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Spock vs Kahlan comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Spock and Kahlan?

Spock

http://spockframework.org/

Kahlan

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

Java

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

Spock is a testing and specification framework for Java and Groovy applications

Spock has a highly expressive specification language, and due to its JUnit runner, Spock is compatible with most IDEs, build tools, and continuous integration servers.Spock is inspired from JUnit, RSpec, jMock, Mockito, Groovy, Scala, Vulcans among others

Kahlan is a full-featured BDD testing framework

It is a full-featured BDD testing framework that embraces the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) design principle. Kahlan makes it possible to write unit tests using the 'describe-it' syntax and requires at least PHP 5.5
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

Spock tests front-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions

Yes

Kahlan allows you to test front-end components and behaviour easily
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Spock tests back-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions

Yes

You can test individual back-end components using Kahlan
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Spock contains four methods for setting up environments :setup() (run before every feature method), cleanup() (run after every feature method), setupSpec() (run before the first feature method), cleanupSpec() (run after the last feature method)

Yes

Fixtures can be defined by use of 'setUp()'method and cleaned using the 'tearDown()'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

You can use the fixture methods to setup environments for groups of tests.

Yes

You can write 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.

N/A

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Apache License 2.0

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

Spock has inbuilt mocking capabilities and has no need for external libraries

Yes

With Kahlan's stubbing system you are able to set stubs (like mocks) directly to your class methods (dynamic mocking)
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

You can create suites manually in spock

Yes

Kahlan allows you to group tests syntactically using a closure syntax. It has describe and context methods for grouping
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework