Book Image

Mastering React Test-Driven Development

By : Daniel Irvine
Book Image

Mastering React Test-Driven Development

By: Daniel Irvine

Overview of this book

Many programmers are aware of TDD but struggle to apply it beyond basic examples. This book teaches how to build complex, real-world applications using Test-Driven Development (TDD). It takes a first principles approach to the TDD process using plain Jest and includes test-driving the integration of libraries including React Router, Redux, and Relay (GraphQL). Readers will practice systematic refactoring while building out their own test framework, gaining a deep understanding of TDD tools and techniques. They will learn how to test-drive features such as client- and server-side form validation, data filtering and searching, navigation and user workflow, undo/redo, animation, LocalStorage access, WebSocket communication, and querying GraphQL endpoints. The book covers refactoring codebases to use the React Router and Redux libraries. via TDD. Redux is explored in depth, with reducers, middleware, sagas, and connected React components. The book also covers acceptance testing using Cucumber and Puppeteer. The book is fully up to date with React 16.9 and has in-depth coverage of hooks and the ‘act’ test helper.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: First Principles of TDD
6
Section 2: Building a Single-Page Application
12
Section 3: Interactivity
16
Section 4: Acceptance Testing with BDD

Designing a WebSocket interaction

Before we begin test-driving, let's think about the up-front design.

There are two modes of operation: presenting and watching. If you're presenting, then everyone watching will get a copy of your commands. A session is made up of one presenter and zero or more watchers. WebSockets are used to communicate with the server. Messages are sent in JSON format.

The new teaching mode, with sharing information at the top of the screen

So, how does it work?

  • The presenter clicks the Start sharing button. The server is sent the following message.
{ type: 'START_SHARING' }
  • The server then responds with the id of the session, as shown:
{ status: 'STARTED', id: 123 }
  • This ID can be used to create a URL that opens the application in watching mode, linked to this ID:
http://localhost:3000/index.html?watching=123
  • The URL can...