Run only given sets of your unit test via @Category

[JerryWang]

Suppose you have a large number of unit test cases and you don't want them to be executed all at the same time during Maven build. You can simply achieve it via annotation @Category.

1. Create empty class FastTests and SlowTests.

2. In your test case class, categorize your test method using @Category annotation:

3. Append the following code to your pom.xml:

<profiles>

		<profile>

			<id>SlowTests</id>

			<properties>

				<testcase.groups>com.sap.SlowTests</testcase.groups>

			</properties>

		</profile>

		<profile>

			<id>FastTests</id>

			<properties>

				<testcase.groups>com.sap.FastTests</testcase.groups>

			</properties>

		</profile>

	</profiles>



	<build>

		<plugins>

			<plugin>

				<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>

				<version>3.1</version>

				<configuration>

					<source>1.8</source>

					<target>1.8</target>

				</configuration>

			</plugin>

			<plugin>

				<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

				<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>

				<version>2.13</version>

				<dependencies>

					<dependency>

						<groupId>org.apache.maven.surefire</groupId>

						<artifactId>surefire-junit47</artifactId>

						<version>2.13</version>

					</dependency>

				</dependencies>

				<configuration>

					<groups>${testcase.groups}</groups>

				</configuration>

			</plugin>

		</plugins>

	</build>

4. In my project, by default all 7 test methods will be executed during Maven build:

Suppose you only want to execute unit test belonging to category "SlowTests", use the following command line:

Since now I only marked one method with annotation SlowTests, only one test method is executed:

If you would like to execute all unit tests EXCEPT @SlowTests, simply add another profile in pom.xml:

<profile>

			<id>NonSlowTests</id>

			<build>

				<plugins>

					<plugin>

						<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

						<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>

						<configuration>

							<excludedGroups>com.sap.SlowTests</excludedGroups>

						</configuration>

					</plugin>

				</plugins>

			</build>

		</profile>

Before test, in order to prove that Slow method is NOT really executed, I add a system.out.println in each method:

Use command line: mvn test -P NonSlowTests

From console output, I can ensure that the method with @Category(SlowTests.class) is NOT executed at all.