You can run FitNesse Java (Fit and Slim) tests from a developer IDE without starting the FitNesse server. This is a developer-centric approach to running tests and is not suitable for collaboration with customers or testers, but it is very efficient for troubleshooting purposes. FitNesse includes a set of JUnit 4 runner that enables you to execute a test or a suite using JUnit. The runner will execute FitNesse tests in-process by default, allowing you to debug and inspect the fixture or domain code during test execution. Test pass/failure reports are integrated with JUnit but the normal page output (tables etc) gets saved to the disk for later inspection, if required.

The !-FitNese-! runner will report about individual test pages being executed by JUnit. For IDE's this means that the JUnit report window and give you detailed statistics for individual tests in a suite.

!2 Using the !-FitNese-! runner
To use the !-FitNese-! runner, Define !-fitnesse.junit.FitNesseSuite-! as the runner for a specific test class, using @org.junit.runner.RunWith(). Set the test or suite name to run using the @Name attribute, the root FitNesse path using !-@FitNesseDir-! attribute and the result directory using !-@OutputDir-! attribute.[[Here's a full example.][https://github.com/unclebob/fitnesse/blob/master/test/fitnesse/junit/FitNesseRunnerTest.java]]

!2 What about JUnitHelper?
JUitHelper is no more. Main reason for this is that FitNesse has become more modular. Now it's possible to execute a set of tests with only a few lines of code. The basics are:

 * build a context:

{{{FitNesseContext context = new ContextConfigurator(properties /* a java.util.Properties instance */).makeFitNesseContext();}}}

 * get a set of pages you want to execute:

{{{List<WikiPage> pagesToExecute = new SuiteContentsFinder(suiteRoot, null /* optional fitnesse.testrunner.SuiteFilter */, context.root).getAllPagesToRunForThisSuite();}}}

 * build a test runner, provide a descriptor with the execution details (e.g. debug mode) for the tests:

{{{final String classPath = new ClassPathBuilder().buildClassPath(pages);
final PagesByTestSystem pagesByTestSystem = new PagesByTestSystem(pages, context.root, new PagesByTestSystem.DescriptorFactory() {
    @Override
    public Descriptor create(WikiPage page) {
        return new WikiPageDescriptor(page.readOnlyData(), true /* run in-process */, false /* remote debug */, classPath);
    }
});
MultipleTestsRunner testRunner = new MultipleTestsRunner(pagesByTestSystem, context.runningTestingTracker, context.testSystemFactory);}}}

 * register a !-TestSystemListener-! on the test runner:

{{{testRunner.addTestSystemListener(new TestSystemListener() { ... });}}}

 * execute the tests; test results are reported through the listener:

{{{testRunner.executeTestPages();}}}