This presentation is prepared for SVCC on Javascript Testing with Jasmine. It basically goes through basic Jasmine feature and provide tips for developers when they decide to start testing.
WHY UNIT TEST ? It improves your software / feature design. Thinking how to make a software testable ahead of time will decrease the complexity of your code.
JASMINE – VERY BASIC Jasmine is a behavior driven testing framework for testing javascript code. Note: Behavior driven development ( BDD ) emphasis on writing your spec against your feature behavior ( business requirement ) that are small and easy to read. • Small: Your test just need to test one thing only. • Easy to read: Your test should need only one sentence to describe what you are testing.
FIRST TEST describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { var shark = new Shark(); expect(shark.swim).not.toBeUndefined(); }); }); // This is just an imaginary test
SUITE describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { var shark = new Shark(); expect(shark.swim).not.toBeUndefined(); }); }); Note: Suite typically defines a component of your application, it could be either a class or a function. The first argument take a “string”, and second take a function.
SPEC describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { var shark = new Shark(); expect(shark.swim).not.toBeUndefined(); }); }); Note: Inside suite are the ‘specs’. It is testing what a particular piece of your component or your code should do. Each suite can holds any number of specs.
MATCHERS describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { var shark = new Shark(); expect(shark.swim).not.toBeUndefined(); }); }); Note: Matchers are for validating your specs passing or not. It takes the argument inside expect() and check to see if it satisfies the criteria in the matcher.
SKIP SPEC describe(‘Shark’, function() { xit(“should know how to swim”, function() { // this spec will be skipped by the test runner }); it(“has a fin”, function() { // this spec will still be run }); });
SKIP SUITE xdescribe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { // … }); it(“has a fin”, function() { // … }); }); The whole suite will be skipped by the test runner.
IDENTICAL toBe expect(a).toEqual(b); expect(a).toBe(a); expect(a).toBe(b); // toBe checks for if same object. var a = {test:”abc”}; var b = {test:”abc”};
DEFINED OR NOT toBeDefined / toBeUndefined expect(myDefinedVariable).toBeDefined(); expect(null).toBeDefined(); expect(yourVariable).toBeDefined(); expect(null).toBeUndefined(); var myDefinedVariable;
THROW ERROR toThrow expect(_a_func_that_throw_error()).toThrow(); // It takes a function and see if it throw error expect(function() { return “something”; }).toThrow(); var _a_func_that_throw_error = function() { throw new Error(); }
RECAP Let’s do some exercise Read the following sentences … I learn today Jasmine is about … describe, it, using expect and matchers describe, it, using expect and matchers describe, it, using expect and matchers
RECAP Well, not totally true in previous slide, but true by so far. describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(“should know how to swim”, function() { var shark = new Shark(); expect(shark.swim).not.toBeUndefined(); }); });
POPUP QUIZ In plain English, can you describe a “Shark” by this definition ? var Shark = function() {} Shark.prototype.greet = function(thing) { this.eat(thing); } Shark.prototype.eat = function(thing) { this.say(thing); } Shark.prototype.say = function(thing) { return thing + “ is so yummy”; }
SPY BASIC With spy, you can do the following as well • expect(shark.eat).toHaveBeenCalledWith(‘duck’) • expect(shark.eat.callCount).toBe(1) You can also force a spy function to return stuff you defined • spyOn(shark, ‘say’).andReturn(‘Meh …’); // Note that the first argument for spyOn is the object, second argument is the method in string format
SPY BASIC Some catcha … By default, spy will replace the behavior of your spied function, some people illustrate it as “eating the function”. In order to use spy as well as delegate the spied function back to the actual implementation, you can do the following spyOn(shark, ‘eat’).andCallThrough();
RECAP In short, spy records its interaction with other objects in your test. For example, you can retrieve run time statistic on the spied function. • How many times the function was called • What was the value return to the caller • How many parameters the function was called with
RECAP There are more concepts to Jasmine when coming to test doubles. In javascript testing world, there are spies, stubs and mocks. They could look very similar, but their existence are for different use cases. We will introduce other library that make it easy to understand in reference section. But for now, learning what spy means in Jasmine will give you what you need to write test.
ASYNC TESTING In javascript, there are times you may need to test ‘events’, ‘ajax calls’ type of asynchronous actions. For example : // Assume after shark finishing its meal, it will send a signal ( event ) out ? describe(‘Shark’, function() { it(‘should say something after finishing its meal’, function() { } });
ASYNC TESTING In Jasmine, there are a few functions called runs, waits and waitsFor to support running specs for testing async operation. The sequence usually looks like :- // code that starts the async process runs // wait for something happen or timeout waitsFor // after waitsFor done its job, the next runs block will execute runs
ASYNC TESTING describe(“Shark”, function() { it(‘say something after finish eating’, function() { var shark = new Shark(); spyOn(shark, ‘say’); runs(function() { // start the async support shark.eat(‘duck’); }); waitsFor(function() { // wait for something happen and return true, or it will time out return shark.say.callCount == 1; }, “Shark should say something”, 500); runs(function() { // still inside the async support expects(shark.say.callCount).toBeGreaterThan(0); }); } });
TDD TDD and BDD go together hands in hands, not really competitors. The emphasis of TDD is your test is ahead of your implementation and it follows the Red Green Refactor pattern. Red à you write test that fail Green à you write basic implementation to pass the test Refactor à write you real implementation based on requirement
THINK TEST FIRST Try to ask yourself next time when you start writing your code à “How can I test it?, Is this function testable?” It will help yourself to minimize the complexity of your code. If your existing function / class is doing too many things at the same time, try to write some specs and it will help your refactoring. Remember, your function should just need to do one thing and do it good.
COMMUNICATION Unit test is not just about Green light or Red light, it is also about communication. Make sure you are writing the right specs, and making the right assumption. Invest more time with your manager / product / lead to truly understand what you are implementing. Just as what mentioned in the first few slides, writing/ planning test promotes communication between technical and non technical group.
REFACTOR LEGACY CODE If code are not developed with testable in mind, it should have a lot of dependencies, for example, talk to database, sending emails. One of the task of refactoring code be to testable is first breaking the dependencies. After that, you want to check if any of your methods are doing too much, and there is clear role of that function. You can call this step reducing complexity.
WHAT TO TEST You should test thing that is going to last. For example, you won’t test the a particular flow that is under A/B testing, since it won’t last long. You should test your critical path that deliver business values. If you have bunch of getter and setter, some people will actually exclude that, because it doesn’t deliver real values to the business. The main guide line is to think and apply whenever it makes sense, there is no point to aim for 100% coverage.
NO DEPENDENCIES As a frontend dev, your unit test is probably not done correctly if … 1. You need to do a real ajax call 2. You instantiate a class in your test that is not what you are testing 3. Other external data source For all those dependencies, you need to stub it out or mock it out. Your unit test should be isolated on its own.
REMEMBER Unit testing is about testing as a (isolated) unit. So for all other dependencies, you will need to create stub, mock, fakeServer or fixture!!