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Doctest vs Behat comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Doctest and Behat?

Doctest

https://docs.Python.org/2/library/doctest.html

Behat

https://docs.behat.org/en/latest/
Programming language

Python

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Functional/Acceptance Testing

General info

Doctest is an inbuilt test framework for Python

Doctest is a test framework that comes prepackaged with Python. It is a simple library with a functionality that makes it possible to search for pieces of text that look like interactive Python sessions and executes these sessions to see if they work exactly as shown.

Behat is an open source Behavior-Driven Development framework for PHP.

Behat uses the StoryBDD subtype of behaviour-driven development (the other subtype is SpecBDD); This means the tests we write with Behat look rather like stories than code. It is inspired by Ruby's Cucumber
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

To enable Behat to test a website, you need to add Mink and a browser emulator (selenium maybe, though slow) to the mix. Mink methods are the connector between Behat and an extensive list of available drivers, and they provide a consistent testing API.
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Behat can be used for Data Integrity Testing to verify that database operations are functioning properly
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

No

Lacks fixture management which can make writing tests harder

Yes

One can use the 'Doctrinefixturesbundle' to create the required fixture loaders and load them in our Behat scenarios when required, using the 'BeforeScenario' hook.
Group fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data for a group of tests (group-fixtures). This ensures specific environment for a given group of tests.

No

Lacks fixture management

Yes

Behat allows for group fixtures
Generators
Supports data generators for tests. Data generators generate input data for test. The test is then run for each input data produced in this way.

N/A

By use of third party libraries like moodle-behat-generators
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

MIT License

Mocks
Mocks are objects that simulate the behavior of real objects. Using mocks allows testing some part of the code in isolation (with other parts mocked when needed)

A good external library for using Mocks with Doctest is minimocks

By using third party libraries like Mock and Prophecy
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

One can group tests

Yes

You can use tags to group features and scenarios together, independent of your file and directory structure
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework