Unit testing AngularJS portlet with Maven and Jasmin

Recently, we have converted a few portlets to use AngularJS for the front end.  We have also used the Jasmine framework for unit testing. Since our portlets are already configured with Maven, we have added Jasmine support with jasmine-maven-plugin to the existing set up. This posts will walk you through the configuration required to run Jasmine tests with Maven.

Portlet directory layout

|—— Portlet
| |——– src
| | | ——– main
| | | | ——— webapp
| | | |————- js
                              app.js
| | | ——– test
| | |———— webapp
| | | |————- js
                              controllerSpec.js

Our angularJs files are contained in src/main/webapp/js directory. Jasmine spec files are placed in a test directory that reflects main.

Plugin configuration 

Based on the directory structure, we can configure jasmine-maven-plugin. we are using version 2.0 which requires Maven 3.1.x. This is an example plugin configuration for our portlet:

<build><plugins>
    …
    <plugin>
       <groupId>com.github.searls</groupId>
       <artifactId>jasmine-maven-plugin</artifactId>
       <version>2.0</version>
       <executions>
          <execution>
             <goals>
               <goal>test</goal>
             </goals>
          </execution>
       </executions>
 <!-- keep the configuration out of the execution so that the bdd goal has access to it -->
       <configuration>
           <jsSrcDir>src/main/webapp/js</jsSrcDir>
           <sourceIncludes>
               <include>app.js</include>
           </sourceIncludes>
           <jsTestSrcDir>src/test/webapp/js</jsTestSrcDir>
           <specIncludes>
               <include>*Spec.js</include>
           </specIncludes>
           <preloadSources>
               <source>webjars/angular.js</source>
               <source>webjars/angular-sanitize.js</source>
               <source>webjars/angular-mocks.js</source>
               <source>webjars/jquery.js</source>
           </preloadSources>
       </configuration>
 </plugin></plugins></build>
<dependencies>
 
<!-- jasmin maven plugin dependencies -->
 <dependency>
      <groupId>org.webjars</groupId>
      <artifactId>jquery</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
      <groupId>org.webjars</groupId>
      <artifactId>angularjs</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>
<!-- for headful tests
 <dependency>
      <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
      <artifactId>selenium-firefox-driver</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>
 -->

 </dependencies>

<jsSrcDir>  points to diectory with your JavaScript, this will be your angular controllers, directives, filters, etc.

<sourceIncludes> specifies which files within jsSrcDir should be included and in which order (added sequentially as defined)

<jsTestSrcDir>  points to directory with your Jasmin specs

<specIncludes> specifies which spec files to include and in which order

<preloadSources> JavaScript files to be loaded before the application files and specs, added sequentially as defined; these should be all libraries that you need for your application e.g. angular files, jQuery etc. We can reference webjars files here as done in our example. Since we require them for the tests only, we reference them in the test scope.

Out of the box, jasmine-maven-plugin comes preconfigured with PhantomJS for headless tests. For headful tests, configure the plugin with a different driver, such as:

<webDriverClassName>org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver</webDriverClassName>

Usage

Jasmine can be used for TDD (Test Driven Development). Run

mvn jasmine:bdd

This will fire off the browser at http://localhost:8234 and run the specs from the test directory whenever you refresh the page. This will give you an immediate feedback as you develop your angular controllers etc.

Running

mvn jasmine:test

will run the headless tests by default, unless configured otherwise.

Running

mvn clean test

will run all your tests in the portlet, including Jasmine headless tests provided there were no test failures before.

With this configuration we are now ready to write Jasmine specs for our portlets.