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Jasmine JavaScript Testing Update
Jasmine JavaScript Testing Update

Jasmine JavaScript Testing Update: Test your JavaScript applications efficiently using Jasmine and React.js

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Profile Icon Paulo Vitor Zacharias Ragonha
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€29.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.2 (14 Ratings)
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Paulo Vitor Zacharias Ragonha
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Paperback Apr 2015 134 pages 1st Edition
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Jasmine JavaScript Testing Update

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Jasmine

It is an exciting time to be a JavaScript developer; technologies have matured, web browsers are more standardized, and there are new things to play with every day. JavaScript has become an established language, and the Web is the true open platform of today. We've seen the rise of single-page web applications, the proliferation of Model View Controller (MVC) frameworks, such as Backbone.js and AngularJS, the use of JavaScript on the server with Node.js, and even mobile applications created entirely with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS using technologies such as PhoneGap.

From its humble beginnings with handling HTML forms, to the massive applications of today, the JavaScript language has come very far, and with it, a number of tools have matured to ensure that you can have the same level of quality with it that you have with any other language.

This book is about the tools that keep you in control of your JavaScript development.

JavaScript – the bad parts

There are many complications when dealing with client JavaScript code; the obvious one, is that you cannot control the client's runtime. While on the server, you can run a specific version of your Node.js server, you can't oblige your clients to run the latest version of Chrome or Firefox.

The JavaScript language is defined by the ECMAScript specification; therefore, each browser can have its own implementation of a runtime, which means there could be small differences or bugs between them.

Besides that, you have issues with the language itself. Brendan Eich developed JavaScript in just 10 days, under a lot of management pressure at Netscape. Although it got itself right in its simplicity, first-class functions, and object prototypes, it also introduced some problems with the attempt to make the language malleable and allow it to evolve.

Every JavaScript object is mutable; this means that there is nothing you can do to prevent a module from overwriting pieces of other modules. The following code illustrates how simple it is to overwrite the global console.log function:

console.log('test');
>> 'test'
console.log = 'break';
console.log('test');
>> TypeError: Property 'log' of object #<Console> is not a function

This was a conscious decision on the language design; it allows developers to tinker and add missing functionality to the language. But given such power, it is relatively easy to make a mistake.

Version 5 of the ECMA specification introduced the Object.seal function, which prevents further changes on any object once called. But its current support is not widespread; Internet Explorer, for example, only implemented it on its version 9.

Another problem, is with how JavaScript deals with type. In other languages, an expression like '1' + 1 would probably raise an error; in JavaScript, due to some non-intuitive type coercion rules, the aforementioned code results in '11'. But the main problem is in its inconsistency; on multiplication, a string is converted into a number, so '3' * 4, is actually 12.

This can lead to some hard-to-find problems on big expressions. Suppose you have some data coming from a server, and although you are expecting numbers, one value came as a string:

var a = 1, b = '2', c = 3, d = 4;
var result = a + b + c * d;

The resulting value of the preceding example is '1212', a string.

These are just two common problems faced by developers. Throughout the book, you are going to apply best practices and write tests to guarantee that you don't fall into these, and other, pitfalls.

Jasmine and behavior-driven development

Jasmine is a little behavior-driven development (BDD) test framework created by the developers at Pivotal Labs, to allow you to write automated JavaScript unit tests.

But before we can go any further, first we need to get some fundamentals right, starting with what a test unit is.

A test unit is a piece of code that tests a functionality unit of the application code. But sometimes, it can be tricky to understand what a functionality unit can be, so for that reason, Dan North came up with a solution in the form of BDD, which is a rethink of test-driven development (TDD).

In traditional unit testing practice, the developer is left with loose guidelines on how to start the process of testing, what to test, how big a test should be, or even how to call a test.

To fix these problems, Dan took the concept of user stories from the standard agile construct, as a model on how to write tests.

For example, a music player application could have an acceptance criterion such as:

Given a player, when the song has been paused, then it should indicate that the song is currently paused.

As shown in the following list, this acceptance criterion is written following an underlying pattern:

  • Given: This provides an initial context
  • When: This defines the event that occurs
  • Then: This ensures an outcome

In Jasmine, this translates into a very expressive language that allows tests to be written in a way that reflects actual business values. The preceding acceptance criterion written as a Jasmine test unit would be as follows:

describe("Player", function() {
  describe("when song has been paused", function() {
    it("should indicate that the song is paused", function() {

    });
  });
});

You can see how the criterion translates well into the Jasmine syntax. In the next chapter, we will get into the details of how these functions work.

With Jasmine, as with other BDD frameworks, each acceptance criterion directly translates to a test unit. For that reason, each test unit is usually called a spec, short for specification. During the course of this book, we will be using this terminology.

Downloading Jasmine

Getting started with Jasmine is actually pretty simple.

Open the Jasmine website at http://jasmine.github.io/2.1/introduction.html#section-Downloads and download the Standalone Release (version 2.1.3 is going to be used in the book).

While at the Jasmine website, you might notice that it is actually a live page executing the specs contained in it. This is made possible by the simplicity of the Jasmine framework, allowing it to be executed in the most diverse environments.

After you've downloaded the distribution and uncompressed it, you can open the SpecRunner.html file on your browser. It will show the results of a sample test suite (including the acceptance criterion we showed you earlier):

Downloading Jasmine

This shows the SpecRunner.html file opened on the browser

This SpecRunner.html file is a Jasmine browser spec runner. It is a simple HTML file that references the Jasmine code, the source files, and the test files. For convention purposes, we are going to refer to this file simply as runner.

You can see how simple it is by opening it on a text editor. It is a small HTML file that references the Jasmine source:

<script src="lib/jasmine-2.1.3/jasmine.js"></script>
<script src="lib/jasmine-2.1.3/jasmine-html.js"></script>
<script src="lib/jasmine-2.1.3/boot.js"></script>

The runner references the source files:

<script type="text/javascript" src="src/Player.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="src/Song.js"></script>

The runner references a special SpecHelper.js file that contains code shared between specs:

<script type="text/javascript" src="spec/SpecHelper.js"></script>

The runner also references the spec files:

<script type="text/javascript" src="spec/PlayerSpec.js"></script>

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

The Jasmine framework is set up inside the lib/jasmine-2.1.3/boot.js file, and although it's an extensive file, most of its content is in documentation on how the setup actually happens. It is recommended that you open it in a text editor and study its content.

Although, for now, we are running the specs in the browser, in Chapter 8, Build Automation, we are going to make the same specs and code run on a headless browser, such as PhantomJS, and have the results written on the console.

A headless browser is a browser environment without its graphical user interface. It can either be an actual browser environment, such as PhantomJS, which uses the WebKit rendering engine, or a simulated browser environment, such as Envjs.

And although not covered in this book, Jasmine can also be used to test server-side JavaScript code written for environments such as Node.js.

This Jasmine flexibility is amazing, because you can use the same tool to test all sorts of JavaScript code.

Summary

In this chapter, you saw some of the motivations behind testing a JavaScript application. I showed you some common pitfalls of the JavaScript language and how BDD and Jasmine both help you to write better tests.

You have also seen how easy it is to download and get started with Jasmine.

In the next chapter, you are going to learn how to think in BDD and code your very first spec.

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Description

This book is for web developers and designers who work with React.js and JavaScript and who are new to unit testing and automation. It's assumed that you have a basic knowledge of JavaScript and HTML.

What you will learn

  • Understand and use the power of Jasmine to create better and more maintainable code bases
  • Drive your application development entirely by tests
  • Write modular and reusable code through the power of ECMA Script 6 (ES6) modules
  • Use asynchronous tests, stubs, and spies optimally
  • Test drive a React.js singlepage application
  • Optimize your code to unleash the power of tooling and automation
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
1. Getting Started with Jasmine Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Your First Spec Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Testing Frontend Code Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Asynchronous Testing – AJAX Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Jasmine Spies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Light Speed Unit Testing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Testing React Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Build Automation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.2
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4 star 7.1%
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Rose May 08, 2019
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Great reference book.
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Richard S. Dec 25, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very, very well written! The author stands out in a field that can be very difficult to write books for!
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Krunal Jhaveri Jul 14, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I was never a test person, until the start of agile world. Now I feel its one of the most important task list for any developer and Jasmine is the best for any javascript application. This update to the previous edition, does all the needful to you. It covers all the basics to right up-to how to code production ready unit test. It has certainly help improved my quality of code and thus would recommend this book to everyone.
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J.P. Jan 04, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a fantastic book but it's not without flaws. I grew up in an era where you typed code in and that's how you learned what to do. There's plenty of that in this book (which is great), but there are big gaps in the source code. You can't just follow along in the book and end up where you need to be. I had to download the code from Packt to fill in the missing details. With that said, this is a great book. It's concise and to the point. No BS chapters on why unit testing is important and other nonsense publishers use to get larger books.
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Dave Bouwman Oct 31, 2013
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I'd been using Jasmine for a few months when I got this book (from the publisher) and I must say that it immediately helped my write better tests. Unlike many books on unit testing, the examples in this book are not trivial. They mirror real-world application problems, and the author narrates the thought process, guiding you from a naive implementation that is difficult to test, through to a cleaner, testable implementation. I gained a lot of insights by reading these narratives, and that alone make this book worthwhile reading.What's really great is that the author takes it further - by refactoring the "application" to use Backbone.js. If you've ever wondered how to do in-depth testing of Backbone views, or how to test event hooks between views and models, this book covers that.Bottom line: if you are using jasmine - this is a great resource. If you are using Jasmine and Backbone - this is a must read.
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