Say you have

public class SomeTestNG {
@BeforeClass
public void setup() { … }
@Test
public void test1() { … }
@Test
public void test2() { … }
}

You’ll get the following methods invoked:

• setup()
• test1()
• test2()

Not surprising.

What happens, though, with this?

public class SomeTestNG {
@BeforeClass
public void setup() { … }
@Test(groups = {"database"})
public void test1() { … }
@Test
public void test2() { … }
}

And you run the “database” group?

Does setup() get called?

It’d have to, right?

Well…

Not so much.

@BeforeClass has a groups() attribute as well, and it’s respected when you run group test suites. If you want it to run before all methods, you need to use the alwaysRun = true:

public class SomeTestNG {
@BeforeClass(alwaysRun = true)
public void setup() { … }
@Test(groups = {"database"})
public void test1() { … }
@Test
public void test2() { … }
}

What’s a serious humdinger–when you run the test manually in IDEA, you’re running the test outside the scope of it’s group test suite, so the @BeforeClass runs as expected. Only in ant will the @Before… fail to get called.

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