chai

What is chai?

Chai is a BDD / TDD assertion library for node and the browser that can be delightfully paired with any javascript testing framework. It provides functions to express assertions in a readable language, supporting both 'should' and 'expect' style syntaxes, as well as a traditional 'assert' style interface.

What are chai's main functionalities?

Should Style Assertions

Allows you to write assertions in a more human-readable form, which reads like English. The 'should' style extends each object with a 'should' property to start your chain.

chai.should();
var should = chai.should();
should.exist(value, 'value should not be null or undefined');

Expect Style Assertions

Provides a function called 'expect' to make assertions about values. This style is similar to 'should' but does not extend any objects, which is useful for working with libraries that don't allow object extensions.

var expect = chai.expect;
expect(value).to.exist.and.be.an('object');

Assert Style Assertions

Offers a more traditional testing interface, which is similar to Node.js' core 'assert' module but with more capabilities and better error messages.

var assert = chai.assert;
assert.typeOf(value, 'string', 'value is a string');

Chainable Language Chains

Provides chainable getters to improve the readability of your assertions, allowing you to write more expressive tests.

expect(value).to.be.an('array').that.includes(3);

Plugins

Supports plugins to extend its core functionalities, which can be used to add new assertions, matchers, or methods to the library.

var chaiHttp = require('chai-http');
chai.use(chaiHttp);

Other packages similar to chai

jest

Jest is a delightful JavaScript Testing Framework with a focus on simplicity. It works out of the box for any React project and includes its own assertion library, which provides a similar but more integrated testing experience compared to Chai.

jasmine

Jasmine is a behavior-driven development framework for testing JavaScript code. It does not rely on browsers, DOM, or any JavaScript framework, making it suitable for websites, Node.js projects, or anywhere JavaScript can run. It has its own assertion syntax that is somewhat similar to Chai's 'expect' syntax.

expect.js

Expect.js is a minimalistic BDD-style assertions library that can be considered an alternative to Chai's 'expect' interface. It provides a similar API but is no longer actively maintained.

README

Chai is a BDD / TDD assertion library for node and the browser that can be delightfully paired with any javascript testing framework.

For more information view the documentation.

Installation

Chai is available for both node.js and the browser using any test framework you like.

Node.js

Package is available through npm:

npm install chai

Recommend adding it to package.json devDependancies.

Browser

Include the chai browser build in your testing suite.

<script src="chai.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Currently supports all modern browsers: IE 9+, Chrome 7+, FireFox 4+, Safari 5+. Want to know if your browser is compatible? Run the online test suite.

Plugins

The Chai community is growing! Plugins allow developers to expand Chai's available assertions. Here is what the community has come up with so far:

• chai-spies is a basic spy implementation for chai. It's also a good resource for building chai plugins that work in both node.js and the browser.
• chai-jquery by @jfirebaugh provides deep jQuery integration with chai's should and expect.
• jack by @vesln is a mock/stub library that can be used as a stand-alone or with chai.
• sinon-chai by @domenic extends chai with assertions for the Sinon.js mocking framework.

Contributors

 commits: 185
 files  : 71
 authors: 
   163  Jake Luer               88.1%
    16  Veselin Todorov         8.6%
     3  Jeff Barczewski         1.6%
     1  Domenic Denicola        0.5%
     1  John Firebaugh          0.5%
     1  Vinay Pulim             0.5%

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011-2012 Jake Luer [e-mail]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.