gently

Gently

Purpose

A node.js module that helps with mocking and behavior verification.

Features

• Overwrite and mock individual object functions
• Verify that all expected calls have been made in the expected order
• Restore mocked functions to their original behavior

Todo

• Auto detect class names from class.name

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').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').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.Gently

new gently.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], mock])

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

Returns a reference to the function that is getting overwritten.

gently.expect([count], mock)

Returns a function that is supposed to be executed count times, delegating any calls to the provided mock function. Naming your mock 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.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.