Summary of Changes in version 4.9, final

Release theme: Test-class and suite level Rules.

ClassRule

The ClassRule annotation extends the idea of method-level Rules, adding static fields that can affect the operation of a whole class. Any subclass of ParentRunner, including the standard BlockJUnit4ClassRunner and Suite classes, will support ClassRules.

For example, here is a test suite that connects to a server once before all the test classes run, and disconnects after they are finished:

@RunWith(Suite.class)
@SuiteClasses({A.class, B.class, C.class})
public class UsesExternalResource {
    public static Server myServer= new Server();

    @ClassRule
    public static ExternalResource resource= new ExternalResource() {
        @Override
        protected void before() throws Throwable {
            myServer.connect();
        };

        @Override
        protected void after() {
            myServer.disconnect();
        };
    };
}

TestRule

In JUnit 4.9, fields that can be annotated with either @Rule or @ClassRule should be of type TestRule. The old MethodRule type, which only made sense for method-level rules, will still work, but is deprecated.

Most built-in Rules have been moved to the new type already, in a way that should be transparent to most users. TestWatchman has been deprecated, and replaced by TestWatcher, which has the same functionality, but implements the new type.

Maven support

Maven bundles have, in the past, been uploaded by kind volunteers. Starting with this release, the JUnit team is attempting to perform this task ourselves.

LICENSE checked in

The Common Public License that JUnit is released under is now included in the source repository.

Bug fixes

• github#98: assumeTrue() does not work with expected exceptions

• github#74: Categories + Parameterized

  In JUnit 4.8.2, the Categories runner would fail to run correctly if any contained test class had a custom Runner with a structure significantly different from the built-in Runner. With this fix, such classes can be assigned one or more categories at the class level, and will be run correctly. Trying to assign categories to methods within such a class will flag an error.

• github#38: ParentRunner filters more than once

  Thanks to @reinholdfuereder

• github#248: protected BlockJUnit4ClassRunner#rules method removed from 4.8.2

• github#187: Accidental dependency on Java 6

Thanks to @kcooney for:

• github#163: Bad comparison failure message when using assertEquals(String, String)
• github#227: ParentRunner now assumes that getChildren() returns a modifiable list

Minor changes

• Backed out unused folder "experimental-use-of-antunit", replaced by bash-based script at build_tests.sh
• Various Javadoc fixes

Thanks to @kcooney for:

• Made MultipleFailureException public, to assist extension writers.
• github#240: Add "test" target to build.xml, for faster ant-driven testing.
• github#247: Give InitializationError a useful message