Unit testing JavaScript with Blue Ridge

My current rails project is using Blue Ridge and the tool set it bundles together (Rhino, env.js, Screw.Unit, and Smoke) to write test driven JavaScript. The ability to write tests of my JavaScript, in JavaScript, as efficiently as I can test other languages has forced me to rethink how I structure my work and I’m writing better code because of it.

There are a couple of different options for JS testing available at this point but Blue Ridge’s plugin is the first I have seen which made writing test driven code as easy as I have come to expect while still providing all the functionality I need. In particular;

• Running my tests in a browser is fast. Refreshing fixture pages to rerun tests is dramatically more efficient than waiting for selenium tests to cycle.
• I can debug my tests as they run against their fixtures pages and inspect or manipulate the DOM at any point.
• I have mock and fake objects available to test behavior and stub out dependencies.
• My JS tests run in continuous integration, just like all the other tests.

By writing fixtures pages and tests first I am immediately using all of my code in two locations and running it against slightly different DOMs. That has pushed me to encapsulate most of my code as jQuery plugins and think carefully about how much I depend on the page’s structure. I end up with terse selectors instead of using whatever attributes are readily available and a clear configuration point for my page’s behavior as I chain together plugin calls in $(document).ready().

We’d like to see what other developers have done and share what we have learned so far so Carbon Five is hosting an open discussion of JavaScript testing in our office this week.

Topic: Javascript Testing
When: Tuesday Nov 17
6pm: arrive/network
6:30 – 8 presentation and discussion
Where: Carbon Five office: 171 2nd Street, 4th Floor

Please RSVP if you would like to attend.