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Eager or Lazy Bindings

@Eager and @Lazy annotations can be used to control when bindings are evaluated. In the absence of either annotation, bindings will be evaluated every time they are referenced and discarded once used.

@Eager​

Since v3.9.0

The @Eager annotation can be used to immediately evaluate a binding. The eagerly bound value is instantly returned whenever the name is referenced.

Eager example
  Given @Eager time is defined by js "new Date().getTime()"
   When I capture time as time 1
    And I capture time as time 2 
   Then time 1 should be "${time 2}"

time 1 and time 2 will have the same value since time is evaluated and bound immediately at step 1.

@Lazy​

Since v3.9.0

The @Lazy annotation can be used to evaluate bindings when they are first referenced. The lazily bound value is returned whenever the name is referenced thereafter.

Eager example
  Given @Lazy time is defined by js "new Date().getTime()"
   When I capture time as time 1
    And I capture time as time 2 
   Then time 1 should be "${time 2}"

time 1 and time 2 will have the same value since time is bound and evaluated when it is first referenced.

Default (ephemeral)​

Since v1.0.0

In the absence of either annoation, the bindings will be unconditionally evaluated every time the name is referenced without being saved to memory. This is the default behaviour.

Eager example
  Given time is defined by js "new Date().getTime()"
   When I capture time as time 1
    And I capture time as time 2 
   Then time 1 should not be "${time 2}"

time 1 and time 2 will have different values since time is evaluated, bound and discarded at steps 2 and 3.