Automating tests for user interfaces has always been the holy grail of programming. Now, using Zombie.js and Mocha you can quickly create and run your tests, making it simple to test even the smallest changes. Increase your confidence in the code and minimize the number of times you have to use a real browser while you develop.
Using Node.js for UI Testing is a quick yet thorough guide on how to automatically test your web app, keeping it rock-solid and bug-free. You will learn how to simulate complex user behavior and verify that your application behaves correctly.
You will create a web app in Node.js that uses complex user interactions and AJAX; by the end of this book you will be able to fully test it from the command line. Then you will start creating the user interface tests for this application using Mocha as a framework and Zombie.js as a headless browser.
You will also create a complete test suite, module by module, testing simple and complex user interactions.
Chapter 1, Getting started with Zombie.js, helps you to understand how Zombie.js works and what types of applications can be tested with it.
Chapter 2, Creating a Simple Web App, explains how to create a simple web app using Node.js, CouchDB, and Flatiron.js.
Chapter 3, Installing Zombie.js and Mocha, teaches you about creating the base structure of a test environment for a web application using Zombie.js and Mocha.
Chapter 4, Understanding Mocha, helps you to understand how you can use Mocha to create and run asynchronous tests.
Chapter 5, Manipulating the Zombie Browser, explains how Zombie.js is used to create a simulated browser that can load an HTML document and perform actions on it.
Chapter 6, Testing Interactions, explains how to trigger events in a document and how to test the results of document manipulations.
Chapter 7, Debugging, teaches you how to inspect the internal state of your application by using the Zombie browser object and some other techniques.
Chapter 8, Testing AJAX, is not present in the book but is available as a free download at the following link:
http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/0526_8_testingajax.pdf
To use this book you will need a PC running a modern mainstream operating system such as Windows, Mac, or Linux.
This book is for programmers who use and somewhat understand JavaScript, especially having some experience with event-driven programming. For instance, if you have used JavaScript in the context of a web page for setting up event callbacks and making AJAX calls, you will experience a smoother learning curve. Alternatively, some experience in using Node.js will also ease the learning curve, but is not an absolute requirement.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: " To access a CouchDB database from Node you will use a library called nano."
A block of code is set as follows:
browser.visit('http://localhost:8080/form', function() {
browser
.fill('Name', 'Pedro Teixeira')
.select('Born', '1975')
.check('Agree with terms and conditions')
.pressButton('Submit', function() {
assert.equal(browser.location.pathname, '/success');
assert.equal(browser.text('#message'),
'Thank you for submitting this form!');
});
});When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
"scripts": {
"test": "mocha test/users.js",
"start": "node app.js"
},...Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
$ npm install ... [email protected] node_modules/mocha ... [email protected] node_modules/zombie ...
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
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