How to Run Specific TestNG Test Group via Maven?

Maven is a project management and comprehension tool that provides a complete build lifecycle framework. User can automate the project's build infrastructure in almost no time as Maven uses a standard directory layout and a default build lifecycle.

To summarize, Maven simplifies and standardizes the project build process. It handles compilation, distribution, documentation, team collaboration and other tasks seamlessly. Maven increases reusability and takes care of most of the build related tasks.

TestNG is a testing framework and can use Maven as build tool. It helps to maintain dependencies and their version at one place in pom.xml

User can run test from testng.xml or pom.xml. To run tests from pom.xml, user need to mention the path of testng.xml and require maven−surefire−plugin to execute. Along with testng.xml, maven provides feature to run specific group through maven or command line. While running through command line, user can mention group name at run time without changing anything either in testng.xml or pom.xml.

In this article we will see how to run specific TestNG test group via Maven.

Scenario 1

In this scenario, we will illustrate how to pass group name in pom.xml to run specific test group without changing anything in testng.xml

Approach/Algorithm to solve this problem

• Step 1: Create a TestNG classes − NewTestngClass

• Step 2: Write 2 @Test method in the class with group name.

• Step 3: Now create the testNG.xml as given below.

• Step 4: Add the path of testng.xml in pom.xml as given below.

<configuration>
       <suiteXmlFiles>
             <suiteXmlFile>Path of testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
        </suiteXmlFiles>
  </configuration>

In the configuration section, path of testng is mentioned. There are 2 things to remember, first is this configuration should be kept along with maven−surefire−plugin and 2nd thing is never forget to add dependency of testng.

The detailed pom.xml can be found in program section.

• Step 5: Add group name that should execute after suiteXMLFiles in pom.xml as shown in program section. Here, we will run only @Test having group name as group2.

• Step 6: Now, run the pom.xml in IDE or compile and run it using command line.

Example

The following code to show how to run only 1 test method from a large suite:

src/ NewTestngClass.java

import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class NewTestngClass {

    @Test(groups = { "group1", "group3" })
    public void testCase1() {
        System.out.println("in test case 1 of NewTestngClass");
    }
   @Test(groups = { "group2", "group3" })
    public void testCase1() {
        System.out.println("in test case 2 of NewTestngClass");
    }

    
}  

testng.xml

This is a configuration file that is used to organize and run the TestNG test cases.

It is very handy when limited tests are needed to execute rather than full suite.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >
<suite name = "Suite1" parallel = "none">
    <test name = "test1" preserve-order = "true">
        <classes>
		<class name=”NewTestngClass”/>
	   </classes>
    </test>
</suite>

pom.xml

This is a maven configuration file that is used to organize dependencies, plugins and run the TestNG test cases.

It is very handy when limited tests are needed to execute rather than full suite.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.sample</groupId>
    <artifactId>TestNGProjectct</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.0.0-M5</version>
                <configuration>
                    <suiteXmlFiles>
                            <suiteXmlFile>src/main/java/testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
                    </suiteXmlFiles>
		     <groups>group2</groups>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>          
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
            <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
            <version>7.3.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Output

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] ---------------------< com.sample:TestNGProjectct >---------------------
[INFO] Building TestNGProjectct 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] Copying 0 resource
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (default-compile) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:testResources (default-testResources) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory C:\Users\anandas\IdeaProjects\TestNGProjectct\src\test\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:3.0.0-M5:test (default-test) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] No tests to run.
[INFO] 
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running TestSuite
...
... TestNG 7.3.0 by Cédric Beust (cedric@beust.com)
...

in test case 2 of NewTestngClass

[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.461 s - in TestSuite
[INFO] 
[INFO] Results:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  2.838 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2022-02-08T16:07:17+05:30
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scenario 2

In this scenario, we will illustrate how to pass group name in command line to run specific test group without changing anything in testng.xml or pom.xml

Approach/Algorithm to solve this problem

• Step 1: Create a TestNG classes − NewTestngClass

• Step 2: Write 2 @Test method in the class with group name.

• Step 3: Now create the testNG.xml as given below.

• Step 4: Add the path of testng.xml in pom.xml as given below.

<configuration>
   <suiteXmlFiles>
      <suiteXmlFile>Path of testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
   </suiteXmlFiles>
</configuration>

In the configuration section, path of testng is mentioned. There are 2 things to remember, first is this configuration should be kept along with maven−surefire−plugin and 2nd thing is never forgotten to add dependency of testng.

The detailed pom.xml can be found in program section.

• Step 5: We won’t add any group name in pom.xml or testng.xml.

• Step 6: Now, run it using command line.

Example

The following code to show how to run only 1 test method from a large suite:

src/ NewTestngClass.java

import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class NewTestngClass {

    @Test(groups = { "group1", "group3" })
    public void testCase1() {
        System.out.println("in test case 1 of NewTestngClass");
    }
   @Test(groups = { "group2", "group3" })
    public void testCase1() {
        System.out.println("in test case 2 of NewTestngClass");
    } 
}  

testng.xml

This is a configuration file that is used to organize and run the TestNG test cases.

It is very handy when limited tests are needed to execute rather than full suite.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >
<suite name = "Suite1" parallel = "none">
    <test name = "test1" preserve-order = "true">
        <classes>
		<class name=”NewTestngClass”/>
	   </classes>
    </test>
</suite>

pom.xml

This is a maven configuration file that is used to organize dependencies, plugins and run the TestNG test cases.

It is very handy when limited tests are needed to execute rather than full suite.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.sample</groupId>
    <artifactId>TestNGProjectct</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.0.0-M5</version>
                <configuration>
                    <suiteXmlFiles>
                            <suiteXmlFile>src/main/java/testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
                    </suiteXmlFiles>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>          
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
            <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
            <version>7.3.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Command to Execute

mvn test -Dgroups=group2

Output

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] ---------------------< com.sample:TestNGProjectct >---------------------
[INFO] Building TestNGProjectct 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] Copying 0 resource
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (default-compile) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:testResources (default-testResources) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory C:\Users\anandas\IdeaProjects\TestNGProjectct\src\test\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:3.0.0-M5:test (default-test) @ TestNGProjectct ---
[INFO] No tests to run.
[INFO] 
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running TestSuite
...
... TestNG 7.3.0 by Cédric Beust (cedric@beust.com)
...

in test case 2 of NewTestngClass

[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.461 s - in TestSuite
[INFO] 
[INFO] Results:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  2.838 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2022-02-08T16:07:17+05:30
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------