Re: Cucumber vs Concordion vs Fitnesse
Matt Wynne
I've never used Fitness or Concordion, so I can't comment from
experience. I've copied in the Cucumber users' mailing list so
hopefully someone on the list will have some experience to share.
Cucumber's strength is it's simplicity and flexibility, I think. The
tests are written in plain-text files so they can are easy to read and
edit - you don't need to see past an ugly HTML syntax. They can also
easily be checked-in to a version-control system alongside the source
code they test. This simplicity does have disadvantages however - some
of us are struggling to really get non-technical people engaged in
writing the tests, and I think one reason for that is because there
isn't (yet) a pretty UI for reading and editing the tests - you really
just need to use a text editor. However, there are formatters for
producing great-looking reports of the tests as PDF docs and I also
have to say that the Given / When / Then test syntax is extremely
powerful - I've yet to find a non-technical person who didn't get it
right away.
The flexibility comes from Ruby. It's a really versatile language and
is easy for testers to pick up. You can run cucumber under jruby and
call Java code directly (e.g. to call your data-access-layer to insert
rows to set up a test scenario), or use something like webdriver to
walk around the UI (assuming it's a web app) with straight Ruby code.
What do you think you guys need from the tool? Why do thoughtworks
think Concordion is the right tool for the project?
On 6 Jan 2010, at 00:03, James Barker wrote:
> testing, 1 2 3?
>
> Matt, we have thought works in at my current job and we are tossing
> around a new test tool to help us automate tests. Then I found you
> on a cucumber site. Then I noticed you have a blog too...so I dont
> have to ask how are you doing.
>
> The project Im on is a java project. I am huge into Fitnesse but
> thoughtworks are pushing for concordian. Can cumcumber cut it?
>
> James.
cheers,
Matt
aslak hellesoy
>
> I've never used Fitness or Concordion, so I can't comment from experience.
> I've copied in the Cucumber users' mailing list so hopefully someone on the
> list will have some experience to share.
>
> Cucumber's strength is it's simplicity and flexibility, I think. The tests
> are written in plain-text files so they can are easy to read and edit - you
> don't need to see past an ugly HTML syntax. They can also easily be
> checked-in to a version-control system alongside the source code they test.
> This simplicity does have disadvantages however - some of us are struggling
> to really get non-technical people engaged in writing the tests, and I think
> one reason for that is because there isn't (yet) a pretty UI for reading and
> editing the tests - you really just need to use a text editor. However,
> there are formatters for producing great-looking reports of the tests as PDF
And HTML reports too of course. And JUnit XML reports (that e.g.
Hudson can consume)
> docs and I also have to say that the Given / When / Then test syntax is
> extremely powerful - I've yet to find a non-technical person who didn't get
> it right away.
>
> The flexibility comes from Ruby. It's a really versatile language and is
> easy for testers to pick up. You can run cucumber under jruby and call Java
> code directly (e.g. to call your data-access-layer to insert rows to set up
> a test scenario), or use something like webdriver to walk around the UI
> (assuming it's a web app) with straight Ruby code.
>
Although Cucumber is implemented in Ruby, you won't even sense a whiff
of Ruby if you use Cuke4Duke:
http://wiki.github.com/aslakhellesoy/cuke4duke
All you'll see is Cucumber features (plain text), Java step
definitions (simple POJOs with annotations) and whatever build system
you want. There is built-in support for Ant and Maven and plenty of
examples in the source tree.
> What do you think you guys need from the tool? Why do thoughtworks think
> Concordion is the right tool for the project?
>
Because I left ThoughtWorks! (just kidding)
I recommend you try out Cucumber, Concordion and Fitnesse in parallel
for a couple of user stories, and then choose what rings best with the
team. Real options and all that jazz. You'll pay a small price to be
able to make a better informed decision about what tool to go with.
Much better than just picking a tool and realize later it was a bad
choice.
Aslak
> On 6 Jan 2010, at 00:03, James Barker wrote:
>
>> testing, 1 2 3?
>>
>> Matt, we have thought works in at my current job and we are tossing around
>> a new test tool to help us automate tests. Then I found you on a cucumber
>> site. Then I noticed you have a blog too...so I dont have to ask how are you
>> doing.
>>
>> The project Im on is a java project. I am huge into Fitnesse but
>> thoughtworks are pushing for concordian. Can cumcumber cut it?
>>
>> James.
>
> cheers,
> Matt
>
> http://mattwynne.net
> +447974 430184
>
>
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