How to test promises in Mongo(ose)/Express app? - express

Question

I'm using promises to wrap asynchronous (Mongo) DB ops at the end of an (expressJS) route.
I want to try and figure out how to test the following code.
userService
userService.findOne = function (id) {
var deferred = q.defer();
User.findOne({"_id" : id})
.exec(function (error, user) {
if (error) {
deferred.reject(error);
} else {
deferred.resolve(user);
}
});
return deferred.promise;
};
userRoute
var user = function (req, res) {
var userId = req.params.id
, userService = req.load("userService");
// custom middleware that enables me to inject mocks
return userService.findOne(id)
.then(function (user) {
console.log("called then");
res.json({
msg: "foo"
});
}).catch(function (error) {
console.log("called catch");
res.json({
error: error
});
}).done();
};
Here's an attempt to test the above with mocha
userTest
it("when resolved", function (done) {
var jsonSpy = sinon.spy(httpMock.res, "json")
, httpMock = require("/path/to/mock/http/object")
, serviceMock = require("/path/to/mock/service"),
, deferred = q.defer()
, findStub = sinon.stub(serviceMock, "findOne")
.returns(deferred.promise)
, loadStub = sinon.stub(httpMock.req, "load")
.returns(serviceMock),
retPromise;
// trigger route
routes.user(httpMock.req, httpMock.res);
// force promise to resolve?
deferred.resolve();
expect(jsonSpy.called).to.be.true; // fails
// chai as promised
retPromise = findStub.returnValues[0];
expect(retPromise).to.be.fulfilled; // passes
});
the http mock is just an empty object with no-ops where expressJS would normally start rendering stuff. I've added some logging inside those no-ops to get an idea on how this is hanging together.
This isn't really working out. I want to verify how the whole is integrated, to establish some sort of regression suite - but I've effectively mocked it to smithereens and I'm just testing my mocks (not entirely successfully at that).
I'm also noticing that the console logs inside my http mocks triggered by then and catch are firing twice - but the jsonSpy that is invoked inside the actual code (verified by logging out the sinon spy within the userRoute code) is not called in test.
Has anyone got some advice on integration testing strategies for express apps backed by Mongo?

Answer 1

It looks to me like you're not giving your promise an opportunity to fire before you check if the result has been called. You need to wait asynchronously for userService.findOne()'s promise chain to complete before jsonSpy.called will be set. Try this instead:
// start of code as normal
q.when(
routes.user(httpMock.req, httpMock.res),
function() { expect(jsonSpy.called).to.be.true; }
);
deferred.resolve();
// rest of code as normal
That should chain off the routes.user() promise and pass as expected.
One word of caution: I'm not familiar with your framework, so I don't know if it will wait patiently for all async events to go off. If it's giving you problems calling back into your defer chain, you may want to try nodeunit instead, which handles async tests very well (IMO).