Using Groovy in Testing

The bulk of the session introduced the Groovy language.

Benefits of using Groovy for writing developer tests were summarised as:

• Test code is shorter and sweeter (than Java)
• You can use GroovyConsole or the interactive shell (groovysh) to try things out live
• JUnit 3.8 built-in
• Powerful assertion capability built-in to Groovy\: (though for JUnit4 assertions, you need to use static imports)
• JUnit 4 support including Parameterized tests and Theories Groovy Doco
• TestNG support
• Full Java library support
• Built-in support making it easy to parse XML and access databases for data-driven tests
• Groovy's built in mocking is easy to use (but often you can get by with Closures, maps or expandos)
• Groovy is great for creating testing DSLs
• Groovy's fun!!

To use as a JUnit test, the simplest way is to extend GroovyTestCase. With the Groovy plugins installed, you can use Groovy JUnits in the same way as Java JUnits.