Fundamentals of Testing in JavaScript

Intro to Fundamentals of Testing in JavaScript

Instructor: [0:00] Hi, there. This is our "Fundamentals of Testing in JavaScript" module. I'm super excited for you to go through this because we're going to build our own little miniature version of Jest, so you get an understanding of what that tool does and how it works from a fundamental level.

[0:15] The way that this project is structured is, we have this lessons directory that has a file for each one of the lessons, and then a math module that we'll be testing through the course of this module. I think it's really important for people to understand how their abstractions work, so they can use them effectively. I know you're going to really love this one.

Do you know what a testing framework does? Do you know what makes a testing framework different from a testing or assertion library? The best way to use a tool effectively is to understand how it works. And the best way to understand how a tool works is by making it yourself! 

In this short course, we’ll learn how testing frameworks and assertion libraries work by building our own, simple version of each.

In this lesson, we’ll get the most fundamental understanding of what an automated test is in JavaScript. A test is code that throws an error when the actual result of something does not match the expected output. 

Tests can get more complicated when you’re dealing with code that depends on some state to be set up first (like a component needs to be rendered to the document before you can fire browser events, or there needs to be users in the database). However, it is relatively easy to test **pure functions** (functions which will always return the same output for a given input and not change the state of the world around them).

Throw an Error with a Simple Test in JavaScript

Let’s add a simple layer of abstraction in our simple test to make writing tests easier. The assertion library will help our test assertions read more like a phrase you might say which will help people understand our intentions better. It will also help us avoid unnecessary duplication.

Abstract Test Assertions into a JavaScript Assertion Library

One of the limitations of the way that this test is written is that as soon as one of these assertions experiences an error, the other tests are not run. It can really help developers identify what the problem is if they can see the results of all of the tests.

Let’s create our own `test` function to allow us to encapsulate our automated tests, isolate them from other tests in the file, and ensure we run all the tests in the file with more helpful error messages.

Encapsulate and Isolate Tests by building a JavaScript Testing Framework

Our testing framework works great for our synchronous test. What if we had some asynchronous functions that we wanted to test? We could make our callback functions `async`, and then use the `await` keyword to wait for that to resolve, then we can make our assertion on the `result` and the `expected`.

Let’s make our testing framework support promises so users can use async/await.


Support Async Tests with JavaScripts Promises through async await

These testing utilities that we built are pretty useful. We want to be able to use them throughout our application in every single one of our test files.

Some testing frameworks provide their helpers as global variables. Let’s implement this functionality to make it easier to use our testing framework and assertion library. We can do this by exposing our `test` and `expect` functions on the global object available throughout the application.

Provide Testing Helper Functions as Globals in JavaScript

Up to this point we’ve created all our own utilities. As it turns out, the utilities we’ve created mirror the utilities provided by Jest perfectly! Let’s install Jest and use it to run our test!

Intro to Fundamentals of Testing in JavaScript

Transcript

Intro to Fundamentals of Testing in JavaScript