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

PHPUnit

https://phpunit.de/

Needle

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

PHP

Java

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

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.

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.

Yes

It's an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks

No

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

Yes

It can perform Unit tests and can test various front-end components and behaviours

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

By performing unit tests on singular back-end components

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

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)

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

It does support group fixtures

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

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported 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

One of its main features is that PHPUnit comes with out of the box support for Mock objects

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

It allows grouping of tests and by using the @group annotation one can tag a test to belong to one or more groups

N/A

Other
Other useful information about the testing framework