How do I specify a separate maven goal for running (Cucumber) acceptance tests?

Question

I have the following project structure:

MyProject
   --src
   --test
      --acceptance
         --step_definitions
         --features
      --unit

Answer 1

Is this possible?

Yes, it is possible. I believe you should separate your unit from the acceptance/integration tests having:

Slightly modified folders structure for both of these, placing your integration test files in the standard location of src/it:

MyProject/

• src/main/java/ (SUT)
• src/test/ (unit test code)
  • java/
  • resources/
• src/it/ (acceptance/integration tests)
  • java/ (steps definitions)
  • resources/ (feature files)

Moreover, by design, different Maven plugins are intended for unit and integration tests:

• for unit tests: maven-surefire-plugin
• for acceptance/integration tests: maven-failsafe-plugin

You must also bind execution of maven-failsafe-pulgin. To run the integration tests separately, you can define a new profile:

  
    acceptance-tests
    
      
        
          maven-failsafe-plugin
          2.12
          
            
              
                integration-test
                verify
              
            
          
        
          
    
  

You will also need to configure the plugin to search the src/it directory tree for test cases.

The acceptance tests can be run afterwards using:

mvn clean verify -Pacceptance-tests

For complete sample, I'd suggest you to follow http://www.weblogism.com/item/334/integration-tests-with-cucumber-jvm-selenium-and-maven