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

go test/testing

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

AVA

https://github.com/avajs/ava
Programming language

Go

JavaScript

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing, Intergration Testing

General info

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

Futuristic, new, fast and concurrent JavaScript test runner with simple test syntax

AVA is a test runner for Node.js with a concise API, detailed error output. JS is a single-threaded but Node.JS is a parallel due to it's async behaviour. Ava leverages that and it can run tests concurrently
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

However there are Plugins such as https://github.com/tebeka/go2xunitto convert the output of Go testing library into xUnit format

No

However Ava supports the TAP format which allows us to use the tap-xunit reporter to produce xUnit (JUnit) XML
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

Yes it can be used effectively for front-end testing

Yes

You can write tests for the DOM with Ava, testing front-end components is easy with Ava
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Yes, it is used by developers for end-to-end testing so the back-end can be tested easily as well

Yes

Ava utilizes the async I/O nature of Node and runs concurrent tests on NodeJs applications' back-endsA node server can have its endpoints tested with Ava
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

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

Yes

Using Ava's ava-fixture library it supports fixtures
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

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

Yes

Ava has support for 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.

Yes

They are available by importing a package called 'gotests' (https://github.com/cweill/gotests)

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

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

By use of a third party library GoMock which intergrates well with the testing library

AVA has no mocking built in, to mock functions you can use third party libraries like Sinon.js.
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

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

No

There is no support for grouping tests
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework