How can I ensure testNG test method does not abort if any assert fails

Question

I know there is a difference between assert and verify in Junit; the assert results in a runtime exception, causing test method execution to abort. To overcome this problem, we can have verify which will make test case fail, but allowing test execution to proceed rather than getting aborted.

I doubt there is any such built in approach in testNG. I do understand that best practices say, there should not be multiple asserts in same test case.

But, in practical world, we do come across scenarios where we need to have multiple checkpoints in one test case and we don't want our test method to abort because of one check point failure (test execution should proceed despite failure).

How can we use a soft assert mechanism, similar to verify, which will not abort test method when there is a checkpoint failure.

Example:

@Test(dataProvider = "getMailUrl")
public void testMail(email,subject);
Assert.assertFalse(subject.isEmpty);//1st checkpoint
Assert.assertNotNull(email); //2nd checkpoint
Assert.assertEquals(email, "[email protected]"); //3rd checkpoint

Now, I want test execution to proceed, even if the 1st checkpoint (validation of subject being not empty) fails. Definitely we will be not be using assert (hard assert). We will need concept of soft assert similar to verify (facilitated by Junit).

I understand, we have to build a customListener implementing TestNG interfaces or extending existing listeners such as TestListenerAdapter.
I am still struggling - how can we do this?

Answer 1

TestNG has a feature called soft assert. This kind of assert doesn't stop the test when assert is failing.

First initialize it:

import org.testng.asserts.Assertion;
import org.testng.asserts.SoftAssert;

public class MyTest {
  private SoftAssert softAssert = new SoftAssert();
}

Then use it in your test:

@Test(dataProvider = "getMailUrl")
public void testMail(email,subject) 
softAssert.assertFalse(subject.isEmpty);//1st checkpoint
softAssert.assertNotNull(email); //2nd checkpoint
softAssert.assertEquals(email, "[email protected]"); //3rd checkpoint

Answer 2

Instead of using asserts just use ifs. If its a fail add an error string to a temp array. At the end of the test assert that the temp array is empty, as the fail reason print out the strings in the array.

Not sure why you would continue the test after the first fail, since it failed someone needs to look into anyways. The fixer should run the full test after fixing and see what else is broken as soon as possible.