node-async-testing

A simple test runner for testing asynchronous code

Goals of the project:

• Tests should just be functions. Simple and intuitive.
• You shouldn't have to learn new assertion functions. Use the assertion module that comes with Node. If you are familiar with it you won't have any problems.
• Test files should be executable by Node. No preprocessors or eval. If your test file is called "my_test_file.js" then "node my_test_file.js" should run the tests.
• Node is asynchronous, so testing should be too.
• Not another Behavior Driven Development testing framework. I don't like specifications and what not. They only add verbosity.
• Make no assumptions about the code being tested. You should be able to test any code, and all aspects of it.
• Be able to run tests in parallel or serially. Running tests in parallel is much quicker, but makes it harder to deal with errors.

Feedback/suggestions encouraged!

Example

test-suite.js:

exports['asynchronous test'] = function(test) {
  setTimeout(function() {
    test.ok(true);
    test.finish();
  },500);
};

exports['synchronous test'] = function(test) {
  test.ok(true);
  test.finish();
};

exports['test assertions expected'] = function(test) {
  test.numAssertions = 1;

  test.ok(true);
  test.finish();
}

exports['test catch async error'] = function(test) {
  var e = new Error();

  test.uncaughtExceptionHandler = function(err) {
    test.equal(e, err);
    test.finish();
  }

  setTimeout(function() {
      throw e;
    }, 500);
};

// if this module is the script being run, then run the tests:
if (module == require.main) {
  require('async_testing').run(__filename, process.argv);
}

The above file can be run on the command line with:

node test-suite.js

Installing

node-async-testing can be installed using npm

npm install async_testing

Detailed Overview

The hard part of writing a test suite for asynchronous code is that when a test fails, you don't know which test it was that failed. Errors won't get caught by try/catch statements.

node-async-testing addresses that by

1. Giving each test its own unique assert object. This way you know which assertions correspond to which tests.
2. Running (by default) the tests one at a time. This way it is possible to add a global exceptionHandler to the process and catch the errors whenever they happen.
3. Requiring you to tell the test runner when the test is finished. This way you don't have any doubt as to whether or not an asynchronous test still has code to run.
4. Allowing you to declare how many assertions should take place in a test. This way you can ensure that your callbacks aren't being called too many or too few times.

node-async-testing tests are just a functions:

function asynchronousTest(test) {
  setTimeout(function() {
    // make an assertion (these are just regular Node assertions)
    test.ok(true);
    // finish the test
    test.finish();
  });
}

As you can see, these test functions receive a test object, which is where all the action takes place. You make your assertions using this object (test.ok(), test.deepEquals(), etc) and use it to finish the test (test.finish()). Basically, all the actions that are directly related to a test use this object.

node-async-testing makes no assumptions about tests, so even if your test is not asynchronous you still have to finish it:

function synchronousTest(test) {
  test.ok(true);
  test.finish();
};

node-async-testing is written for running suites of tests, not individual tests. A test suite is just an object with test functions:

var suite = {
  asynchronousTest: function(test) {
    setTimeout(function() {
      test.ok(true);
      test.finish();
    });
  },
  synchronousTest: function(test) {
    test.ok(true);
    test.finish();
  }
}

node-async-testing lets you be explicit about the number of assertions run in a given test: set numAssertions on the test object. This can be very helpful in asynchronous tests where you want to be sure all callbacks get fired:

suite['test assertions expected'] = function(test) {
  test.numAssertions = 1;

  test.ok(true);
  test.finish();
}

node-async-testing lets you deal with uncaught errors. If you expect an error to be thrown asynchronously in your code somewhere (this is not good practice, but sometimes when using other people's code you have no choice. Or maybe it is what you want to happen, who am I to judge?), you can set an uncaughtExceptionHandler on the test object:

suite['test catch async error'] = function(test) {
  var e = new Error();

  test.uncaughtExceptionHandler = function(err) {
    test.equal(e, err);
    test.finish();
  }

  setTimeout(function() {
      throw e;
    }, 500);
};

node-async-testing doesn't have an explicit way for writing setup or teardown functions, but because all tests are just functions, doing setup or teardown is as simple as writing a wrapper function which takes a test and returns a new test:

function setup(testFunc) {
  return function newTestFunc(test) {
    // run set up code here...
    var extra1 = 1
    var extra2 = 2;

    // pass the variables we just created to the original test function
    testFunc(test, extra1, extra2);
  }
}

suite['wrapped test'] = setup(function(test, one, two) {
  test.equal(1, one);
  test.equal(2, two);
  test.finish();
});

node-async-testing comes with a convenience function for wrapping all tests in a suite with a setup/teardown function:

require('async_testing').wrapTests(suite, setup);

See test/test-wrap_tests.js for more detailed examples of wrapping in action. Or for that matter, check out any of the files in the test directory to see all that node-async-testing has to offer.

Running Test Suites

node-async-testing assumes you are going to have a one to one mapping between suites and files. So, to run a test suite, you actually tell it to run the file:

require('async_testing').run('test-suite.js');

The run method can take a file name or a directory name (it recursively searches directories for javascript files that start with test-) or an array of any combination of those two options.

In order for node-async-testing to be able to run a file, the exports object of the module needs to be the test suite:

// create suite:
exports['first test'] = function(test) { ... };
exports['second test'] = function(test) { ... };
exports['third test'] = function(test) { ... };

We want to be able to run suites via the node command. Here's how to make a script executable by Node. Some where in the file put this code:

// if this module is the script being run, then run the tests:
if (module === require.main) {
  require('async_testing').run(__filename);
}

That suite can now be run by executing the following on the command line (if it were in a file called test-suite.js):

node test-suite.js

Additionally, the run method can be passed the process.argv array of command line arguments, so node-async-testing settings can be altered at run time:

exports['first test'] = function(test) { ... };
exports['second test'] = function(test) { ... };
exports['third test'] = function(test) { ... };

if (module === require.main) {
  require('async_testing').run(__filename, process.argv);
}

Now, you could tell node-async-testing to run the tests in parallel:

node test-suite.js --parallel

Or to only run some specific tests:

node test-suite.js --test-name "first test" --test-name "third test"

Use the help flag to see all the options:

node test-suite.js --help

node-async-testing also comes with a command line script that will run all test files in a specified directory. To use the script, make sure node-async-testing has been installed properly and then run:

node-async-test tests-directory

Or you could give it a specific file to run:

node-async-test tests-directory/test-suite.js

It takes the same arguments as can be used on an individual file above. Check out node-async-test --help for the complete list of options.

The advantage of using the node-async-test command is that its exit status will output the number of failed tests. This way you can write shell scripts that do different things depending on whether or not the suite was successful.

If you want to organize your tests in a different manner and not have them organized by file you are going to have to write your own test runner. See runSuite() in lib/async_testing.js for more details.

Web Test Runner

node-async-testing comes with a "web" test runner. This runner launches a web server which can be used to run suites manually. Launch it with the --web flag:

node test/test-suite.js --web

Or

node-async-test --web tests-directory

Once the server is started you can pick and choose which suites to run, and run them as many times as you like. node-async-testing reloads the suites (and any code they use) from scratch each time they are run so you can leave the web server running and switch back and forth between editing tests or code and running the tests. Very handy!

To use the web runner you also need to Socket.IO and node-webworker:

npm install socket.io webworker

[The server is known to work in the lastest versions of Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Any help in getting it to work in Opera would be much appreciated. I don't have means of testing in IE.]

Custom Assertion Functions

It is possible to write your own assertion functions that are fully supported by node-async-testing. You can't just use any assert function at any time because node-async-testing needs to know which assertions go with which tests. As such each test is given its own unique wrapped assertion methods. To add your own assertion function use the registerAssertion() method.

var async_testing = require('async_testing');
async_testing.registerAssertion('assertionName', function() { ... });

exports['test assert'] = function(test) {
  test.assertionName();
  test.finish();
}

See test/test-custom_assertions.js for a working example.

Custom Reporting

It is possible to write your own test runners. See node-async-test, lib/console-runner.js or lib/web-runner.js for examples, or API.markdown for a description of the different events and what arguments they receive.

This feature is directly inspired by Caolan McMahon's nodeunit. Which is an awesome library.