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Cucumber-JVM vs Needle comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Cucumber-JVM and Needle?

Cucumber-JVM

https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-jvm

Needle

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

Java

Java

Category

Acceptance Testing

Unit Testing

General info

Cucumber-JVM is a pure Java implementation of Cucumber

The specifications are written in plain texts, which allows them to be easily understandable by all stakeholders.

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 test the front-end part like the GUI using cucumber with serenity, they integrate well to test your front-end.

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 back-end components such as API's using rest&soap clients, and databases

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

Using the cucumber extension aruba you can create fixures in two steps: 1.Create a fixtures-directory; 2.Create fixture files in this directory

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

You can group your fixtures inside your fixtures directories

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

MIT License

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 using all of RSpec’s supported mocking frameworks (RSpec, Mocha, RR, Flexmock)

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

Cucumber allows the use of tag Cucumber feature files or individual tests to group tests. Then, you can pass a Cucumber tagged expression at test execution that specifies the tag (grouped) tests to run. https://www.toolsqa.com/cucumber/cucumber-tags/

N/A

Other
Other useful information about the testing framework