Test Automation Libraries used With Node.js

Introduction

If you're like me, you've probably heard that automated testing is a good idea. But if you're like me again, the idea of setting up an entire test suite just to run a few tests on your app might seem like overkill. Let's be honest: We all know what it's like to prioritize urgent tasks over long-term projects, even though we know they'll pay off in the end. That's why I'm excited about NodeJS! It allows us to get up and running with automated testing quickly by using our existing APIs.

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code server-side. Node is used to build web applications, real-time APIs, microservices and more. Automating your tests in Node allows you to run thousands of tests in parallel by utilizing the power of multi-threaded processes. Below are three very popular tools used for testing in Nodejs.

Mocha

Mocha is a JavaScript test framework. It does not depend on any other testing framework and can be used in all situations where you need to do synchronous assertions. Mocha uses the describe and it syntax that allows you to describe the behaviour of a unit/integration test, and then execute these tests on your code.

Here's a blog on how to implement a mocha test.

Chai

Chai is a BDD/TDD assertion library for node.js and the browser that can be delightfully paired with any javascript testing framework.

Chai has a simple and intuitive syntax, supports both QUnit and Mocha test frameworks, has a rich ecosystem of plugins that add many useful features, and makes it easy to write expressive tests in JavaScript.

ChaiHTTP

ChaiHTTP is a testing library for Node.js that allows you to make HTTP requests and assert the response in your tests. It is built on top of the Chai assertion library and is designed to be used with a variety of test runners, such as Mocha, Jest, and Cucumber.

Nock

Nock is a testing library for Node.js that allows you to intercept and mock HTTP requests in your tests. It is designed to be used with a variety of test runners, such as Mocha, Jest, and Cucumber

Supertest

Supertest is a testing library for node.js and the browser, based on the popular request-promise library. It allows you to test http requests in node.js and the browser, supports both promises and callbacks, has a small API surface, is easy to understand and adopt.

Cypress

Cypress is a popular end-to-end testing framework that is built on top of Mocha, a popular JavaScript testing framework. It is an end-to-end testing tool that allows developers to write and run tests for web applications. It is also JavaScript-based tool that runs on the browser and can test both the front-end and back-end of an application.

Conclusion

We've discussed how to use nodejs for testing and some of the most popular libraries that you can use. We can conclude that there are many ways to test your code, but it is important to choose the right tool for your needs.