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unittest2 vs Spock comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between unittest2 and Spock?

unittest2

https://pypi.org/project/unittest2/

Spock

http://spockframework.org/
Programming language

Python

Java

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

Unittest2 is a newer version on the inbuilt unit testing framework unittest

To use o use unittest2 instead of unittest, simply replace 'import unittest' with 'import unittest2'. It has many new features such as: - addCleanups for better resource management; -many new assert methods; - assertRaises as context manager, with access to the exception afterwards; - test discovery and new command line options (including failfast and better handling of ctrl-C during test runs); - class and module level fixtures: setUpClass, tearDownClass, setUpModule, tearDownModule; -test skipping and expected failures and many more improvements on the API and bug fixes

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
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

Yes

unittest2 is a newer version of unittest which is an xUnit style framework for Python.

No

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

Yes

Front-end functionality and behaviour can be tested by unittest2. function by function

Yes

Spock tests front-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

We can write tests with unittest2 to test each function for server-side behaviour

Yes

Spock tests back-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions
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 the 'setUp()' function which is called to prepare the test fixture

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)
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

unittest2 allows you to group your initialization code buy use of the 'setUp()' function and clean up code with a 'tearDown()' function

Yes

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

Yes

unittest2 contains generator methods in the module 'unittest.TestCase'

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

Apache License 2.0

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

Mocks are available from the library unittest.mock which allows you to replace parts of your system under test with mock objects

Yes

Spock has inbuilt mocking capabilities and has no need for external libraries
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

One can build suites either manually or use test discovery to build the suite automatically by scanning a directory

Yes

You can create suites manually in spock
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework