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Needle vs go test/testing comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Needle and go test/testing?

Needle

http://needle.spree.de/

go test/testing

https://golang.org/pkg/testing/
Programming language

Java

Go

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

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

go test is an inbuilt tool/command for conducting automated tests in Golang while testing is the inbuilt testing library

Testing is the package that is shipped with go and combines with the go test command to provide a minimal but complete testing experience
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

However there are Plugins such as https://github.com/tebeka/go2xunitto convert the output of Go testing library into xUnit format
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

You can test front-end components and functionality by testing individual front-end classes and functions

Yes

Yes it can be used effectively for front-end testing
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

You can test back-end components and functionality.one of needles features is database testing via a JPA (Java Persistence API) like hibernate

Yes

Yes, it is used by developers for end-to-end testing so the back-end can be tested easily as well
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

It has setUp() and tearDown() functions which are mostly used to execute database operations

Yes

Yes it's straightforward in that first when you run 'go test' for packages in the scope the test will be executed with its working directory set to the source directory of the package being tested. Second the 'go test' tool will ignore any directory in your $GOPATH that starts with the word 'testdata' , starts with a period or an underscore
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

The setUp() and tearDown functions can be used to define an environment for a group of tests

Yes

Group fixtures can be done following a similar procedure as a single fixture
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

Yes

They are available by importing a package called 'gotests' (https://github.com/cweill/gotests)
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1

MIT 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

One of needle's features is automatic injection of mock objects, it supports EasyMock and Mockito out of the box

Yes

By use of a third party library GoMock which intergrates well with the testing library
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

N/A

Yes

The short answer is yes, by use of table tests which are a great way of performing multiple I/O tests on a function or behaviour with minimal code
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework