In the whole SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), unit testing is an essential phase. As it is the first level of the testing process, unit testing was done manually sometime earlier. Manually doing the unit testing was very time-consuming and costly. Unit testing is also associated with development in the automation field. Unit automation testing is now cost-effective, faster, and requires minimal human effort.
When we talk about automation testing, Selenium is the first and most recommended tool for testing purposes. However, you must integrate other automation testing tools and frameworks to get the best and most accurate test results. Various unit testing frameworks can be used to write test scripts based on any programming language of your choice. In this article, you will first see what unit testing is, how to choose the best framework, and then the top and most popular unit testing frameworks you must know in 2024.
What is Unit Testing?
Unit testing is the software testing process in which you test specific components, also termed “specific units”. This unit testing helps you test your software application’s components in the first stage. The unit testing aims to check whether all the website or software application components are working correctly. While performing the unit testing, the application is divided into simpler fragments, and then you need to perform the testing on each of these fragments or units separately.
It has been observed that most of the developers skip this unit testing during the application development phase. Due to this, some smaller issues create major errors when the application is completely developed. So, it is recommended that unit testing be performed during the development stage, which can reduce future major bugs. It also increases the cost of bug fixing and many other issues. However, performing unit testing at the early stage will help you prevent this future issue and save money that can be used in other productive works.
There are many unit testing frameworks that the developers and the QA team use to perform and automate unit testing. It helps them improve the accuracy of the code. Cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest can also be used to perform unit testing.
LambdaTest is a comprehensive test orchestration and execution platform that leverages artificial intelligence to facilitate the seamless and efficient running of manual and automated tests on a large scale. Focusing on providing a versatile testing environment, LambdaTest empowers users to conduct both real-time and automated testing across an extensive array of environments, encompassing over 3000 configurations, including real device cloud.
Performing unit testing in the cloud has many advantages over using physical resources. Cloud-based unit testing improves testing scalability as you can immediately scale your testing based on needs and requirements. It allows you to pay for the resources you use, so it is cost-effective. Cloud-based unit testing is more secure and easy to maintain. Developers use unit test frameworks to automate unit tests, which also allows them to verify the correctness of the code. Unit testing follows four steps, which include:
- The First step is test case generation. You need to write the test case for various software application components.
- The second step is to write the test cases and review them. If mistakes are found, rectify them immediately.
- The third step is to make your test case according to the testing and application standards. Check if they are meeting the standard requirement or not.
- At last, after going through the above steps, you need to execute the test cases you have made.
Choosing the Right Unit Testing Framework
As we know, many unit testing frameworks are available on the market. However, to choose the best unit testing framework for your testing purpose, you need to go through some pointers. The points that must be considered before choosing the right unit testing framework are below.
What You Want to Test?
The first point that must be taken care of while choosing the right unit automation testing is the testing need. What you are going to test. The testing requirement and what kind of testing you are going to do for your software application should be considered. These are some of the very basic analyses that must be done by the developer and QA team before choosing the right automation unit testing framework.
The Testing Area or Objective of the Testing
The second point that must be considered is the testing areas and scope. All testing frameworks have advantages and disadvantages, as well as some specific functionality and use cases. So, the testing team must be clear with their testing objective. Which software feature needs to be tested first? The chosen framework should let you start with the priority modules quickly. Therefore, the longer it takes, the later it will be in the industry.
Top Unit Testing Framework in 2024
Let us see the top and most popular unit testing frameworks you must know in 2024.
Jest
Jest is a popular unit testing framework for JavaScript, providing delightful JavaScript testing. Some similar tools are available, but they use third-party tools to increase their testing functionality. But Jest does not do so. Jest provides a command line interface to perform the JavaScript unit testing framework. Many modes are available in this framework that runs all affected tests for the code changes you made in your most recent commit. One of the features of the Jest framework is “only” and “skip”. It helps you to execute a single test or skip it. It has a great online community for support on Stack Overflow and Discord.
Chai JS
The ChaiJS framework is specially developed for behavior-driven testing using JavaScript. The most important benefit of using ChaiJS for unit testing is its versatility. This unit testing framework can be easily integrated with various other helpful tools to perform better and provide the best unit testing results. It offers compatibility across various environments, including Node.js, web browsers, and Rails, making it suitable for various projects. ChaiJS follows a BDD approach when performing unit testing. This means that the tests are written and can be easily understood by humans. You can use many assertion styles and plugins to extend the testing scope.
TestNG
TestNG is a very popular testing framework that can be used to perform various testing such as unit testing, functional testing, integration testing, etc. This testing framework is more robust and reliable. It has several options that provide the developers various functionalities, such as grouping, sequencing, and parameterizing. Using these options, the testing team can create more flexible and robust test cases, which will help to deliver the best possible testing output. You can also run parallel tests, generate testing reports and logs, etc. It also can set priorities for the unit test by parameterizing the data or using annotations.
Mocha
Mocha is another popular unit testing framework worth knowing about. It is the only testing framework that provides the primary test structure for developers. Initially, Mocha was developed to work with NodeJS only. Mocha supports various frameworks, such as React, Vue, etc. It is a simple and lightweight unit testing framework that does not require sophisticated assertions or testing logic. Mocha also supports the ES model, which increases the browser testing features.
Pytest
Pytest is a very popular testing framework in the Python language. This framework can be used for almost every kind of website or software application testing purpose. It allows the test writers to write compact test cases with much ease. With Pytest, the developers and the QA team can store all the values inside the test cases. Also, you can inform you which value has failed and which has been asserted. You can perform parallel test execution to increase the testing speed and efficiency. It has a very active community support. There are 11.2k starts, 2.4k forks, and 1.1M users of Pytest on GitHub.
Robot Framework
Robot Framework is an open-source automation testing framework that is keyword-driven. It has a modular architecture with libraries for each feature and functionality. It has limited support for mobile web automation and cross-browser testing. You can enable reporting and logging in this framework by using customizable keywords. To perform screenshots and screen record features during the automation testing with Robot Framework, you must install custom external setups. It also supports cross-browser testing to make your web app or website compatible across various browsers and devices.
It supports CI/CD integration, making your development and testing process smooth and easy. Robot Framework has versatile selectors support, and its learning curve depends on the experience of a professional. You can integrate other useful tools with the Robot Framework to create powerful and flexible automation testing solutions. It has a vibrant and active community support of testing enthusiasts around it. Anyone can connect with like-minded professionals and make a stronger community.
RSpec
RSpec is a popular unit testing framework designed explicitly for the Ruby programming language. It is specially designed for BDD (Behaviour-driven development). BDD is a testing approach that consists of software development that emphasizes collaboration between developers, testers, and non-technical stakeholders by using a common, human-readable language to describe the expected behavior of a system. The tests made using the RSpec are highly readable by humans and easy to understand. It has a nested structure that helps organize the tests into logical groups, improving the test maintainability.
NUnit
NUnit is an open-source testing framework dedicated to unit testing. This framework is written using the language C#. It is used for almost all the .Net applications. It has very user-friendly attributes and a very simple and easy working process for developers. NUnit can run the unit testing tests on 32- and 64-bit systems. This testing framework also contains the test case attribute that enables developers to implement parameterized tests. It also has a very good community and active support. On GitHub, it has 2.4k starts, 724 forks, and 268k users.
Conclusion
Unit testing is a software testing approach used to perform testing for specific parts of the software application. It is done at the early stage of the development cycle. There are many software automation testing tools available, but you need to consider some points to choose the right tool for your testing purpose. Keep in mind the scope of the testing and the expertise area of your automation testing. In this article, you can see some of the most popular and recommended unit testing tools.