Simple test vs PHPunit

Question

I was wondering if anyone that have experience in both these stuff can shed some light on the significant difference between the two, if any?

Any specific strength of each that makes it suitable for any specific case?

Answer 1

I found SimpleTest was even easier than PHPUnit to set up. Just extract it and you are good to go. A benefit of this is if you are working at more than one machine, since you can store the whole testing framework the same way as your source code, and thereby know that you are using the same framework code. Especially if you modify it in any way.

So, I would say that a strength of SimpleTest is that it is very light weight and portable.

SimpleTest also ships with a very simple HTML GUI, which is quite easy to extend if you want to. As far as I know, PHPUnit does not include a HTML GUI, but there are GUI:s available to download, such as Cool.

Answer 2

I haven't checked Simple Test for a while, last time it had an eclipse plugin, which is a major factor for me, but it hasn't been updated for a long time. Sebastian Bergmann is still very actively working on PHPUnit, but it still lacks a good plugin for eclipse - but it is included for the new Zend Studio.

Answer 3

I prefer PHPUnit now, but when I started out I used SimpleTest as I didn't always have access to the command line. SimpleTest is nice, but the only thing it really has over PHPUnit, in my opinion, is the web runner.

The reasons I like PHPUnit are that it integrates with other PHP developer tools such as phing, phpUnderControl, and Xinc. As of version 3.0 it has mocking support, is being actively developed, and the documentation is excellent.

Really the only way to answer this question for yourself is to try both out for a time, and see which fits your style better.

Answer 4

Baphled has a nice article on SimpleTest vs PHPUnit3.

Answer 5

Well I made a phpUnit web based UI test case runner and made it available on sourceforge. Uses ajax and has quite cool interface as well if you want to give it a shot check it at sourceforge. The project name is phpunitwebui and the website is http://phpunitwebui.sourceforge.net/

Answer 6

• I could NOT understand how to download and install PHPUnit.

• I could, however, easily understand how to install SimpleTest.

  (As far as i can remember the instructions for PHPUnit said something along the lines of "install it via PEAR and we won't give any instructions on how to do it any other way") see:

• http://www.phpunit.de/manual/current/en/installation.html

For SimpleTest, just download it and point to it from your code.

So Simpletest won for me.