JavaScript is a dynamically typed language which comes with great power of expression, but it also come with almost no-help from the compiler. For this reason we feel very strongly that any code written in JavaScript needs to come with a strong set of tests. We have built many features into Angular which makes testing your Angular applications easy. So there is no excuse for not testing.

It is all about NOT mixing concerns

Unit testing as the name implies is about testing individual units of code. Unit tests try to answer questions such as "Did I think about the logic correctly?" or "Does the sort function order the list in the right order?"

In order to answer such question it is very important that we can isolate the unit of code under test. That is because when we are testing the sort function we don't want to be forced into creating related pieces such as the DOM elements, or making any XHR calls in getting the data to sort.

While this may seem obvious it usually is very difficult to be able to call an individual function on a typical project. The reason is that the developers often mix concerns, and they end up with a piece of code which does everything. It reads the data from XHR, it sorts it and then it manipulates the DOM.

With Angular we try to make it easy for you to do the right thing, and so we provide dependency injection for your XHR (which you can mock out) and we created abstraction which allow you to sort your model without having to resort to manipulating the DOM. So that in the end, it is easy to write a sort function which sorts some data, so that your test can create a data set, apply the function, and assert that the resulting model is in the correct order. The test does not have to wait for XHR, or create the right kind of DOM, or assert that your function has mutated the DOM in the right way.

With great power comes great responsibility

Angular is written with testability in mind, but it still requires that you do the right thing. We tried to make the right thing easy, but Angular is not magic, which means if you don't follow these guidelines you may very well end up with an untestable application.

Dependency Injection

There are several ways in which you can get a hold of a dependency: 1. You could create it using the new operator. 2. You could look for it in a well known place, also known as global singleton. 3. You could ask a registry (also known as service registry) for it. (But how do you get a hold of the registry? Most likely by looking it up in a well known place. See #2) 4. You could expect that it be handed to you.

Out of the four options in the list above, only the last one is testable. Let's look at why:

Using the `new` operator

While there is nothing wrong with the new operator fundamentally the issue is that calling a new on a constructor permanently binds the call site to the type. For example lets say that we are trying to instantiate an XHR so that we can get some data from the server.

function MyClass() {
  this.doWork = function() {
    var xhr = new XHR();
    xhr.open(method, url, true);
    xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {...}
    xhr.send();
  }
}

The issue becomes that in tests, we would very much like to instantiate a MockXHR which would allow us to return fake data and simulate network failures. By calling new XHR() we are permanently bound to the actual XHR, and there is no good way to replace it. Yes there is monkey patching. That is a bad idea for many reasons which are outside the scope of this document.

The class above is hard to test since we have to resort to monkey patching:

var oldXHR = XHR;
XHR = function MockXHR() {};
var myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.doWork();
// assert that MockXHR got called with the right arguments
XHR = oldXHR; // if you forget this bad things will happen

Global look-up:

Another way to approach the problem is to look for the service in a well known location.

function MyClass() {
  this.doWork = function() {
    global.xhr({
      method:'...',
      url:'...',
      complete:function(response){ ... }
    })
  }
}

While no new instance of the dependency is being created, it is fundamentally the same as new, in that there is no good way to intercept the call to global.xhr for testing purposes, other then through monkey patching. The basic issue for testing is that global variable needs to be mutated in order to replace it with call to a mock method. For further explanation why this is bad see: Brittle Global State & Singletons

The class above is hard to test since we have to change global state:

var oldXHR = global.xhr;
global.xhr = function mockXHR() {};
var myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.doWork();
// assert that mockXHR got called with the right arguments
global.xhr = oldXHR; // if you forget this bad things will happen

Service Registry:

It may seem as that this can be solved by having a registry for all of the services, and then having the tests replace the services as needed.

function MyClass() {
  var serviceRegistry = ????;
  this.doWork = function() {
    var xhr = serviceRegistry.get('xhr');
    xhr({
      method:'...',
      url:'...',
      complete:function(response){ ... }
    })
}

However, where does the serviceRegistry come from? if it is: * new-ed up, the the test has no chance to reset the services for testing * global look-up, then the service returned is global as well (but resetting is easier, since there is only one global variable to be reset).

The class above is hard to test since we have to change global state:

var oldServiceLocator = global.serviceLocator;
global.serviceLocator.set('xhr', function mockXHR() {});
var myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.doWork();
// assert that mockXHR got called with the right arguments
global.serviceLocator = oldServiceLocator; // if you forget this bad things will happen

Passing in Dependencies:

Lastly the dependency can be passed in.

function MyClass(xhr) {
  this.doWork = function() {
    xhr({
      method:'...',
      url:'...',
      complete:function(response){ ... }
    })
}

This is the preferred way since the code makes no assumptions as to where the xhr comes from, rather that whoever created the class was responsible for passing it in. Since the creator of the class should be different code than the user of the class, it separates the responsibility of creation from the logic, and that is what dependency-injection is in a nutshell.

The class above is very testable, since in the test we can write:

function xhrMock(args) {...}
var myClass = new MyClass(xhrMock);
myClass.doWork();
// assert that xhrMock got called with the right arguments

Notice that no global variables were harmed in the writing of this test.

Angular comes with dependency injection built in which makes the right thing easy to do, but you still need to do it if you wish to take advantage of the testability story.

Controllers

What makes each application unique is its logic, which is what we would like to test. If the logic for your application is mixed in with DOM manipulation, it will be hard to test as in the example below:

function PasswordCtrl() {
  // get references to DOM elements
  var msg = $('.ex1 span');
  var input = $('.ex1 input');
  var strength;

  this.grade = function() {
    msg.removeClass(strength);
    var pwd = input.val();
    password.text(pwd);
    if (pwd.length > 8) {
      strength = 'strong';
    } else if (pwd.length > 3) {
      strength = 'medium';
    } else {
      strength = 'weak';
    }
    msg
     .addClass(strength)
     .text(strength);
  }
}

The code above is problematic from a testability point of view, since it requires your test to have the right kind of DOM present when the code executes. The test would look like this:

var input = $('<input type="text"/>');
var span = $('<span>');
$('body').html('<div class="ex1">')
  .find('div')
    .append(input)
    .append(span);
var pc = new PasswordCtrl();
input.val('abc');
pc.grade();
expect(span.text()).toEqual('weak');
$('body').html('');

In angular the controllers are strictly separated from the DOM manipulation logic which results in a much easier testability story as can be seen in this example:

function PasswordCtrl($scope) {
  $scope.password = '';
  $scope.grade = function() {
    var size = $scope.password.length;
    if (size > 8) {
      $scope.strength = 'strong';
    } else if (size > 3) {
      $scope.strength = 'medium';
    } else {
      $scope.strength = 'weak';
    }
  };
}

and the test is straight forward

var pc = new PasswordCtrl();
pc.password('abc');
pc.grade();
expect(pc.strength).toEqual('weak');

Notice that the test is not only much shorter but it is easier to follow what is going on. We say that such a test tells a story, rather then asserting random bits which don't seem to be related.

Filters

Filters are functions which transform the data into user readable format. They are important because they remove the formatting responsibility from the application logic, further simplifying the application logic.

myModule.filter('length', function() {
  return function(text){
    return (''+(text||'')).length;
  }
});

var length = $filter('length');
expect(length(null)).toEqual(0);
expect(length('abc')).toEqual(3);

Directives

Directives in angular are responsible for updating the DOM when the state of the model changes.

It is all about NOT mixing concerns

With great power comes great responsibility

Dependency Injection

Using the `new` operator

Global look-up:

Service Registry:

Passing in Dependencies:

Controllers

Filters

Directives

Mocks

Global State Isolation

Preferred way of Testing

JavaScriptTestDriver

Jasmine

Sample project

It is all about NOT mixing concerns

With great power comes great responsibility

Dependency Injection

Using the new operator

Global look-up:

Service Registry:

Passing in Dependencies:

Controllers

Filters

Directives

Mocks

Global State Isolation

Preferred way of Testing

JavaScriptTestDriver

Jasmine

Sample project

Using the `new` operator