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Should we mock in cucumber testing while testing java code. Till what extent we should use cucumber?

I am a Java developer. We want to use cucumber testing in our project. We are working mainly on creating APIs. I am good with unit testing and researching about cucumber.
I am thinking about testing persistence methods - CRUD operations as an starter. My questions is that what could be the scenerios in this testing.
Also should I mock the database by creating tables in the feature file. Should I use mockito with Cucumber to mock call to some other services which connects to database and server.
What should be the cucumber testing in these scenerios and whats the best way to create framework to use cucumber in our Java API's project.
Also, how to populate models if not using database

IMO Gherkin (the language you write Cucumber features in), is good for writing business readable, simple scenarios.
To answer quickly, I would say that Cucumber is not a good fit for testing methods, if it is what you want to do.
As you can see with the file naming convention, you write *.feature files, and I think these files must only contains feature-related descriptions.
However, if you do have features to test, you have to choose how to test them
disconnected, can be run quicky by your CI
you will have to mock everything that cannot start-up in the build lifecycle
and they are solutions to start almost anything using Docker, like Testcontainers
connected to a environment
you do not have to mock anything
your tests may be slower
your tests may break because of the environement (failed deployement, server down, etc.)

What is the best way to create a test automation suite as a service

I am trying to create the following setup :
A Selenium (Java) project that has a set of 10 automated test cases.
When this project is executed, it generates an HTML test execution report.
This project should be 'hosted' on an internal network.
Anyone who has access to the network should be able to 'invoke' this project, which in turn executes the test cases and passes the HTML report to the person who invoked it.
The project should be accessible ONLY for execution and the code should NOT be accessible.
My goal is that this implementation should be executable by any framework irrespective of the technology that the framework uses. I was thinking of creating the project as a WebService using Java (servlet).
My question is:
Can this implementation be accessed by any external automation framework ?
Are there any limitations to this implementation?
Is there a better way to implement this requirement?
Thanks in advance.

You can create a maven project and have your automated tests under maven test folder.Configure your tests to run through POM.xml(use maven surefire plugin).Configure a jenkins job to run the maven test.Anybody with access the jenkins can build/run this task!
Below link should give you a headstart
http://learn-automation.com/selenium-integration-with-jenkins/

As a matter of fact, it is something we did on one of our projects. As I cannot share specifics, I will give you overall architectural view of the project.
The core of all things was a service that could run JUnit tests on requests. It was a Soap web-service, but nothing stops you from making it REST. To implement this you need to implement your version of JUnit test runners (see for example: http://www.mscharhag.com/java/understanding-junits-runner-architecture or https://github.com/junit-team/junit4/wiki/Test-runners)
If you use JUnit as test framework for running your Selenuim tests this may be a great solution for you - JUnit will generate HTML reports for you if you configure it properly, it will hide actual test suite implementation from users and run test suite on demand. This solution is also great because it operates on JUnit level and does not care about what kind of tests it actually runs, so it can be also reused for any other kind of automated tests.
So to answer all your questions:
Can this implementation be accessed by any external automation
framework ? -> yes, it can be accessed by anybody who able send http
requests
Are there any limitations to this implementation? -> none that I am
aware of
Is there a better way to implement this requirement? -> well, I
didn't actually work with TestNG much so I don't know if it is
easier or more difficult to do it on Junit level. You can use
Jenkins or other CI tool as well to achieve same results - they can
run JUnit tests for you and almost always have API ready for this,
although those APIs may be not perfect.
So I'd say that if you need this only for one thing you can use CI tools for this purpose, if you don't have CI tools available then choice has been made for you. However, from our experience, having this kind of service was a great asset for a company and I really wonder why there's no such products available elsewhere yet.

Java and android testing methodology

I have a question about technology or methodology out there that I can use to test my code fast & simply. Recently I came across the difficulty & frustration regarding to testing my code when I was working on an android project. Everytime when i wanted to test my code, i had to re-compile whole project again and wait for emulator to re-install application which at least takes 40~50 seconds just to check a bit of code working fine. Are there any way that I can compile or test just a small portion of code / 1 ~ 2 methods working without having to re-compile whole project every time? Also which one is the latest and most widely used among the industries?
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Additional question. I've done some research on JUnit testing of java but is JUnit what i'm looking for? or is it different kind of testing technology

you can make a search about Robotium. it provides you to do blackbox testing.
http://testdroid.com/tech/54/automated-ui-testing-android-applications-robotium

Maybe Robolectric is what You are looking for. You can use JUnit to test only java code that doesn't use methods from android sdk.

have you considered using AndroidTestCase? JUnit can only be used to non-android specific function, but this does the job for your Android-specific code.

There is a very detailed account for android testing available at:
http://developer.android.com/tools/testing/testing_android.html
This includes basic as well as activity testing and is built on top of JUnit.

For people that don't want to use Roboticum and such, but just stick with Eclipse built-in JUnit testing, this is what I would recommend:
Have three projects:
AndroidProject
AndroidProject.test
AndroidProject.test.android
In your AndroidProject.test project you only test Models, Controllers and such which exclusively uses Java-libraries. So no Android Logcats, Toasts, or things like Patterns.WEB_URL.matcher(url).matches()) [android.util.Patterns] (which validates a String URL).
In your AndroidProject.test.android project you test the Activities, Services, Model-classes that use Android libraries like the Pattern-validation mentioned above, etc.
To be able to use Eclipse Run As -> JUnit Test for your JUnit test project you have to do some set-up however, like removing the Android API from each individual Test class, using the junit.framework.Assert and org.junit.Test imports, etc. For a full step-by-step guide to reproduce what I have done to make it work, I refer to my own Stackoverflow-post that I've made:
JUnit Test Android classes without being forced to start the (slow) Emulator.

unit test code for GWT classes using Junit

I have developed Simple project using GWT, in application i have three different layers like, model, service, ui. UI is the one for GWT classes, I could able to test model, service using Junit code, but i am unable to do junit for UI, could you help me how i can write jUnit test cases for GWT classes. thanks your help..

There is nice article about GWT JUnit testing at code.google.com - which is good documentation to see- that should help you getting started.
If you would like to see concrete example, you should follow StockWatcher exmaple from that tutorial, that has another part about JUnit testing (step by step).

Choosing a test framework for a JSF based webapp

I am confused between the following test framework/tools:
JUnit
Shale
FitNesse
I need a test framework which is lean and generic in a way that the test cases can be re-used later by any other web application.
Any suggestions and other testing tool for the same ?

JSF Testing Tools is not the latest article, but giving a nice overview.

It depends upon what you want to test. If you want functional end to end test then which framework you use to build the webapp doesn't matter much and my preference is Selinium 2/WebDriver. If your intention is to do white-box testing then I suggest JSFUnit or Arquillian.