Jasmine
YET ANOTHER JavaScript testing framework
Quick Start
Ruby Suite Running
sudo gem sources -a http://gems.github.com
sudo gem install geminstaller
git clone git://github.com/pivotal/jasmine.git
cd jasmine
sudo geminstaller
cd examples/ruby
rake jasmine_server
open http://localhost:8888/
in your favorite browser.
HTML Suite Running
git clone git://github.com/pivotal/jasmine.git
open examples/test/html/example_suite.html
in your favorite browser.
Automatic Suite Running (w/ Selenium)
sudo gem sources -a http://gems.github.com
sudo gem install geminstaller
git clone git://github.com/pivotal/jasmine.git
cd jasmine
sudo geminstaller
cd examples/ruby
rake test:ci
Releases
0.10.0 [download]
git clone git://github.com/pivotal/jasmine.git
0.9.0 [download]
0.8.0 [download]
Which Release Should I Use?
Please use the latest version unless you have a good reason not to. Some of this documentation may not be applicable to older versions.
Pull Requests
We welcome your contributions! Jasmine is currently maintained by Davis Frank (infews), Rajan Agaskar (ragaskar), and Christian Williams (Xian). You can help us by removing all other recipients from your pull request.
Why Another Frickin' JS TDD/BDD Framework?
There are some situations when you want to test-drive JavaScript, but you don't want to be bothered with or even have an explicit document. You have no DOM to work with and thus lack HTML elements on which to hang event handlers. You may need to make asynchronous calls (say, to an AJAX API) and cannot mock/stub them.
But you still need to write tests.
What's an Agile Engineer to do?
Enter Jasmine
Jasmine is yet another JavaScript testing framework. It's heavily influenced by JSSpec, ScrewUnit & JSpec, which are all influenced by RSpec. But each of those was lacking in some way: JSSpec & ScrewUnit require a DOM. JSpec's DOM-less assumption was a great start, but it needed asynchronous support.
So we started over. And TDD'd a whole new framework. Enjoy.
How To
There is a nice example of how to use Jasmine in the /example directory. But here's more information.
Exciting changes are afoot and many syntax changes have been made to make Jasmine more usable. Please read the examples below for updates.
Specs
Each spec is, naturally, a JavaScript function. You tell Jasmine about this spec with a call to it()
with a string and the function. The string is a description that will be helpful to you when reading a report.
it('should be a test', function () {
var foo = 0
foo++;
});
Expectations
Within your spec you will want/need to make expectations. These are made with the expect()
funciton and expectation matchers. like this:
it('should be a test', function () {
var foo = 0
foo++;
expect(foo).toEqual(1);
});
Results of the expectations are logged for later for reporting.
Expectation Matchers
Jasmine has several built-in matchers. Here are a few:
toEqual()
compares objects or primitives and returns true if they are equal
toNotEqual()
compares objects or primitives and returns true if they are not equal
toMatch()
takes a regex or a string and returns true if it matches
toNotMatch()
takes a regex or a string and returns true if it does not match
toBeDefined()
returns true if the object or primitive is not undefined
toBeNull()
returns true if the object or primitive is not null
toBeTruthy()
returns true if the object or primitive evaluates to true
toBeFalsy()
returns true if the object or primitive evaluates to false
toContain()
returns true if an array or string contains the passed variable.
toNotContain()
returns true if an array or string does not contain the passed variable.
Writing New Matchers
A Matcher has a method name, takes an expected value as it's only parameter, has access to the actual value in this, and then makes a call to this.report with true/false with a failure message. Here's the definition of toEqual()
:
jasmine.Matchers.prototype.toEqual = function (expected) {
return this.report((this.actual === expected),
'Expected ' + expected + ' but got ' + this.actual + '.');
};
Feel free to define your own matcher as needed in your code. If you'd like to add Matchers to Jasmine, please write tests.
Asynchronous Specs
You may be thinking, "That's all well and good, but you mentioned something about asynchronous tests."
Well, say you need to make a call that is asynchronous - an AJAX API, or some other JavaScript library. That is, the call returns immediately, yet you want to make expectations 'at some point in the future' after some magic happens in the background.
Jasmine allows you to do this with runs()
and waits()
blocks.
runs()
blocks by themselves simply run as if they were called directly. The following snippets of code should provide similar results:
it('should be a test', function () {
var foo = 0
foo++;
expect(foo).toEqual(1);
});
and
it('should be a test', function () {
runs( function () {
var foo = 0
foo++;
expect(foo).toEqual(1);
});
});
multiple runs()
blocks in a spec will run serially. For example,
it('should be a test', function () {
runs( function () {
var foo = 0
foo++;
expect(foo).toEqual(1);
});
runs( function () {
var bar = 0
bar++;
expect(bar).toEqual(1);
});
});
runs()
blocks share functional scope -- this
properties will be common to all blocks, but declared var
's will not!
it('should be a test', function () {
runs( function () {
this.foo = 0
this.foo++;
var bar = 0;
bar++;
expect(this.foo).toEqual(1);
expect(bar).toEqual(1);
});
runs( function () {
this.foo++;
var bar = 0
bar++;
expect(foo).toEqual(2);
expect(bar).toEqual(1);
});
});
runs()
blocks exist so you can test asynchronous processes. The function waits()
works with runs()
to provide a naive
timeout before the next block is run. You supply a time to wait before the next runs()
function is executed. For example:
it('should be a test', function () {
runs(function () {
this.foo = 0;
var that = this;
setTimeout(function () {
that.foo++;
}, 250);
});
runs(function () {
this.expects(this.foo).toEqual(0);
});
waits(500);
runs(function () {
this.expects(this.foo).toEqual(1);
});
});
What's happening here?
- The first call to
runs()
sets call for 1/4 of a second in the future that incrementsthis.foo
. - The second
runs()
is executed immediately and then verifies thatthis.foo
was indeed initialized to zero in the previousruns()
. - Then we wait for half a second.
- Then the last call to
runs()
expects thatthis.foo
was incremented by thesetTimeout
.
Suites
Specs are grouped in Suites. Suites are defined using the global describe()
function:
describe('One suite', function () {
it('has a test', function () {
...
});
it('has another test', function () {
...
});
});
The Suite name is so that reporting is more descriptive.
Suites are executed in the order in which describe()
calls are made, usually in the order in which their script files are included. Additionally, specs within a suite share a functional scope. So you may declare variables inside a describe block and they are accessible from within your specs. For example:
describe('A suite with some variables', function () {
var bar = 0
it('has a test', function () {
bar++;
expect(bar).toEqual(1);
});
it('has another test', function () {
bar++;
expect(bar).toEqual(2);
});
});
beforeEach
A suite can have a beforeEach declaration. It takes a function that is run before each spec. For example:
describe('some suite', function () {
var suiteWideFoo;
beforeEach(function () {
suiteWideFoo = 1;
});
it('should equal bar', function () {
expect(suiteWideFoo).toEqual(1);
});
});
A runner can also have beforeEach declarations. Runner beforeEach functions are executed before every spec in all suites, and execute BEFORE suite beforeEach functions. For example:
var runnerWideFoo = [];
beforeEach(function () {
runnerWideFoo.push('runner');
});
describe('some suite', function () {
beforeEach(function () {
runnerWideFoo.push('suite');
});
it('should equal bar', function () {
expect(runnerWideFoo).toEqual(['runner', 'suite']);
});
});
afterEach
Similarly, there is an afterEach declaration. It takes a function that is run after each spec. For example:
describe('some suite', function () {
var suiteWideFoo;
afterEach(function () {
suiteWideFoo = 0;
});
it('should equal 1', function () {
expect(suiteWideFoo).toEqual(1);
});
it('should equal 0 after', function () {
expect(suiteWideFoo).toEqual(0);
};
});
A runner can also have an afterEach declarations. Runner afterEach functions are executed after every spec in all suites, and execute AFTER suite afterEach functions. For example:
var runnerWideFoo = [];
afterEach(function () {
runnerWideFoo.push('runner');
});
describe('some suite', function () {
afterEach(function () {
runnerWideFoo.push('suite');
});
it('should be empty', function () {
expect(runnerWideFoo).toEqual([]);
});
it('should be populated after', function () {
expect(runnerWideFoo).toEqual(['suite', 'runner']);
};
});
Nested Describes
Jasmine supports nested describes. An example:
describe('some suite', function () {
var suiteWideFoo;
beforeEach(function () {
suiteWideFoo = 0;
});
describe('some nested suite', function() {
var nestedSuiteBar;
beforeEach(function() {
nestedSuiteBar=1;
});
it('nested expectation', function () {
expect(suiteWideFoo).toEqual(0);
expect(nestedSuiteBar).toEqual(1);
});
});
it('top-level describe', function () {
expect(suiteWideFoo).toEqual(0);
expect(nestedSuiteBar).toEqual(undefined);
});
});
Spies
Jasmine integrates 'spies' that permit many spying, mocking, and faking behaviors.
Here are a few examples:
var Klass = function () {
};
var Klass.prototype.method = function (arg) {
return arg;
};
var Klass.prototype.methodWithCallback = function (callback) {
return callback('foo');
};
...
it('should spy on Klass#method') {
spyOn(Klass, 'method');
Klass.method('foo argument');
expect(Klass.method).wasCalledWith('foo argument');
});
it('should spy on Klass#methodWithCallback') {
var callback = Jasmine.createSpy();
Klass.method(callback);
expect(callback).wasCalledWith('foo');
});
Spies can be very useful for testing AJAX or other asynchronous behaviors that take callbacks by faking the method firing an async call.
var Klass = function () {
};
var Klass.prototype.asyncMethod = function (callback) {
someAsyncCall(callback);
};
...
it('should test async call') {
spyOn(Klass, 'asyncMethod');
var callback = Jasmine.createSpy();
Klass.asyncMethod(callback);
expect(callback).wasNotCalled();
var someResponseData = 'foo';
Klass.asyncMethod.mostRecentCall.args[0](someResponseData);
expect(callback).wasCalledWith(someResponseData);
});
There are spy-specfic matchers that are very handy.
wasCalled()
returns true if the object is a spy and was called
wasCalledWith(arguments)
returns true if the object is a spy and was called with the passed arguments
wasNotCalled()
returns true if the object is a spy and was not called
wasNotCalledWith(arguments)
returns true if the object is a spy and was not called with the passed arguments
Spies can be trained to respond in a variety of ways when invoked:
andCallThrough()
: spies on AND calls the original function spied on
andReturn(arguments)
: returns passed arguments when spy is called
andThrow(exception)
: throws passed exception when spy is called
andCallFake(function)
: calls passed function when spy is called
Spies have some useful properties:
callCount
: returns number of times spy was called
mostRecentCall.args
: returns argument array from last call to spy.
argsForCall[i]
returns arguments array for call i
to spy.
Spies are automatically removed after each spec. They may be set in the beforeEach function.
Disabling Tests & Suites
Specs may be disabled by calling xit()
instead of it()
. Suites may be disabled by calling xdescribe()
instead of describe()
. A simple find/replace in your editor of choice will allow you to run a subset of your specs.
Support
We now have a Google Group for support & discussion.
- Homepage: http://groups.google.com/group/jasmine-js
- Group email: jasmine-js@googlegroups.com
Maintainers
- Davis W. Frank, Pivotal Labs
- Rajan Agaskar, Pivotal Labs
Acknowledgments
- A big shout out to the various JavaScript test framework authors, especially TJ for JSpec - we played with it a bit before deciding that we really needed to roll our own.
- Thanks to Pivot Jessica Miller for our fancy pass/fail/pending icons
- Huge contributions have been made by Christian Williams (the master "spy" coder), Erik Hanson, Adam Abrons and Carl Jackson, and many other Pivots.