How to test an AngularJS/SocketStream/Node.js app using Karma

Question

I am working on an AngularJS application that is delivered by a SocketStream/node.js server. I have an AngularJS service that calls api functions on the SocketStream server and progress has been good so far.

But now the time has come to start writing the first tests and the first testing framework that came to mind is Karma/Jasmine, since this is the recommend AngularJS set up.

So far so good, but since my AngularJS modules are imported using 'require' (SocketStream's version, not require.js) and server api calls are part of the test, I need to configure Karma to load SocketStream (at least its client side).

I took a good look at 'https://github.com/yiwang/angular-phonecat-livescript-socketstream' but when I run this example I get run time errors, possibly because I have later versions of variuous dependencies installed.

I managed to get 'required' resolved by packing my SocketStream app by adding 'ss.client.packAssets()' to app.js and run 'SS_PACK=1 node app.js', but when I start karma it logs an error message saying:

'Chrome 23.0 (Linux) ERROR
    Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function
    at /the...path/client/static/assets/app/1368026081351.js:25'

'1368026081351.js' is the SocketStream packed assets file. If I don't load it the error message is something like 'require is undefined', so my best guess is that the error is happening somewhere inside the SocketStream require code. Also because I run karma in DEBUG mode and can see all the files being served.

I have been trying different approaches as to find out what is happening but to now avail. So my questions are:

Is anybody else successfully testing AngularJS/SocketStream using Karma? Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I can fix, or at least debug this problem? Are there any alternatives/better solutions?

Answer 1

Time to answer, sort of, my own question:

Sort of, because I came to the conclusion that Karma and node.js/SocketStream have a lot of overlap, so I decided to see if I can omit Karma altogether and deliver the Jasmine testing platform through SocketStream. It turns out that that is possible and here's how I did it:

I defined a new SocketStream route and client in my 'app.js' file:

ss.client.define( 'test', {
    view: 'SpecRunner.html',
    css:  ['libs/test'],
    code: ['libs', 'tests', 'app'],
    tmpl: 'none'
});

ss.http.route( '/test', function(req, res) {
    res.serveClient( 'test' );
});

I downloaded jasmine-standalone-1.3.1.zip and copied 'SpecRunner.html' to the 'client/views' folder. I then edited it to make it load AngularJS and all SocketStream client files, like all other views:

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.6/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.0.6/angular-resource.min.js"></script>
<SocketStream/>

I removed the 'script' tags that import the sample source files ( 'Player.js' and 'Song.js' ) and specs but let the last 'script' block in place unmodified.

I then created a new folder inside 'client/css/libs' called 'test' and copied 'jasmine.css' in there unmodified.

Then I copied 'jasmine.js' and 'jasmine-html.js' renamed to '01-jasmine.js' and '02-jasmine-html.js' but otherwise unmodified, into '/client/code/libs'.

Now Jasmine is in place and will be invoked by using the '/test' route. The slightly unsatisfactory bit is that I haven't found an elegant place to store my spec files. They only work so far if I place them inside the 'libs' folder. Anywhere else and they are served by SocketStream as modules and are not run.

But I can live with that for now. I can run Jasmine tests without having to configure a special Karma setup.