Gently

Purpose

A node.js module that helps with stubbing and behavior verification. It allows you to test the most remote and nested corners of your code while keeping being fully unobtrusive.

Features

• Overwrite and stub individual object functions
• Verify that all expected calls have been made in the expected order
• Restore stubbed functions to their original behavior
• Detect object / class names from obj.constructor.name and obj.toString()
• Hijack any required module function or class constructor

Installation

Via npm:

npm install gently@latest

Example

Make sure your dog is working properly:

function Dog() {}

Dog.prototype.seeCat = function() {
  this.bark('whuf, whuf');
  this.run();
}

Dog.prototype.bark = function(bark) {
  require('sys').puts(bark);
}

var gently = new (require('gently'))
  , assert = require('assert')
  , dog = new Dog();

gently.expect(dog, 'bark', function(bark) {
  assert.equal(bark, 'whuf, whuf');
});
gently.expect(dog, 'run');

dog.seeCat();

You can also easily test event emitters with this, for example a simple sequence of 2 events emitted by fs.WriteStream:

var gently = new (require('gently'))
  , stream = new (require('fs').WriteStream)('my_file.txt');

gently.expect(stream, 'emit', function(event) {
  assert.equal(event, 'open');
});

gently.expect(stream, 'emit', function(event) {
  assert.equal(event, 'drain');
});

For a full read world example, check out this test case: test-incoming-form.js (in node-formdiable).

API

Gently

new Gently()

Creates a new gently instance. It listens to the process 'exit' event to make sure all expectations have been verified.

gently.expect(obj, method, [[count], stubFn])

Creates an expectation for an objects method to be called. You can optionally specify the call count you are expecting, as well as stubFn function that will run instead of the original function.

Returns a reference to the function that is getting overwritten.

gently.expect([count], stubFn)

Returns a function that is supposed to be executed count times, delegating any calls to the provided stubFn function. Naming your stubFn closure will help to properly diagnose errors that are being thrown:

childProcess.exec('ls', gently.expect(function lsCallback(code) {
  assert.equal(0, code);
}));

gently.restore(obj, method)

Restores an object method that has been previously overwritten using gently.expect().

gently.hijack(realRequire)

Returns a new require functions that catches a reference to all required modules into gently.hijacked.

To use this function, include a line like this in your 'my-module.js'.

if (global.GENTLY) require = GENTLY.hijack(require);

var sys = require('sys');
exports.hello = function() {
  sys.log('world');
};

Now you can write a test for the module above:

var gently = global.GENTLY = new (require('gently'))
  , myModule = require('./my-module');

gently.expect(gently.hijacked.sys, 'log', function(str) {
  assert.equal(str, 'world');
});

myModule.hello();

gently.stub(location, [exportsName])

Returns a stub class that will be used instead of the real class from the module at location with the given exportsName.

This allows to test an OOP version of the previous example, where 'my-module.js'.

if (global.GENTLY) require = GENTLY.hijack(require);

var World = require('./world');

exports.hello = function() {
  var world = new World();
  world.hello();
}

And world.js looks like this:

var sys = require('sys');

function World() {

}
module.exports = World;

World.prototype.hello = function() {
  sys.log('world');
};

Testing 'my-module.js' can now easily be accomplished:

var gently = global.GENTLY = new (require('gently'))
  , WorldStub = gently.stub('./world')
  , myModule = require('./my-module')
  , WORLD;

gently.expect(WorldStub, 'new', function() {
  WORLD = this;
});

gently.expect(WORLD, 'hello');

myModule.hello();

gently.hijacked

An object that holds the references to all hijacked modules.

gently.verify([msg])

Verifies that all expectations of this gently instance have been satisfied. If not called manually, this method is called when the process 'exit' event is fired.

If msg is given, it will appear in any error that might be thrown.

License

Gently is licensed under the MIT license.