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SimpleTest vs Cucumber comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between SimpleTest and Cucumber?

SimpleTest

https://github.com/simpletest/simpletest

Cucumber

https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-ruby
Programming language

PHP

Ruby

Category

Unit Testing, Web Testing

Acceptance Testing

General info

SimpleTest is a unit test and web test framework for PHP

It has JWebUnit style functionality and support for SSL, forms, frames, proxies and basic authentication

An automation tool for Behavior-Driven Development

The specifications are written in plain texts, which allows them to be easily understandable for all stakeholders. Cucumber Framework also supports languages beyond Ruby e.g. Java, JavaScript and Scala.
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

With SimpleTest common but fiddly PHP tasks, such as logging into a site, can be tested easily

Yes

You can test the front-end part like the GUI using cucumber and selenium, they integrate well to test your front-end.
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Server-side behaviour can be tested by writing simple unit tests to test functionality and behaviour of single components.

Yes

You can test back-end components such as APIs using rest & soap clients, and databases using whatever client libraries were provided by the libraries that existed in those stacks
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

It can import fixtures using a mixin like 'given()' method

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 allows grouping of fixtures

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
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

Simpletest has support for generators

Yes

You can group your fixtures inside your fixtures directories
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

It allows for one to build Mock objects.To create a mock version of a class we need to include the mock object library and run the generator. This will create a clone class which we use to create new instances(objects) in our test cases.

Yes

By using all of RSpec’s supported mocking frameworks (RSpec, Mocha, RR, Flexmock)
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

There are several ways of grouping tests; one is to simply place multiple test cases into a single file, another is to mark any base test cases that should not be run as abstract, Simpletest gives you a couple of options

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/
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework