Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 2, Services

This is the second installment of the series on testing in Angular using Jasmine. In the first part of the tutorial, we wrote basic unit tests for the Pastebin class and the Pastebin component. The tests, which initially failed, were made green later. 

Overview

Here is an overview of what we will be working on in the second part of the tutorial.

In this tutorial, we will be:

• creating new components and writing more unit tests
• writing tests for the component’s UI
• writing unit tests for the Pastebin service
• testing a component with inputs and outputs
• testing a component with routes

Let’s get started!

Adding a Paste (continued)

We were halfway through the process of writing unit tests for the AddPaste component. Here’s where we left off in part one of the series. 

  it('should display the `create Paste` button', () => {
     //There should a create button in view
      expect(element.innerText).toContain("create Paste");
  });

  it('should not display the modal unless the button is clicked', () => {
      //source-model is an id for the modal. It shouldn't show up unless create button is clicked
      expect(element.innerHTML).not.toContain("source-modal");
  })

  it('should display the modal when `create Paste` is clicked', () => {

      let createPasteButton = fixture.debugElement.query(By.css("button"));
      //triggerEventHandler simulates a click event on the button object
      createPasteButton.triggerEventHandler('click',null);
      fixture.detectChanges();
      expect(element.innerHTML).toContain("source-modal");
     
  })

})

As previously mentioned, we won’t be writing rigorous UI tests. Instead, we will write some basic tests for the UI and look for ways to test the component’s logic. 

The click action is triggered using the DebugElement.triggerEventHandler() method, which is a part of the Angular testing utilities. 

The AddPaste component is essentially about creating new pastes; hence, the component’s template should have a button to create a new paste. Clicking the button should spawn a ‘modal window’ with an id ‘source-modal’ which should stay hidden otherwise. The modal window will be designed using Bootstrap; therefore, you might find lots of CSS classes inside the template.

The template for the add-paste component should look something like this:

     create Paste 
  

    

      

        

        

         

     
    
  

The second and third tests do not give any information about the implementation details of the component. Here’s the revised version of add-paste.component.spec.ts.

 it('should not display the modal unless the button is clicked', () => {
   
   //source-model is an id for the modal. It shouldn't show up unless create button is clicked
    expect(element.innerHTML).not.toContain("source-modal");

   //Component's showModal property should be false at the moment
    expect(component.showModal).toBeFalsy("Show modal should be initially false");
 })

 it('should display the modal when `create Paste` is clicked',() => {
   
    let createPasteButton = fixture.debugElement.query(By.css("button"));
    //create a spy on the createPaste  method
    spyOn(component,"createPaste").and.callThrough();
    
    //triggerEventHandler simulates a click event on the button object
    createPasteButton.triggerEventHandler('click',null);
    
    //spy checks whether the method was called
    expect(component.createPaste).toHaveBeenCalled();
    fixture.detectChanges();
    expect(component.showModal).toBeTruthy("showModal should now be true");
    expect(element.innerHTML).toContain("source-modal");
 })

The revised tests are more explicit in that they perfectly describe the component’s logic. Here’s the AddPaste component and its template.

   create Paste 
  

    

      

        

        

         

     
    
  

/* add-paste.component.ts */

export class AddPasteComponent implements OnInit {

  showModal: boolean = false;
  // Languages imported from Pastebin class
  languages: string[] = Languages;
  
  constructor() { }
  ngOnInit() { }
  
  //createPaste() gets invoked from the template. 
  public createPaste():void {
  	this.showModal = true;
  }
}

The tests should still fail because the spy on addPaste fails to find such a method in the PastebinService. Let’s go back to the PastebinService and put some flesh on it. 

Writing Tests for Services

Before we proceed with writing more tests, let’s add some code to the Pastebin service. 

public addPaste(pastebin: Pastebin): Promise {
    return this.http.post(this.pastebinUrl, JSON.stringify(pastebin), {headers: this.headers})
	   .toPromise()
 	   .then(response =>response.json().data)
 	   .catch(this.handleError);
}

addPaste() is the service’s method for creating new pastes.  http.post returns an observable, which is converted into a promise using the toPromise() method. The response is transformed into JSON format, and any runtime exceptions are caught and reported by handleError().

Shouldn’t we write tests for services, you might ask? And my answer is a definite yes. Services, which get injected into Angular components via Dependency Injection(DI), are also prone to errors. Moreover, tests for Angular services are relatively easy. The methods in PastebinService ought to resemble the four CRUD operations, with an additional method to handle errors. The methods are as follows:

• handleError()
• getPastebin()
• addPaste()
• updatePaste()
• deletePaste()

We’ve implemented the first three methods in the list. Let’s try writing tests for them. Here’s the describe block.

import { TestBed, inject } from '@angular/core/testing';
import { Pastebin, Languages } from './pastebin';
import { PastebinService } from './pastebin.service';
import { AppModule } from './app.module';
import { HttpModule } from '@angular/http';

let testService: PastebinService;
let mockPaste: Pastebin;
let responsePropertyNames, expectedPropertyNames;

describe('PastebinService', () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
   TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      providers: [PastebinService],
      imports: [HttpModule]
    });
    
    //Get the injected service into our tests
    testService= TestBed.get(PastebinService);
    mockPaste = { id:999, title: "Hello world", language: Languages[2], paste: "console.log('Hello world');"};

  });
});

We’ve used TestBed.get(PastebinService) to inject the real service into our tests. 

  it('#getPastebin should return an array with Pastebin objects',async() => {
     
    testService.getPastebin().then(value => {
      //Checking the property names of the returned object and the mockPaste object
      responsePropertyNames = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(value[0]);
      expectedPropertyNames = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(mockPaste);
     
      expect(responsePropertyNames).toEqual(expectedPropertyNames);
      
    });
  });

getPastebin returns an array of Pastebin objects. TypeScript’s compile-time type checking can’t be used to verify that the value returned is indeed an array of Pastebin objects. Hence, we’ve used Object.getOwnPropertNames() to ensure that both the objects have the same property names.

The second test follows:

  it('#addPaste should return async paste', async() => {
    testService.addPaste(mockPaste).then(value => {
      expect(value).toEqual(mockPaste);
    })
  })

Both the tests should pass. Here are the remaining tests.

  it('#updatePaste should update', async() => {
    //Updating the title of Paste with id 1
    mockPaste.id = 1;
    mockPaste.title = "New title"
    testService.updatePaste(mockPaste).then(value => {
      expect(value).toEqual(mockPaste);
    })
  })

  it('#deletePaste should return null', async() => {
    testService.deletePaste(mockPaste).then(value => {
      expect(value).toEqual(null);
    })
  })

Revise pastebin.service.ts with the code for the updatePaste() and deletePaste() methods.

//update a paste
public updatePaste(pastebin: Pastebin):Promise {
	const url = `${this.pastebinUrl}/${pastebin.id}`;
	return this.http.put(url, JSON.stringify(pastebin), {headers: this.headers})
		.toPromise()
		.then(() => pastebin)
		.catch(this.handleError);
}
//delete a paste
public deletePaste(pastebin: Pastebin): Promise {
	const url = `${this.pastebinUrl}/${pastebin.id}`;
	return this.http.delete(url, {headers: this.headers})
		.toPromise()
		.then(() => null )
		.catch(this.handleError);
}

Back to Components

The remaining requirements for the AddPaste component are as follows:

• Pressing the Save button should invoke the Pastebin service’s addPaste() method.
• If the addPaste operation is successful, the component should emit an event to notify the parent component.
• Clicking the Close button should remove the id ‘source-modal’ from the DOM and update the showModal property to false.

Since the above test cases are concerned with the modal window, it might be a good idea to use nested describe blocks.

describe('AddPasteComponent', () => {
  .
  .
  .
  describe("AddPaste Modal", () => {
  
    let inputTitle: HTMLInputElement;
    let selectLanguage: HTMLSelectElement;
    let textAreaPaste: HTMLTextAreaElement;
    let mockPaste: Pastebin;
    let spyOnAdd: jasmine.Spy;
    let pastebinService: PastebinService;
    
    beforeEach(() => {
      
      component.showModal = true;
      fixture.detectChanges();

      mockPaste = { id:1, title: "Hello world", language: Languages[2], paste: "console.log('Hello world');"};
      //Create a jasmine spy to spy on the addPaste method
      spyOnAdd = spyOn(pastebinService,"addPaste").and.returnValue(Promise.resolve(mockPaste));
      
    });
  
  });
});

Declaring all the variables at the root of the describe block is a good practice for two reasons. The variables will be accessible inside the describe block in which they were declared, and it makes the test more readable. 

  it("should accept input values", () => {
      //Query the input selectors
      inputTitle = element.querySelector("input");
      selectLanguage = element.querySelector("select");
      textAreaPaste = element.querySelector("textarea");
      
      //Set their value
      inputTitle.value = mockPaste.title;
      selectLanguage.value = mockPaste.language;
      textAreaPaste.value = mockPaste.paste;
      
      //Dispatch an event
      inputTitle.dispatchEvent(new Event("input"));
      selectLanguage.dispatchEvent(new Event("change"));
      textAreaPaste.dispatchEvent(new Event("input"));

      expect(mockPaste.title).toEqual(component.newPaste.title);
      expect(mockPaste.language).toEqual(component.newPaste.language);
      expect(mockPaste.paste).toEqual(component.newPaste.paste);
    });

The above test uses the querySelector() method to assign inputTitle, SelectLanguage and textAreaPaste their respective HTML elements (, , and </code>). Next, the values of these elements are replaced by the <code class="inline">mockPaste</code>‘s property values. This is equivalent to a user filling out the form via a browser. </p> <p><code class="inline">element.dispatchEvent(new Event("input"))</code> triggers a new input event to let the template know that the values of the input field have changed. The test expects that the input values should get propagated into the component’s <code class="inline">newPaste</code> property.</p> <p>Declare the <code class="inline">newPaste</code> property as follows:</p> <pre class="brush: javascript noskimlinks noskimwords"> newPaste: Pastebin = new Pastebin();</pre> <p>And update the template with the following code:</p> <pre class="brush: html noskimlinks noskimwords"><!--- add-paste.component.html --> <div class="add-paste"> <button type="button" (click)="createPaste()"> create Paste </button> <div *ngIf="showModal" id="source-modal" class="modal fade in"> <div class="modal-dialog" > <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header"> <h4 class="modal-title"> <input placeholder="Enter the Title" name="title" [(ngModel)] = "newPaste.title" /> </h4> </div> <div class="modal-body"> <h5> <select name="category" [(ngModel)]="newPaste.language" > <option *ngFor ="let language of languages" value={{language}}> {{language}} </option> </select> </h5> <textarea name="paste" placeholder="Enter the code here" [(ngModel)] = "newPaste.paste">

Close Save

The extra divs and classes are for the Bootstrap’s modal window. [(ngModel)] is an Angular directive that implements two-way data binding. (click) = "onClose()" and (click) = "onSave()" are examples of event binding techniques used to bind the click event to a method in the component. You can read more about different data binding techniques in Angular’s official Template Syntax Guide. 

If you encounter a Template Parse Error, that’s because you haven’t imported the FormsModule into the AppComponent. 

Let’s add more specs to our test.

 it("should submit the values", async() => {   
   component.newPaste = mockPaste;
   component.onSave();
    fixture.detectChanges();
    fixture.whenStable().then( () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();
        expect(spyOnAdd.calls.any()).toBeTruthy();
    });

 });
 
 it("should have a onClose method", () => {
    component.onClose();
    fixture.detectChanges();
    expect(component.showModal).toBeFalsy();
  })

component.onSave() is analogous to calling triggerEventHandler() on the Save button element. Since we have added the UI for the button already, calling component.save() sounds more meaningful. The expect statement checks whether any calls were made to the spy. Here’s the final version of the AddPaste component.

import { Component, OnInit, Input, Output, EventEmitter } from '@angular/core';
import { Pastebin, Languages } from '../pastebin';
import { PastebinService } from '../pastebin.service';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-add-paste',
  templateUrl: './add-paste.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./add-paste.component.css']
})
export class AddPasteComponent implements OnInit {

  @Output() addPasteSuccess: EventEmitter = new EventEmitter();
  showModal: boolean = false;
  newPaste: Pastebin = new Pastebin();
  languages: string[] = Languages;

  constructor(private pasteServ: PastebinService) { }

  ngOnInit() {  }
  //createPaste() gets invoked from the template. This shows the Modal
  public createPaste():void {
    this.showModal = true;
    
  }
  //onSave() pushes the newPaste property into the server
  public onSave():void {
    this.pasteServ.addPaste(this.newPaste).then( () => {
      console.log(this.newPaste);
        this.addPasteSuccess.emit(this.newPaste);
        this.onClose();
    });
  }
  //Used to close the Modal
  public onClose():void {
    this.showModal=false;
  }
}

If the onSave operation is successful, the component should emit an event signaling the parent component (Pastebin component) to update its view. addPasteSuccess, which is an event property decorated with a @Output decorator, serves this purpose. 

Testing a component that emits an output event is easy. 

 describe("AddPaste Modal", () => {
   
    beforeEach(() => {
    .
    .
   //Subscribe to the event emitter first
   //If the emitter emits something, responsePaste will be set
   component.addPasteSuccess.subscribe((response: Pastebin) => {responsePaste = response},)
      
    });
    
    it("should accept input values", async(() => {
    .
    .
      component.onSave();
      fixture.detectChanges();
      fixture.whenStable().then( () => {
        fixture.detectChanges();
        expect(spyOnAdd.calls.any()).toBeTruthy();
        expect(responsePaste.title).toEqual(mockPaste.title);
      });
    }));
  
  });

The test subscribes to the addPasteSuccess property just as the parent component would do. The expectation towards the end verifies this. Our work on the AddPaste component is done. 

Uncomment this line in pastebin.component.html:

And update pastebin.component.ts with the below code.

 //This will be invoked when the child emits addPasteSuccess event
 public onAddPaste(newPaste: Pastebin) {
    this.pastebin.push(newPaste);
  }

If you run into an error, it’s because you haven’t declared the AddPaste component in Pastebin component’s spec file. Wouldn’t it be great if we could declare everything that our tests require in a single place and import that into our tests? To make this happen, we could either import the AppModule into our tests or create a new Module for our tests instead. Create a new file and name it app-testing-module.ts:

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';

//Components
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { PastebinComponent } from './pastebin/pastebin.component';
import { AddPasteComponent } from './add-paste/add-paste.component';
//Service for Pastebin

import { PastebinService } from "./pastebin.service";

//Modules used in this tutorial
import { HttpModule }    from '@angular/http';
import { FormsModule } from '@angular/forms';

//In memory Web api to simulate an http server
import { InMemoryWebApiModule } from 'angular-in-memory-web-api';
import { InMemoryDataService }  from './in-memory-data.service';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,
    PastebinComponent,
    AddPasteComponent,
  ],
  
  imports: [
    BrowserModule, 
    HttpModule,
    FormsModule,
    InMemoryWebApiModule.forRoot(InMemoryDataService),
  ],
  providers: [PastebinService],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppTestingModule { }

Now you can replace:

 beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      declarations: [ AddPasteComponent ],
      imports: [ HttpModule, FormsModule ],
      providers: [ PastebinService ],
    })
    .compileComponents();
}));

with:

beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      imports: [AppTestingModule]
    })
    .compileComponents();
  }));

The metadata that define providers and declarations  have disappeared and instead, the AppTestingModule gets imported. That’s neat!  TestBed.configureTestingModule() looks sleeker than before. 

View, Edit, and Delete Paste

The ViewPaste component handles the logic for viewing, editing, and deleting a paste. The design of this component is similar to what we did with the AddPaste component. 

The objectives of the ViewPaste component are listed below:

• The component’s template should have a button called View Paste.
• Clicking the View Paste button should display a modal window with id ‘source-modal’. 
• The paste data should propagate from the parent component to the child component and should be displayed inside the modal window.
• Pressing the edit button should set component.editEnabled to true (editEnabled is  used to toggle between edit mode and view mode)
• Clicking the Save button should invoke the Pastebin service’s updatePaste() method.
• A click on the Delete button should invoke the Pastebin service’s deletePaste() method.
• Successful update and delete operations should emit an event to notify the parent component of any changes in the child component. 

Let’s get started! The first two specs are identical to the tests that we wrote for the AddPaste component earlier. 

 it('should show a button with text View Paste', ()=> {
    expect(element.textContent).toContain("View Paste");
  });

  it('should not display the modal until the button is clicked', () => {
      expect(element.textContent).not.toContain("source-modal");
  });

Similar to what we did earlier, we will create a new describe block and place the rest of the specs inside it. Nesting describe blocks this way makes the spec file more readable and the existence of a describe function more meaningful.  

The nested describe block will have a beforeEach() function where we will initialize two spies, one for the updatePaste() method and the other for the deletePaste() method. Don’t forget to create a mockPaste object since our tests rely on it. 

beforeEach(()=> {
      //Set showPasteModal to true to ensure that the modal is visible in further tests
      component.showPasteModal = true;
      mockPaste = {id:1, title:"New paste", language:Languages[2], paste: "console.log()"};
      
      //Inject PastebinService
      pastebinService = fixture.debugElement.injector.get(PastebinService);
      
      //Create spies for deletePaste and updatePaste methods
      spyOnDelete = spyOn(pastebinService,'deletePaste').and.returnValue(Promise.resolve(true));
      spyOnUpdate = spyOn(pastebinService, 'updatePaste').and.returnValue(Promise.resolve(mockPaste));
     
      //component.paste is an input property 
      component.paste = mockPaste;
      fixture.detectChanges();
     
    })

Here are the tests.

 it('should display the modal when the view Paste button is clicked',() => {
    
    fixture.detectChanges();
    expect(component.showPasteModal).toBeTruthy("Show should be true");
    expect(element.innerHTML).toContain("source-modal");
})

it('should display title, language and paste', () => {
    expect(element.textContent).toContain(mockPaste.title, "it should contain title");
    expect(element.textContent).toContain(mockPaste.language, "it should contain the language");
    expect(element.textContent).toContain(mockPaste.paste, "it should contain the paste");
});

The test assumes that the component has a paste property that accepts input from the parent component. Earlier, we saw an example of how events emitted from the child component can be tested without having to include the host component’s logic into our tests. Similarly, for testing the input properties, it’s easier to do so by setting the property to a mock object and expecting the mock object’s values to show up in the HTML code.

The modal window will have lots of buttons, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to write a spec to guarantee that the buttons are available in the template. 

it('should have all the buttons',() => {
      expect(element.innerHTML).toContain('Edit Paste');
      expect(element.innerHTML).toContain('Delete');
      expect(element.innerHTML).toContain('Close');
});

Let’s fix up the failing tests before taking up more complex tests.

     View Paste 
  

    

      

        

          ×
          
{{paste.title}} 
        
        

      	  
 {{paste.language}} 
     	
      	  
{{paste.paste}}


          Close

          Edit Paste

            Delete Paste 
        




/* view-paste.component.ts */

export class ViewPasteComponent implements OnInit {

  @Input() paste: Pastebin;
  @Output() updatePasteSuccess: EventEmitter = new EventEmitter();
  @Output() deletePasteSuccess: EventEmitter = new EventEmitter();

  showPasteModal:boolean ;
  readonly languages = Languages;
  
  constructor(private pasteServ: PastebinService) { }

  ngOnInit() {
      this.showPasteModal = false;
  }
  //To make the modal window visible
  public showPaste() {
  	this.showPasteModal = true;
  }
  //Invoked when edit button is clicked
  public onEdit() { }
  
  //invoked when save button is clicked
  public onSave() { }
  
  //invoked when close button is clicked
  public onClose() {
  	this.showPasteModal = false;
  }
  
  //invoked when Delete button is clicked
  public onDelete() { }
  
}

Being able to view the paste is not enough. The component is also responsible for editing, updating, and deleting a paste. The component should have an editEnabled property, which will be set to true when the user clicks on the Edit paste button. 
it('and clicking it should make the paste editable', () => {

    component.onEdit();
    fixture.detectChanges();
    expect(component.editEnabled).toBeTruthy();
    //Now it should have a save button
    expect(element.innerHTML).toContain('Save');
      
});
Add editEnabled=true; to the onEdit() method to clear the first expect statement. 
The template below uses the ngIf directive to toggle between view mode and edit mode.  is a logical container that is used to group multiple elements or nodes.
  


    

      

        
        
        
          

            ×
            
 {{paste.title}} 
          
          

              
 {{paste.language}} 
      		  
{{paste.paste}}
            


            Close

            Edit Paste

             Delete Paste 

        

        

        

             ×