Knapsack Pro

ExUnit vs PHPUnit comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between ExUnit and PHPUnit?

ExUnit

https://hexdocs.pm/ex_unit/ExUnit.html

PHPUnit

https://phpunit.de/
Programming language

Elixir

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

Unit testing framework for Elixir.

Elixir comes bundled with ExUnit allowing developers to use all elixir features without compromising unit tests. It uses a TDD workflow, and shows one message per test

PHPUnit is a unit testing framework for the PHP programming language

PHPUnit is a programmer-oriented testing framework and is an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks.
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

Yes

xUnit has the ExUnit framework as an instance

Yes

It's an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

Front-end code can be tested using ExUnit, Phoenix front-end framework for Elixir uses ExUnit as the default testing framework

Yes

It can perform Unit tests and can test various front-end components and behaviours
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

ExUnit tests backend code. Typically Unit tests will be written not to interact with the browser, but with ExUnit you can test whichever part of your application

Yes

By performing unit tests on singular back-end components
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

ExUnit has a library called ExUnitFixtures fixtures are functions that are run before a test is run to setup the test environment or provide the test with data

Yes

By use of a setup code. The setup code consists of two Important template functions, the 'setUp()' function (called to create the objects to be tested) and 'tearDown()' function (called to cleanup the objects which you tested)
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

Group fixures are possible with this library

Yes

It does support group fixtures
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.

Yes

Generators are found in the StreamData module

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Apache License 2.0

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

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

Mocks are available for use with ExUnit through the Mock module. Also available through the use of third party libraries like mecktest

Yes

One of its main features is that PHPUnit comes with out of the box support for Mock objects
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

Using the 'describe' function which goups tests together. Every describe block recieves a name which is used as a prefix for upcoming tests

Yes

It allows grouping of tests and by using the @group annotation one can tag a test to belong to one or more groups
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework