How to get Selenium and TestNG to open one browser to run tests in multiple classes

I am using Selenium with TestNG to test a website. I have created tests using the Selenium IDE and exported them to TestNG with each test being a method in a class. Eg,

For login tests there is a Login class which has methods testLogin(), testLogin2() etc For signup tests there is a Signup class has methods testSignup(), testSignup2(), etc

I am using Ant to run the tests which works fine except that each class will open up a browser and then run its methods, eg, if I have five classes, then five browsers will open simultaneously and then run the tests.

What I want is to get Ant/Selenium/TestNG to just open up one browser and then run all the tests (in the same browser) in all the classes that I have specified in testng.xml. Using the example above, I want one browser to open then run testLogin(), testLogin2(), testSignup(), testSignup2(). If this cannot be achieved, then I want to open a browser, run all tests in a class then close the browser then open another browser then run the set of test methods in the next class.

Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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Today I have found the answer that works for me. Give me a few minutes to gather all code samples :)

Init.java

//base class that will be called before all tests @Test(groups = "init") public class Init{      DefaultSelenium browser;      public void start(ITestContext itc){         browser = (DefaultSelenium) itc.getAttribute("browser");         browser.open("url");         browser.click("xpath");     }  } 

TemplateForClasses.java

/* - all public methods will be tests  * - all tests will be called after group init  * - just before suite will start we will start 1 browser instance  */ @Test(dependsOnGroup="init") public class TemplateForClasses{      DefaultSelenium browser;      @BeforeSuite     public void startBrowser(ITestContext itc){         browser = new DefaultSelenium(host,port,browser_type,url);         itc.setAttribute("browser",browser);         browser.start();     }      @AfterSuite     public void stopBrowser(ITestContext itc){         browser = (DefaultSelenium) itc.getAttribute("browser");         browser.stop();     }      //any other: @Before, @After methods  } 

FirstGroupOfTests.java

//all tests classes will inherit preferences set in TemplateForClasses public class FirstGroupOfTests extends TemplateForClasses{      public void FirstTest(ITestContext itc){         browser = (DefaultSelenium) itc.getAttribute("browser");         //browser.click("start");     }  } 

idea:

• start browser just once have tests
• that run before every other tests(isBrowserRunning)
• refer to browser from single test

This code was tested but currently I took it from the top of my head so possibly I will edit it tomorrow to make it more exact.

Update: This result is based on testng.org documentation + some questions asked by me on stackoverflow + some answers found on several forums/groups

I must add I'm running testng programatically and I'm generating xml on the fly (as it is done on documentation.org). I am using it all in one package, I added package to the xml, included only classes Init + the ones that inherit from TemplateForClasses. If you need that xml, let me know.