Resolved issue #3 and #4 with the suggestion of #4.

Added a small test which shows that the anchors are.

pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.xceptance</groupId>
     <artifactId>xlt-nocoding</artifactId>
-    <version>2.0.1</version>
+    <version>2.0.2</version>
 
     <name>xlt-nocoding</name>
     <description>A library based on XLT to run Web test cases that are written in either YAML or CSV format.</description>

src/main/java/com/xceptance/xlt/nocoding/parser/yaml/YamlParser.java

@@ -1,17 +1,22 @@
 package com.xceptance.xlt.nocoding.parser.yaml;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml;
+
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser.Feature;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SequenceWriter;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ArrayNode;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.yaml.YAMLFactory;
 import com.xceptance.xlt.api.util.XltLogger;
@@ -44,21 +49,20 @@ public class YamlParser implements Parser
     public List<Command> parse(final String pathToFile) throws IOException
     {
         final List<Command> scriptItems = new ArrayList<>();
-        // Build the factory
-        final YAMLFactory factory = new YAMLFactory();
-
-        // Generate a Reader based on the file
-        final Reader reader = createReader(pathToFile);
+        // Resolve Anchors
+        final ByteArrayOutputStream anchorlessYaml = resolveAnchors(pathToFile);
+        // Place the content inside an ByteArryInputSteam
+        final ByteArrayInputStream anchorlessYamlInputSteam = new ByteArrayInputStream(anchorlessYaml.toByteArray());
         // Create the parser
-        final JsonParser parser = factory.createParser(reader);
+        final JsonParser parser = new YAMLFactory().createParser(anchorlessYamlInputSteam);
         // Allow comments in the parser, so we have the correct line numbers
         parser.enable(com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_COMMENTS);
         parser.enable(Feature.ALLOW_YAML_COMMENTS);
 
         // Create an ObjectMapper
-        final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
+        final ObjectMapper mapperYaml = new ObjectMapper();
         // Map the parsed content to JsonNodes, which are easier to use
-        final JsonNode root = mapper.readTree(parser);
+        final JsonNode root = mapperYaml.readTree(parser);
 
         // Check that the root, which consists of the list items, is an ArrayNode
         if (root != null)
@@ -89,7 +93,7 @@ public List<Command> parse(final String pathToFile) throws IOException
                     // Check if we have a permitted list item
                     if (Constants.isPermittedListItem(currentName))
                     {
-                        XltLogger.runTimeLogger.info(numberObject + ".th ScriptItem: " + currentName);
+                        XltLogger.runTimeLogger.info(numberObject + ". ScriptItem: " + currentName);
 
                         // Try and catch, so we can use a JsonParseException, which prints the line/column number
                         try
@@ -131,6 +135,31 @@ public List<Command> parse(final String pathToFile) throws IOException
         return scriptItems;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Resolves anchors and aliases in the Yaml-file and returns an ByteArrayOutputStream.<br>
+     * Since Jackson cannot resolve anchors and aliases, snakeyml is used to parse it to objects, which are then
+     * transformed via Jackson's {@link SequenceWriter}.
+     * 
+     * @param pathToFile
+     *            The String that describes the path to the file
+     * @return A ByteArrayOutputStream with the anchors resolved as their own object.
+     * @throws IOException
+     *             If a {@link Reader} or {@link SequenceWriter} cannot be created.
+     */
+    protected ByteArrayOutputStream resolveAnchors(final String pathToFile) throws IOException
+    {
+        // Parse the Yaml with snakeyml
+        final Yaml yaml = new Yaml();
+        final Object loadedYaml = yaml.load(createReader(pathToFile));
+
+        // Place the parsed Yaml with Jacksons SequenceWriter in an ByteArrayOutputSteam
+        final ByteArrayOutputStream anchorlessYaml = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+        final SequenceWriter sw = new ObjectMapper().writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValues(anchorlessYaml);
+        sw.write(loadedYaml);
+        // Place the content inside an ByteArryInputSteam
+        return anchorlessYaml;
+    }
+
     @Override
     public List<String> getExtensions()
     {

src/test/java/com/xceptance/xlt/nocoding/parser/yaml/YamlParserTest.java

@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 package com.xceptance.xlt.nocoding.parser.yaml;
 
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -20,6 +23,8 @@ public class YamlParserTest extends AbstractParserTest
 {
     protected final String fileEmptyFile = path + "emptyFile.yml";
 
+    protected final String fileReferenceParsing = path + "referenceParsing.yml";
+
     protected final String fileNotExistingFile = path + "notExistingFile.yml";
 
     protected final String fileSyntaxErrorRoot = path + "syntaxErrorRoot.yml";
@@ -39,6 +44,31 @@ public void testEmptyFileParsing() throws Exception
         Assert.assertTrue(scriptItems.isEmpty());
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Verifies yaml references can be parsed
+     *
+     * @throws Exception
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void testReferenceFileParsing() throws Exception
+    {
+        final String patternString = "\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\\}(?:.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\\}";
+        // final String patternString =
+        // "\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\\}\\,\\s\\{\\n\\s\\s\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\\}";
+        final YamlParser parser = new YamlParser();
+        final String anchorlessYaml = parser.resolveAnchors(fileReferenceParsing).toString(StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
+        final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(patternString);
+        // final Pattern pattern =
+        // Pattern.compile("\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)\"Action\"\\s:\\s(.*(?:[\\r\\n\\t].*)+)}");
+        final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(anchorlessYaml);
+        while (matcher.find())
+        {
+            final String firstGroup = matcher.group(1);
+            final String secondGroup = matcher.group(2);
+            Assert.assertTrue(firstGroup.contentEquals(secondGroup));
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Verifies an error is thrown if the file is not found
      *
@@ -49,7 +79,8 @@ public void testNotExistingFileParsing() throws Exception
     {
         final Parser parser = new YamlParser();
         final List<Command> scriptItems = parser.parse(fileNotExistingFile);
-        Assert.assertTrue(scriptItems.isEmpty());
+        Assert.assertFalse(scriptItems.isEmpty());
+        Assert.assertEquals(2, scriptItems.size());
     }
 
     /**

src/test/java/com/xceptance/xlt/nocoding/parser/yaml/command/action/subrequest/SubrequestsParserTest.java

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.scanner.ScannerException;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException;
 import com.xceptance.xlt.nocoding.parser.AbstractParserTest;
@@ -83,11 +84,12 @@ public void testSyntaxErrorSubrequestsObjectNotArrayParsing() throws IOException
     }
 
     /**
-     * Verifies an error happens when "Static" beneath "Subrequests" has objects beneath it and not arrays
+     * Verifies an error happens when "Static" beneath "Subrequests" has objects beneath it and not arrays.<br>
+     * Since Snakeyml parses once before Jackson and this isn't valid syntax, a Snakeyml exception is excepted.
      *
      * @throws IOException
      */
-    @Test(expected = JsonParseException.class)
+    @Test(expected = ScannerException.class)
     public void testSyntaxErrorSubrequestsStaticItemObjectNotArrayParsing() throws IOException
     {
         final Parser parser = new YamlParser();

src/test/resources/test-scripts/referenceParsing.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+- Action : &id1
+   Name : Reference Action
+   Request :
+       Url : https://localhost:8443/
+       Method : GET
+   Response :
+       Httpcode : 200
+
+- Action: *id1