh.png next to the Path to Behat directory or phar file text box. IntelliJ IDEA detects the version of Behat and displays it below the text box.
  3. In the Test Runner area, appoint the configuration .yml file to use for launching and executing scenarios.

    By default, Behat looks for a behat.yml configuration file in the project root folder or in the config folder. You can appoint a custom configuration file.

    • Clear the Default configuration file check box to have Behat use the behat.yml configuration file from the project root folder or from the config folder. If no such file is found, test execution fails, therefore it may be more reliable to specify the configuration file explicitly.
    • Select the Default configuration file check box to specify your own .yml configuration file. This file will be later used as default in all Behat run/debug configurations.

      In the text box, specify the location of the configuration file to use. Type the path manually or click the ../../Shared/browseButton.png button and choose the file in the dialog box that opens.

Creating a run configuration of the type Behat

  1. Choose Run | Edit Configuration on the main menu
  2. In the Edit Configuration dialog box that opens, click the Add New Configuration toolbar button add.png, and choose Behat on the context menu.
  3. In the Run/Debug Configuration: Behat dialog box, specify the scenarios to run and customize the behavior of the current PHP interpreter by specifying the options and arguments to be passed to the PHP executable file.

Launching Tests

For information about writing Behat features, see http://docs.behat.org/en/latest/user_guide/writing_scenarios.html. To run or debug your tests, do one of the following: