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Test-Driven JavaScript Development
Test-Driven JavaScript Development

Test-Driven JavaScript Development: Learn JavaScript test-driven development using popular frameworks and tools

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Test-Driven JavaScript Development

Chapter 2. Testing Concepts

There are a number of ways and methods to test software quality. TDD is focused on testing the small pieces of code using unit tests. Unit tests play a big and important role in TDD irrespective of the programming language. While learning TDD, it is essential to understand unit testing and testing frameworks. In the previous chapter, you learned about the life cycle of TDD. Now with examples, we will see how each step of the life cycle is executed. For this chapter, we will try to showcase examples using YUI (short for Yahoo User Interface) because of its simplicity and easy-to-understand functions.

In this chapter, you will learn about unit testing, a little about frameworks, how a test is written, actions, and assertions in unit tests. In this chapter, you will learn the following:

  • Unit testing
  • Following the process
  • Benefits and pitfalls

Unit testing

Unit test is a function or method, which invokes a unit of module in software and checks assumptions about the system that the developer has in mind. Unit test helps the developer test the logical functionality of any module.

In other words, a unit is the testable piece of software. It can have more than one input and normally a single output. Sometimes, we treat a module of a system as a unit.

Unit test is only relevant to developers who are closely working with the code. A unit test is only applicable to test a logical piece of a code. Illogical code would not be tested with the use of unit testing. For example, getting and setting values in text field will not be considered in logical code.

Usually, the first unit test is harder to write for any developer. The first test requires more time for any developer. We should follow a practice of asking questions before writing the initial unit test. For example, should you use an already available unit test framework or write you...

Benefits and pitfalls

We have seen how easy it is to create test cases, run them, and analyze the report. Every framework has some benefits and pitfalls. In this section, we will look at some generic benefits and pitfalls.

Benefits of unit testing

The following are a few benefits of using unit testing for our projects:

  • Quickly making big changes: We can make big changes easily if we have included unit tests in system. As we know, it works properly because we have run the tests, we simply need to make sure that its working now by just running test again.
  • Boost your confidence: Unit testing helps you to boost up your confidence about requirements completion. It helps you to make a decision about when you can stop coding. Tests give you confidence that you have performed enough coding for one requirement and now we can move to other requirements. If unit tests are written properly and run every time when we carry out minor changes, then we can easily catch any bugs introduced due to change.
  • Helps...

Summary

So far, we have seen how to write simple unit tests, advance them using some actions and assertions. This chapter showcased tests, actions, and assertions using YUI. YUI is used to give an idea of how all this happens and works together through the TDD life cycle. Then you learned about some benefits and pitfalls.

In the next chapter, you will learn about popular JavaScript tools and frameworks. YUI was a browser-based testing framework, but later we will also check tools, which don't need you to run test cases in the browser.

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Key benefits

  • Learn the life cycle of TDD and its importance in real-world application
  • Gain knowledge about popular tools and analyze features, syntax, and how they help in JavaScript testing
  • Implement test-driven programming exercises using the practical code examples

Description

Initially, all processing used to happen on the server-side and simple output was the response to web browsers. Nowadays, there are so many JavaScript frameworks and libraries created that help readers to create charts, animations, simulations, and so on. By the time a project finishes or reaches a stable state, so much JavaScript code has already been written that changing and maintaining it further is tedious. Here comes the importance of automated testing and more specifically, developing all that code in a test-driven environment. Test-driven development is a methodology that makes testing the central part of the design process – before writing code developers decide upon the conditions that code must meet to pass a test. The end goal is to help the readers understand the importance and process of using TDD as a part of development. This book starts with the details about test-driven development, its importance, need, and benefits. Later the book introduces popular tools and frameworks like YUI, Karma, QUnit, DalekJS, JsUnit and goes on to utilize Jasmine, Mocha, Karma for advanced concepts like feature detection, server-side testing, and patterns. We are going to understand, write, and run tests, and further debug our programs. The book concludes with best practices in JavaScript testing. By the end of the book, the readers will know why they should test, how to do it most efficiently, and will have a number of versatile tests (and methods for devising new tests) to get to work immediately.

Who is this book for?

If you have an intermediate knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and want to learn how and why the test-driven development approach is better for your assignments, then this book is for you.

What you will learn

  • Basic TDD fundamentals, life cycle, and benefits
  • Become acquainted with the concepts and elements of unit testing and writing basic unit tests for JavaScript
  • Understand the way JsUnit, Qunit, Karma and DalekJs work
  • Use the Jasmine framework
  • Interpret feature detection and devise tests specific to cross-browser compatibility
  • Integrate jsTestDriver with Eclipse and run tests with jsTestDriver
  • Explore re-factoring, adding and notifying observers
  • Understand test-driven development in case of server-side JS

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Dec 18, 2015
Length: 240 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782174929
Languages :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Dec 18, 2015
Length: 240 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782174929
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Overview of TDD Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Testing Concepts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Testing Tools Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Jasmine Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. JsTestDriver Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Feature Detection Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Observer Design Pattern Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Testing with Server-Side JS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Best Practices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.7
(3 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 33.3%
Mike Ludemann Jul 17, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Alle wichtigen Information und mehr sind vorhanden.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
michael williams Nov 19, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
great little book on test driven javascriptlove it
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Andrew L Gold Feb 04, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
The single worst-written technical book I've ever read in terms of English language usage.Clearly this book was simply not edited at all to save cost on the publisher's part. I don't expect Tolstoy in a tech book, but this one is filled with badly constructed, near-unreadable sentences, circular sentences that don't actually say anything, and outright terrible grammar.If I'm paying full price for a written text instead of an online article, I expect better.The positive: what I will say is that the technical information itself is solid. If you're willing to put in the work to read through the grammar, and especially if you're already familiar with the material, you can still get something from the book.Not (even remotely) recommended.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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