Unit Test Patterns And Strategies

The purpose of this repository is to provide instruction on some common unit test patterns and strategies. Within the lessons directory there are several subdirectories. The lessons are primarily written according to test patterns and strategies usable with the tap testing framework within a back end context. However, the majority of concepts should be applicable to any testing framework.

Each lesson should have a short Readme.md that introduces the lesson. These readmes do not constitute the lesson itself. The core of the lessons are contained within each lesson's test files.

Some lessons will build upon concepts introduced in prior lessons. If this is the case, the lesson should indicate this fact. Otherwise, lessons should be self contained such that topics can be reviewed in isolation.

Getting Started

All lessons use the same package.json. So the first thing to do is to install all dependencies:

$ npm install

Subsequently, all tests across all lessons can be run by:

$ npm test

Throughout the lessons there will be cues to alter tests to see what might happen with the change. To avoid having to re-run npm test repeatedly, there is a script to watch for changes in tests:

$ npm run test:watch

Running Tests For Specific Lessons

To run tests within an individual lesson, it is recommended that the local node_modules/.bin directory be in the shell PATH:

$ export PATH=$(pwd)/node_modules/.bin:${PATH}

With the PATH updated, an individual lesson's tests can be run like so:

$ tap -g 001
# where "001" matches `001` in `lessons/001-basic-testing`