We lost $ 20.5K in one day and how we could have saved it… hint: better automated testing

How to test a node/express app with Mocha, Nock and proxyquire (MNP) and code coverage with nyc/istanbul.

Transcript

1. @geshan We lost $ 20.5K in one day and how we could have saved it… hint: better automated testing Geshan Manandhar Senior Software Engineer (THE ICONIC)
2. @geshan whoami ▪ Senior Software Engineer ▫ Tech Solution provider ▪ Agile follower ▪ Conditional microservices believer 2
3. I am from Kathmandu, Nepal
4. I was working for a GFG venture in Middle East
5. Now I work at THE ICONIC
6. @geshan One day early 2017 we deployed a new app rewrite and lost 20.5 K USD in ~24 hours? How? With 5 or less lines of code 6
7. @geshan These 5 lines of code return isFirstShipmentofOrder(connection, orderData.fk_sales_order).then(isFirstShipment => { isFirstShipment = isFirstShipment[0]; //this was always false let serviceFee = isFirstShipment ? parseFloat(orderData.shipping_amount) + parseFloat(orderData.payment_fees) : 0; //so this was always 0 … } 7
8. @geshan Not blaming anyone ▪ Mysql2 library was not the issue it was us and not having comprehensive tests (process) ▪ const [rows, fields] = await connection.execute('SELECT * FROM `table`... I think we misread fields with rows (don’t clearly remember) ▪ What I remember though: ▫ 2 software engineers with relatively less experience with backend JS and JS concepts like promise ▫ Testing was in place but not enough to cover this service fee case ▫ Noone was fired, we fixed it and did a postmortem. 8
9. @geshan 9 End of Story => Start of the tutorial
10. @geshan 10 Most tech tutorials be like (probably not this one, not sure)
11. @geshan This talk is about testing not the story ▪ Goals: ▫ Use Mocha, Nock and Proxyquire to test an Express JS API (why not Jest, I am old school) ▫ The API will ▪ Have a DB with read/write operation ▪ Call an API for data ▫ Use Istanbul/nyc for code coverage 11
12. @geshan Minimalist approach (opinionated) ▪ Using assert (not chai) - comes in node core itself ▪ Not using Sinon or any other library for mocking ▪ Stubbing responses per use case ▪ Rewire package might be used to test “private” methods (but do you want to do it?) ▪ For bigger projects it may not work (let’s talk “micro” services) 12
13. @geshan Currency Converter API ▪ Let's start with a simple app a currency converter API ▪ It reads and write to a DB (MySQL) ▪ Call an external API for the currency rates ▪ Runs at: https://currency-api-nodejs.now.sh ▪ Code at: https://github.com/geshan/currency-api 13
14. @geshan 14 Demo Time
15. @geshan Conclusion ▪ Write tests for confidence not 100% code coverage ▪ Always thoroughly test things that involve “Money” (don’t lose money due to one missing test :) simple) ▪ Use the tools of your choice, meet the goal. Tools are just one way to get to the goals. Wanna use Jest go for it. ▪ Write tests first (TDD) or tests last (test supported) but always write them ▪ Setup a continuous integration environment to get the feedback loop running, try out Werkcer CI (free) 15
16. @geshan 16 http://bit.ly/au-work-visa
17. @geshan THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at @geshan and Geshan.com.np Slides at: http://bit.ly/testing-nodejs 17