Testing

August 24, 2018

5 Best Unit Testing Frameworks to Automate Unit Tests

What is Unit Testing?

Unit testing is a way of testing the smallest piece of code referred to as a unit that can be logically isolated in a system. A unit is the smallest testable part of any software that has one or more inputs and a single output. Each unit is tested to validate that the software performs as desired. Unit testing is mainly focused on the functional correctness of standalone modules. Find list of 5 best unit testing frameworks to automate unit tests.

Unit testing is a type of software testing where individual components of code get tested. This is to make sure that each unit is performing the way it should. Unit testing is the smallest part of the software that you can test. It usually involves one or two inputs that result in a single output.

There are two types of unit testing: manual and automated. Automated is generally the preferred method as it saves the developer a lot of time and effort. To do unit testing, your developer needs to write clear test code to test a specific function against an expected outcome. The tests will then run and any errors or failures to produce the expected outcome will be logged.

The developers can look at the summary and fix the units that are not meeting the set criterion.

Unit Testing Frameworks

Unit testing framework for c#

One of the most popular C# unit testing frameworks is NUnit.

NUnit:

NUnit is a unit testing framework that belongs to the xUnit family and it is written entirely in C#. Several unit testing frameworks which derive their design and functionality from Smalltalk’s SUnit are collectively named as xUnit. It provides support for all .NET languages and it serves the same purpose as JUnit does for Java.  It is an open source software which was initially ported from JUnit. The current production release is version 3 and has been completely rewritten to offer many new features.

Unit Testing frameworks for Java

Many Java developers are well versed in writing unit tests. These unit tests are automatically run during build time with the help of continuous integration tools like Jenkins or Team city. As the importance of automation testing is growing, unit testing frameworks such as JUnit are gaining traction.

JUnit:

JUnit is an open-source unit testing framework for a test-driven development environment. It supports the core concept of “first testing then coding”. This framework is specifically designed for Java programming language. In this, data is first tested and then it is inserted in the piece of code. It provides the simplest approach for writing code swiftly and easily.  It also offers annotation for test method identification.

TestNG:

TestNG is an open-source automation testing framework specifically designed for Java Programming language. TestNG resembles JUnit and NUnit but offers some new functionality to make it powerful and easier to use. TestNG supports concurrent testing and offers annotation support as well. TestNG has a powerful execution model with flexible test configuration capabilities.

Unit Testing framework for C or C++

The unit test framework for C or C++ popular amongst developers is Embunit.

Embunit:

Embunit is an open source unit testing framework which is designed for software application written in C or C++. Embunit is designed as a unit testing tool for both developers and testers for software application written in C or C++. In Embunit, there is no need to write any code rather Tests are specified as a list of actions. The corresponding source code for the Tests is generated automatically.

Unit testing framework for JavaScript

JavaScript is the “language of the web” which is the reason for a large number of test automation frameworks. Here is one of the most popular unit-testing frameworks for JavaScript.

HtmlUnit:

HtmlUnit is an open-source unit testing framework that supports JavaScript and it provides GUI features like forms, links, tables, etc. It offers an open-source Java library which contains GUI-less browser for Java programs. HtmlUnit leverages the JavaScript engine named as Mozilla Rhino and supports protocols like HTTP, HTTPS. It also supports cookie, submit methods like GET, POST, and proxy server. It is used for testing web applications that are used within frameworks like JUnit and TestNG.

Summary

The above-listed unit testing tools help to automate the unit testing process and improve the outcomes of unit testing.

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