How to parameterize GivenStories as well as the current story I am testing?

Question

I want to reuse some of the steps that are common. for example

Scenario: Navigate to Page 2 and perform first set of validations
Given A user<username> is logged in
When user clicks on <menuItem>
and page <page_name> is displayed
and user clicks on Submit button
Then Page <second_page> is displayed
And validate <condition_1>

Scenario: Navigate to Page 2 and perform second set of validations
Given A user<username> is logged in
When user clicks on <menuItem>
and page <page_name> is displayed
and user clicks on Submit button
Then Page <second_page> is displayed
And validate <condition_2>

Examples:
|username|page_name|menuItem|condition_1|condition_2|
|username1|Page1|Menu1|Condition1|Condition2|

Now, Since the given conditions are same, I would like to normalize the story to something like this.

In precondition1.story

Given A user<username> is logged in
When user clicks on <menuItem>
and page <page_name> is displayed
and user clicks on Submit button
Then Page <second_page> is displayed

In currentTestStory.story

GivenStories: precondition1.story

Scenario: Navigate to Page 2 and perform first set of validations
Given Page <second_page> is displayed
And validate <condition_1>

Scenario: Navigate to Page 2 and perform second set of validations
Given Page <second_page> is displayed
And validate <condition_2>

Examples:
|username|page_name|menuItem|condition_1|condition_2|
|username1|Page1|Menu1|Condition1|Condition2|

But the challenge I am facing is, I cannot parameterize the GiveStory from the current story. Is there a way to achieve what I am trying to do?

Answer 1

My approach would be to not use GivenStories at all in this story. Use the step

Given Page <second_page> is displayed

and then do whatever it takes in the step in order to display that second page.

Answer 2

You CAN parameterize the Given story from the current story.

See section "GivenStories parametrized by Examples" on page http://jbehave.org/reference/stable/given-stories.html

The drawback is that you have to modify the code and add @Named annotation to your java steps. So according to the example in the page, the following method can take care of the parameters in the example:

@When("Something happens")
public void happening(@Named("One") String one, @Named("Two") String two) {
    //Do good
}