Selenide vs TestNG: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Selenide and TestNG

Selenide and TestNG are two popular tools used in software testing, but they have distinct differences in their functionalities and features.

1. Test Framework vs. Browser Automation Library: Selenide is primarily a browser automation library built on top of Selenium WebDriver, providing a more user-friendly and concise API for writing browser automation tests. On the other hand, TestNG is a full-fledged test framework that supports various test types, including unit, functional, and end-to-end tests, offering advanced test management and reporting capabilities.

2. Configuration and Dependency Handling: Selenide focuses on simplicity and minimizing the need for configuration. It provides sensible default configurations and automatically manages dependencies such as browser drivers. In contrast, TestNG allows more flexibility in configuring various aspects of test execution, such as test parallelization, test dependencies, and custom listeners.

3. Test Organization and Execution: Selenide encourages a more structured test organization by providing out-of-the-box support for Page Object Model (POM) pattern and Fluent Interface design. It also simplifies test execution by handling dynamic waits and synchronizations implicitly. TestNG, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive test organization framework with annotations, allowing users to create test suites, set up pre and post test conditions, and define test priorities and groups.

4. Assertions and Verifications: Selenide enhances the assertion capabilities of Selenium WebDriver by providing a set of highly expressive and concise methods for element checks and page validations. It also automatically retries assertions for a configurable period, reducing the flakiness of browser tests. TestNG offers a range of assertion methods as part of its assertion API, enabling users to perform complex verifications and define custom assertion failure messages.

5. Test Reporting and Logging: Selenide provides built-in reporting capabilities that generate clear and concise HTML reports with screenshots, detailed error messages, and failed browser console logs. It also outputs rich logging information during test execution. TestNG, being a comprehensive test framework, offers customizable report generation with detailed test execution results, including configuration parameters, test durations, and test failures, which can be integrated with various tools such as Jenkins.

6. Test Data Management: Selenide does not specifically provide features for managing test data. Users need to handle test data independently, either by creating test data in test fixtures or by utilizing external test data providers. In contrast, TestNG includes features for parameterizing tests and supports various data providers, enabling users to supply test data from different sources (e.g., XML, CSV, databases) for data-driven testing scenarios.

In summary, Selenide is predominantly focused on simplifying browser automation and enhancing the Selenium WebDriver API, while TestNG provides a broader set of features for comprehensive test organization, execution, and reporting, including support for multiple types of tests and advanced test data management capabilities.