Knapsack Pro

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

Spek

https://www.spekframework.org/

SimpleTest

https://github.com/simpletest/simpletest
Programming language

Kotlin

PHP

Category

Acceptance Testing, Unit Testing

Unit Testing, Web Testing

General info

Spek is a specification framework for Kotlin

Spek is a Kotlin-based Specification Testing framework for the JVM. It works as a JUnit 5 Test Engine meaning that we can easily plug it into any project that already uses JUnit 5 to run alongside any other tests that we might have.

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
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

Yes you can test front-end behaviour by writing specifications to test front-end functionality. Developers can also write unit tests for individual front-end components.

Yes

With SimpleTest common but fiddly PHP tasks, such as logging into a site, can be tested easily
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

You can test back-end behaviour and componets by writing specifications to test back-end functionality and unit tests for individual back-end components

Yes

Server-side behaviour can be tested by writing simple unit tests to test functionality and behaviour of single components.
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Fixtures are available in spek through functions suchas beforeEachTest() and afterEachTest()

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

spek has group fixtures available through the beforeGroup() and afterGroup() functions

Yes

It allows grouping of 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.

N/A

Yes

Simpletest has support for generators
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Modified BSD 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

You can use the third party library mockito-kotlin

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.
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

Tests are written using nested lambdas, each scope (level) can either be a group or a test

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
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework