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an in-memory file system. The test setup can then make sure to place the fake
implementation ahead of the built-in one on the load path. Neither individual tests
nor production code will be aware that
require("fs")
actually loads a simplified
in-memory file system.
16.1.3 Dummy Object
A dummy object, as its name suggests, is usually just an empty object or function.
When testing functions that expect several parameters, we are often only concerned
with one of them at a time. If the function we're testing throws errors for missing
or wrongly typed arguments, we can pass it a dummy to “shut it up” while we focus
on behavior not related to the argument in question.
As an example, consider the test in Listing 16.1 from Chapter 15,
TDDandDOM
Manipulation: The Chat Client.
The test verifies that the message list controller sets
the element's
scrollTop
equal to the value of its
scrollHeight
. However,
the method also appends a new DOM element to the view element, and throws an
exception if it does not have an
appendChild
method. For the purpose of this
test we use a dummy to pass the test on
appendChild
to get to the behavior we
want to test.
Listing 16.1
Using a dummy function
"test should scroll element down": function () {
var element = {
appendChild: stubFn(),
scrollHeight: 1900
};
this.controller.setView(element);
this.controller.addMessage({ user:"me",message:"Hey" });
assertEquals(1900, element.scrollTop);
}
Unit tests have four stages;
setup
, often divided between a shared
setUp
method
and test specific configuration of objects;
exercise
, in which we call the function(s)
to test;
verification
, in which we assert that the result of the exercise stage coincides
with our expectations; and finally
tear down
, which never happens inside a test, but
rather in a dedicated and shared
tearDown
method.
