Does JUnit4 testclasses require a public no arg co

Question

I have a test class, written in JUnit4 syntax, that can be run in eclipse with the "run as junit test" option without failing. When I run the same test via an ant target I get this error:

java.lang.Exception: Test class should have public zero-argument constructor
at org.junit.internal.runners.MethodValidator.validateNoArgConstructor(MethodValidator.java:54)
at org.junit.internal.runners.MethodValidator.validateAllMethods(MethodValidator.java:39)
at org.junit.internal.runners.TestClassRunner.validate(TestClassRunner.java:33)
at org.junit.internal.runners.TestClassRunner.<init>(TestClassRunner.java:27)
at org.junit.internal.runners.TestClassRunner.<init>(TestClassRunner.java:20)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
at org.junit.internal.requests.ClassRequest.getRunner(ClassRequest.java:26)
at junit.framework.JUnit4TestAdapter.<init>(JUnit4TestAdapter.java:24)
at junit.framework.JUnit4TestAdapter.<init>(JUnit4TestAdapter.java:17)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.run(JUnitTestRunner.java:386)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:911)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:768)
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: dk.gensam.gaia.business.bonusregulering.TestBonusregulerAftale$Test1Reader.<init>()
at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2706)
at java.lang.Class.getConstructor(Class.java:1657)
at org.junit.internal.runners.MethodValidator.validateNoArgConstructor(MethodValidator.java:52)

I have no public no arg constructor in the class, but is this really necessary?

This is my ant target

<target name="junit" description="Execute unit tests" depends="compile, jar-test">
        <delete dir="tmp/rawtestoutput"/>
        <delete dir="test-reports"/>
        <mkdir dir="tmp/rawtestoutput"/>
        <junit printsummary="true" failureproperty="junit.failure" fork="true">
          <classpath refid="class.path.test"/>
          <classpath refid="class.path.model"/>
          <classpath refid="class.path.gui"/>
          <classpath refid="class.path.jfreereport"/>
            <classpath path="tmp/${test.jar}"></classpath>
          <batchtest todir="tmp/rawtestoutput">
            <fileset dir="${build}/test">
                <include name="**/*Test.class" />
                <include name="**/Test*.class" />
            </fileset>
          </batchtest>
        </junit>
        <junitreport todir="tmp">
          <fileset dir="tmp/rawtestoutput"/>
          <report todir="test-reports"/>
        </junitreport>
        <fail if="junit.
failure" message="Unit test(s) failed.  See reports!"/>
    </target>

The test class have no constructors, but it has an inner class with default modifier. It also have an anonymouse inner class. Both inner classes gives the "Test class should have public zero-argument constructor error". I am using Ant version 1.7.1 and JUnit 4.7

Answer 1

For older versions of junit, if you have the word "Test" in your inner class, this problem will occur.

We ran into this problem while implementing the subclass-for-test pattern, naming the subclass, e.g., FooForTest. By renaming to FooSubclass, the problem was solved.

See the above comment from @Vineet Reynolds for more detail about affected junit versions, and why this happens for ant but not eclipse.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Non-static inner classes have a hidden constructor that takes the outer class as argument. If your inner classes dont share state with the outer classes, just make them static.

Answer 3

I believe you need a no-args constructor, but if you don't declare any constructors Java will create a synthetic one for you. Are you sure the ant-task is not picking up another class; one that just happens to follow the naming convention you've set (*Test or Test*)?