Configuring TestNG

To get started with TestNG, include the following dependency in your project:

[...]
  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
    <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
    <version>4.7</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
    <classifier>jdk15</classifier>
  </dependency>
[...]

Note: if you are using JDK 1.4 Javadoc annotations for your TestNG tests, replace jdk15 with jdk14 above.

This is the only step that is required to get started - you can now create tests in your test source directory (eg, src/test/java, and as long as they are named using the defaults such as *Test.java they will be run by Surefire as TestNG tests.

If you'd like to use a different naming scheme, you can change the includes parameter, as discussed in the Inclusions and Exclusions of Tests example.

Using Suite XML Files

Another alternative is to use test NG suite XML files. This allows flexible configuration of the tests to be run. These files are created as normal, and then added to the Surefire plugin configuration:

[...]
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <suiteXmlFiles>
        <suiteXmlFile>testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
      </suiteXmlFiles>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
[...]

This configuration will override the includes and excludes patterns and run all tests in the suite files.

Using Groups

TestNG allows you to group your tests. You can then execute a specific group or groups. To do this with Surefire, use the groups parameter, for example:

[...]
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <groups>functest,perftest</groups>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
[...]

Likewise, the excludedGroups parameter can be used to run all but a certain set of groups.

Running tests in parallel

TestNG allows you to run your tests in parallel, including JUnit tests. To do this, you must enable the parallel parameter, and may change the threadCount parameter if the default of 5 is not sufficient. For example:

[...]
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <parallel>true</parallel>
      <threadCount>10</threadCount>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
[...]

This is particularly useful for slow tests that can have high concurrency, or to quickly and roughly assess the independance and thread safety of your tests and code.

For more information on TestNG, see the project web site.