After previously publishing a comparison of performance testing tools, some friends left messages wanting to understand the comparison of automation testing frameworks, especially the pros and cons between RobotFramework, pytest, and unittest.Today, we will analyze the differences between them and their respective advantages and disadvantages.1RobotFramework
Advantages:(1) By using the keyword-driven testing method, it helps testers easily create readable test cases, thereby simplifying the entire automation process.(2) Users can easily test the syntax in data.(3) Composed of various common tools and testing libraries, it not only has a large ecosystem but can also use its various elements in separate projects.(4) With many types of APIs, this framework has a high level of scalability.(5) Although not a built-in feature, Robot can help users run various parallel tests through Selenium Grid.Disadvantages:Despite the above conveniences, Robot Framework is relatively cumbersome in creating custom HTML reports, and using data-driven testing can be quite complex.2PytestSuitable for various software testing, Pytest is another Python-based automation testing framework. With its open-source and easy-to-learn characteristics, this tool is often used by QA (Quality Analysis) teams, development teams, individual teams, and various open-source projects. Given that Pytest has practical features like assert rewriting, many large internet applications, such as Dropbox and Mozilla, have switched from the upcoming unittest (Pyunit) to Pytest.
Advantages:(1) Pytest allows users to write more compact test suites.(2) Other testing tools may require developers or testers to use a debugger or check logs to determine the source of a specific value. However, when users write test cases with Pytest, they can store all values within the test case, and all asserted values can be displayed, making it easy to write and understand various tests.(3) Fixture functions are often used to add a parameter to test functions and return different values. In Pytest, you can modularize another fixture. Additionally, users can use multiple fixtures without rewriting test cases to cover all combinations of parameters.(4) Pytest developers maintain the framework’s scalability by releasing various practical plugins. For example, pytest-xdist can be used to execute parallel tests without using other testers. Additionally, unit tests can be parameterized without duplicating any code.(5) By providing various special routines for developers, it simplifies the writing of test cases, reduces errors, and makes the code shorter and easier to understand.(6) The built-in reports of Pytest are not aesthetically pleasing, but you can use allure for customized reports to make up for Pytest’s shortcomings.Disadvantages:Although it facilitates users in writing test cases, these cases cannot be used with any other testing frameworks.3UnitTestA standardized Python class automation testing framework for unit testing, the base class TestCase provides various assertion methods. Users can group and load various tests using the load method and TestSuite class.Advantages:(1) Comes with Python, no need to install any other modules.(2) UnitTest is a derivative of xUnit and works similarly to other xUnit frameworks. Therefore, even those without a solid Python background can quickly get started.(3) Users can run individual test cases in a simpler way. You just need to specify the name in the terminal, and the framework can flexibly execute tests for various cases and produce concise outputs.(4) It can generate various test reports in a matter of milliseconds.Disadvantages:(1) Test reports are not visually appealing and require other modules to generate test reports.(2) Data-driven testing requires installing the ddt library, which can be cumbersome.(3) Lacks powerful filtering capabilities for test cases.Having seen these analyses of advantages and disadvantages, have you already determined your preferred framework? Hurry up and start learning automation programming! If you need more information, feel free to scan the QR code below for communication and resources!END
