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Concordion vs Needle comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Concordion and Needle?

Concordion

https://concordion.org/

Needle

http://needle.spree.de/
Programming language

Java

Java

Category

Unit Testing

General info

Concordion is a tool used to write and manage automated acceptance tests in Java based projects

Concordion specifications are written in Markdown, HTML or Excel and then instrumented with special links, attributes or comments respectively. When the corresponding test fixture class is run, Concordion interprets the instrumentation to execute the test. Concordion lets you write them in normal language using paragraphs, tables and proper punctuation. This makes specification more natural to read and write, and helps everyone to understand and agree about what a feature is supposed to do.

Needle is a lightweight framework for testing Java EE components outside of the container in isolation

Needle reduces the test setup code by analysing dependencies and has automatic injection of mock objects by default. Therefore It will maximize the speed of development as well as the execution of unit tests
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

You can specify tests for front-end components and functionality with concordion

Yes

You can test front-end components and functionality by testing individual front-end classes and functions
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

You can test server-side components and functionality with concordion.

Yes

You can test back-end components and functionality.one of needles features is database testing via a JPA (Java Persistence API) like hibernate
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Concordion contains fixtures which correspond to a specific instrumentation within the code. That is when specifications are written they are instrumented with special links, attributes or comments which are then run with their corresponding fixtures

Yes

It has setUp() and tearDown() functions which are mostly used to execute database operations
Group fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data for a group of tests (group-fixtures). This ensures specific environment for a given group of tests.

Yes

One can group fixtures in concordion

Yes

The setUp() and tearDown functions can be used to define an environment for a group of tests
Generators
Supports data generators for tests. Data generators generate input data for test. The test is then run for each input data produced in this way.

N/A

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Apache License 2.0

GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1

Mocks
Mocks are objects that simulate the behavior of real objects. Using mocks allows testing some part of the code in isolation (with other parts mocked when needed)

Yes

By use of third party libraries like mockito

Yes

One of needle's features is automatic injection of mock objects, it supports EasyMock and Mockito out of the box
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

One can group tests into suites

N/A

Other
Other useful information about the testing framework