jest-preset-angular

What is jest-preset-angular?

jest-preset-angular is a Jest preset configuration for Angular projects. It simplifies the setup and configuration of Jest for testing Angular applications, providing necessary configurations, transformers, and environment settings.

What are jest-preset-angular's main functionalities?

Setup and Configuration

This feature provides a preset configuration for Jest, making it easier to set up Jest in Angular projects. The code sample shows how to configure Jest to use jest-preset-angular in the Jest configuration file.

module.exports = { preset: 'jest-preset-angular', setupFilesAfterEnv: ['<rootDir>/setup-jest.ts'] };

Transformers

jest-preset-angular includes transformers to handle TypeScript and Angular templates. The code sample demonstrates how to configure Jest to use ts-jest for transforming TypeScript and HTML files.

module.exports = { transform: { '^.+\.(ts|html)$': 'ts-jest' } };

Global Mocks

jest-preset-angular provides global mocks for common Angular dependencies, such as Angular's testing utilities. The code sample shows how to import jest-preset-angular to include these global mocks in your tests.

import 'jest-preset-angular';

Other packages similar to jest-preset-angular

karma

Karma is a test runner for JavaScript that works well with Angular. Unlike jest-preset-angular, which is a Jest preset, Karma is a standalone test runner that can be configured to work with various testing frameworks, including Jasmine and Mocha.

angular-testing-library

angular-testing-library is a set of utilities for testing Angular components. It focuses on testing user interactions and component behavior, similar to jest-preset-angular, but it is not a Jest preset and can be used with different test runners.

ng-mocks

ng-mocks is a library for creating mocks of Angular components, directives, and services. It complements jest-preset-angular by providing additional mocking capabilities, but it is not a preset configuration for Jest.

README

jest-preset-angular

A preset of Jest configuration for Angular projects.

This is a part of the article: Testing Angular faster with Jest.

Note: This preset does not suport AngularJS (1.x). If you want to set up Jest with AngularJS, please see this blog post.

Installation

yarn add -D jest jest-preset-angular @types/jest
# or
npm install -D jest jest-preset-angular @types/jest

This will install jest, @types/jest, ts-jest as dependencies needed to run with Angular projects.

Usage

In src directory create setupJest.ts file with following contents:

import 'jest-preset-angular';
import './jestGlobalMocks'; // browser mocks globally available for every test

Note: feel free to copy the jestGlobalMocks.ts file from the example directory and save it next to the setupJest.ts file.

...and include this in your package.json:

{
  "jest": {
    "preset": "jest-preset-angular",
    "setupFilesAfterEnv": ["<rootDir>/src/setupJest.ts"]
  }
}

Avoid karma conflicts

By Angular CLI defaults you'll have a src/test.ts file which will be picked up by jest. To circumvent this you can either rename it to src/karmaTest.ts or hide it from jest by adding <rootDir>/src/test.ts to jest testPathIgnorePatterns option.

Exposed configuration

module.exports = {
  globals: {
    'ts-jest': {
      tsConfig: '<rootDir>/tsconfig.spec.json',
      stringifyContentPathRegex: '\\.html$',
      astTransformers: [
        'jest-preset-angular/build/InlineFilesTransformer',
        'jest-preset-angular/build/StripStylesTransformer'
      ],
    },
  },
  transform: {
    '^.+\\.(ts|js|html)$': 'ts-jest',
  },
  testEnvironment: 'jest-environment-jsdom-thirteen',
  moduleFileExtensions: ['ts', 'html', 'js', 'json'],
  moduleNameMapper: {
    '^src/(.*)$': '<rootDir>/src/$1',
    '^app/(.*)$': '<rootDir>/src/app/$1',
    '^assets/(.*)$': '<rootDir>/src/assets/$1',
    '^environments/(.*)$': '<rootDir>/src/environments/$1',
  },
  transformIgnorePatterns: ['node_modules/(?!@ngrx)'],
  snapshotSerializers: [
    'jest-preset-angular/build/AngularSnapshotSerializer.js',
    'jest-preset-angular/build/HTMLCommentSerializer.js',
  ],
};

Brief explanation of config

• <rootDir> is a special syntax for root of your project (here by default it's project's root /)
• we're using some "globals" to pass information about where our tsconfig.json file is that we'd like to be able to transform HTML files through ts-jest
• "transform" – run every TS, JS, or HTML file through so called preprocessor (we'll get there); this lets Jest understand non-JS syntax
• "testMatch" – we want to run Jest on files that matches this glob
• "moduleFileExtensions" – our modules are TypeScript and JavaScript files
• "moduleNameMapper" – if you're using absolute imports here's how to tell Jest where to look for them; uses regex
• "setupFilesAfterEnv" – this is the heart of our config, in this file we'll setup and patch environment within tests are running
• "transformIgnorePatterns" – unfortunately some modules (like @ngrx) are released as TypeScript files, not pure JavaScript; in such cases we cannot ignore them (all node_modules are ignored by default), so they can be transformed through TS compiler like any other module in our project.
• "snapshotSerializers" - array of serializers which will be applied to snapshot the code. Note: by default angular adds some angular-specific attributes to the code (like ng-reflect-*, ng-version="*", _ngcontent-c* etc). This package provides serializer to remove such attributes. This makes snapshots cleaner and more human-readable. To remove such specific attributes use AngularNoNgAttributesSnapshotSerializer serializer. You need to add AngularNoNgAttributesSnapshotSerializer serializer manually (see example app configuration).

AST Transformer

Jest doesn't run in browser nor through dev server. It uses jsdom to abstract browser environment. So we have to cheat a little and inline our templates and get rid of styles (we're not testing CSS) because otherwise Angular will try to make XHR call for our templates and fail miserably.

Angular testing environment setup

If you look at your src/test.ts (or similar bootstrapping test file) file you'll see similarities to setupJest.js. What we're doing here is we're adding globals required by Angular. With the included jest-zone-patch we also make sure Jest test methods run in Zone context. Then we initialize the Angular testing environment like normal.

Snapshot testing

Since version 1.1.0 it's possible to snapshot test your Angular components. Please note it's still under active development and may be a subject of change. You can lookup example for details

Example:

calc-component.spec.ts

// some initialization code
test('renders markup to snapshot', () => {
  const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(AppComponent);
  expect(fixture).toMatchSnapshot();
});

__snapshots__/calc-component.spec.ts.snap

// Jest Snapshot v1, https://goo.gl/fbAQLP

exports[`CalcComponent should snap 1`] = `
<app-calc
  prop1={[Function Number]}
>
  <p
    class="a-default-class"
    ng-reflect-klass="a-default-class"
    ng-reflect-ng-class="[object Object]"
  >
    calc works!
  </p>
</app-calc>
`;

Removing empty lines and white-spaces in component snapshots

You will immediately notice, that your snapshot files contain a lot of white spaces and blank lines. This is not an issue with Jest, rather with Angular. It can be mitigated via Angular compiler by setting preserveWhitespaces: false

By default it's set to true Angular 7.x, although it may change to be set to false in upcoming versions (if that occurs, you can stop reading right here, because your issue has been already solved)

Your TestBed setup should look like following:

describe('Component snapshot tests', ()=>{
  // you need to turn TS checking because it's an private API
  const compilerConfig = {preserveWhitespaces: false} as any

  beforeEach(() => {
    TestBed.configureCompiler(compilerConfig)
      .configureTestingModule({...});
  });

})

This is indeed very repetitive, so you can extract this in a helper function:

// test-config.helper.ts

import { TestBed } from '@angular/core/testing';

type CompilerOptions = Partial<{
  providers: any[];
  useJit: boolean;
  preserveWhitespaces: boolean;
}>;
export type ConfigureFn = (testBed: typeof TestBed) => void;

export const configureTests = (
  configure: ConfigureFn,
  compilerOptions: CompilerOptions = {}
) => {
  const compilerConfig: CompilerOptions = {
    preserveWhitespaces: false,
    ...compilerOptions,
  };

  const configuredTestBed = TestBed.configureCompiler(compilerConfig);

  configure(configuredTestBed);

  return configuredTestBed.compileComponents().then(() => configuredTestBed);
};

And setup your test with that function like following:

// foo.component.spec.ts

import { async, ComponentFixture } from '@angular/core/testing'

import { configureTests, ConfigureFn } from '../test-config.helper'

import { AppComponent } from './foo.component';

describe('Component snapshots', () => {

  let fixture: ComponentFixture<FooComponent>;
  let component: FooComponent;

  beforeEach(
    async(() => {
      const configure: ConfigureFn = testBed => {
        testBed.configureTestingModule({
          declarations: [FooComponent],
          imports: [...],
          schemas: [NO_ERRORS_SCHEMA],
        });
      };

      configureTests(configure).then(testBed => {
        fixture = testBed.createComponent(FooComponent);
        component = fixture.componentInstance;
        fixture.detectChanges();
      });
    })
  );

  it(`should create snapshots without blank lines/white spaces`, () => {
    expect(fixture).toMatchSnapshot();
  });

})

Troubleshooting

Problems may arise if you're using custom builds (this preset is tailored for angular-cli as firstly priority). Please be advised that every entry in default configuration may be overridden to best suite your app's needs.

Can't resolve all parameters for SomeClass(?)

This is related to Angular's reflection and also depends on a reflection library, as e. g. included in core-js. We use our own minimal reflection that satisfy Angular's current requirements, but in case these change, you can install core-js and import the reflection library in your setupJest.ts:

require('core-js/es/reflect');
require('core-js/proposals/reflect-metadata');

Note that this might also be related to other issues with the dependency injection and parameter type reflection.

@Input() bindings are not reflected into fixture when ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush is used

This issue is not related to Jest, it's a known Angular bug

To mitigate this, you need to wrap your component under test, into some container component with default change detection strategy (ChangeDetectionStrategy.Default) and pass props through it, or overwrite change detection strategy within TestBed setup, if it's not critical for the test.

// override change detection strategy
beforeEach(async(() => {
  TestBed.configureTestingModule({ declarations: [PizzaItemComponent] })
    .overrideComponent(PizzaItemComponent, {
      set: { changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.Default },
    })
    .compileComponents();
}));

The animation trigger "transformMenu" has failed

The currenly used JSDOM version handles this, but older versions used before v7 of this preset was missing transform property. To patch it for Angular Material, use this workaround.

Add this to your jestGlobalMocks file

Object.defineProperty(document.body.style, 'transform', {
  value: () => {
    return {
      enumerable: true,
      configurable: true,
    };
  },
});

Reference: https://github.com/angular/material2/issues/7101

Absolute imports

TypeScript supports absolute imports. The preset (starting from v3.0.0) by default understands absolute imports referring to src, app, assets and environments directory, so instead:

import MyComponent from '../../src/app/my.component';
import MyStuff from '../../src/testing/my.stuff';

you can use:

import MyComponent from 'app/my.component';
import MyStuff from 'src/testing/my.stuff';

However, if your directory structure differ from that provided by angular-cli you can adjust moduleNameMapper in Jest config:

{
  "jest": {
    "moduleNameMapper": {
      "app/(.*)": "<rootDir>/src/to/app/$1", // override default, why not
      "testing/(.*)": "<rootDir>/app/testing/$1" // add new mapping
    }
  }
}

Custom tsconfig

Override globals object in Jest config:

{
  "jest": {
    "globals": {
      "ts-jest": {
        "tsConfig": "<rootDir>/tsconfig.custom.json",
        "stringifyContentPathRegex": "\\.html$",
        "astTransformers": [
          "jest-preset-angular/build/InlineFilesTransformer",
          "jest-preset-angular/build/StripStylesTransformer"
        ],
      }
    }
  }
}

If you choose to overide globals in order to point at a specific tsconfig, you will need to add the astTransformers to the globals.ts-jest section too, otherwise you will get parse errors on any html templates.

Unexpected token [import|export|other]

This means, that a file is not transformed through TypeScript compiler, e.g. because it is a JS file with TS syntax, or it is published to npm as uncompiled source files. Here's what you can do.

Adjust your tsconfig.spec.json:

Since Angular released v6, the default tsconfig.json and tsconfig.spec.json have been changed. Therefore, jest will throw an error

    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,global,jest){import 'jest-preset-angular';
                                                                                             ^^^^^^
    SyntaxError: Unexpected token import
      at ScriptTransformer._transformAndBuildScript (node_modules/jest-runtime/build/script_transformer.js:403:17)

What you need to do is adjust your tsconfig.spec.json to add the option "module": "commonjs",

A default tsconfig.spec.json after modifying will look like this

{
  "extends": "../tsconfig.json",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "../out-tsc/spec",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "types": [
      "jest",
      "jquery",
      "jsdom",
      "node"
    ]
  },
  "files": [
    "polyfills.ts"
  ],
  "include": [
    "**/*.spec.ts",
    "**/*.d.ts"
  ]

Adjust your transformIgnorePatterns whitelist:

{
  "jest": {
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
      "node_modules/(?!@ngrx|angular2-ui-switch|ng-dynamic)"
    ]
  }
}

By default Jest doesn't transform node_modules, because they should be valid JavaScript files. However, it happens that library authors assume that you'll compile their sources. So you have to tell this to Jest explicitly. Above snippet means that @ngrx, angular2-ui-switch and ng-dynamic will be transformed, even though they're node_modules.

Allow JS files in your TS compilerOptions

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "allowJs": true
  }
}

This tells ts-jest (a preprocessor this preset using to transform TS files) to treat JS files the same as TS ones.

Transpile js files through babel-jest

Some vendors publish their sources without transpiling. You need to say jest to transpile such files manually since typescript (and thus ts-jest used by this preset) do not transpile them.

1. Install dependencies required by Jest official documentation for Babel integration.

2. Install @babel/preset-env and add babel.config.js (or modify existing if needed) with the following content:

module.exports = function(api) {
  api.cache(true);

  const presets = ['@babel/preset-env'];
  const plugins = [];

  return {
    presets,
    plugins,
  };
};

Note: do not use a .babelrc file otherwise the packages that you specify in the next step will not be picked up. CF Babel documentation and the comment You want to compile node_modules? babel.config.js is for you!.

1. Update Jest configuration (by default TypeScript process untranspiled JS files which is source of the problem):

{
  "jest": {
    "transform": {
      "^.+\\.(ts|html)$": "ts-jest",
      "^.+\\.js$": "babel-jest"
    },
  }
}

Observable ... is not a function

Note: This fix is only relevant to Angular v5 and lower.

Since v1.0 this preset doesn't import whole rxjs library by default for variety of reasons. This may result in breaking your tests that relied on this behavior. It may however become cumbersome to include e.g. rxjs/add/operator/map or rxjs/add/operator/do for every test, so as a workaround you can include common operators or other necessary imports in your setupJest.ts file:

import 'jest-preset-angular';

// common rxjs imports
import 'rxjs/add/operator/map';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/switchMap';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/do';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
// ...

import './jestGlobalMocks';

Allow vendor libraries like jQuery, etc...

The same like normal Jest configuration, you can load jQuery in your Jest setup file. For example your Jest setup file is setupJest.ts you can declare jQuery:

window.$ = require('path/to/jquery');

or

import $ from 'jquery';
global.$ = global.jQuery = $;

The same declaration can be applied to other vendor libraries.

Reference: https://github.com/facebook/jest/issues/708

Failing with Node v7 or lower

By default we use JSDOM v15, which requires Node v8+. If you want to use Node in a lower version to run your tests, make sure to configure jest to use an older JSDOM version, either in your jest.config.js, jest.config.json or package.json:

"testEnvironment": "jsdom"

If you use JSDOM v11 or lower, you might have to mock localStorage or sessionStorage on your own or using some third-party library by loading it in setupFilesAfterEnv.

Reference: https://jestjs.io/docs/en/configuration.html#testenvironment-string, https://github.com/jsdom/jsdom/blob/master/Changelog.md#1200

Changelog

8.0.0 (2019-10-21)

Features

• breaking: Refine ast-transformer behavior: only transform styles-assignments inside @Component (#261) and TypeScript v2.9 createStringLiteral is polyfilled if an older version is used (#272).
• breaking: Restructure project with src and build folder (#307).
• breaking: Support tsconfig.spec.json in root folder by default (#309).
• breaking: Enable AngularNoAngularNoNgAttributesSnapshotSerializer (created in #97) by default (#318).
• Remove core-js dependency by using internal, minimal reflect-metadata (#315).

Chores

• Update jsdom to current version 15 (#318).

BREAKING CHANGES

• If the astTransformers are referenced in a custom jest config, [ 'jest-preset-angular/build/InlineFilesTransformer', 'jest-preset-angular/build/StripStylesTransformer'] have to be set instead.
• Serializers, transformers and setupJest have to be referenced from the jest-preset-angular/build/-folder in a custom config. Existing references have to be aligned.
• If your tsconfig.spec.json is located in src, move it to your root folder and adjust the referenced files and paths inside, or align your jest configuration as discussed in the README.md.
• In an Angular 8 project or higher, core-js should no longer be a dependency declared in package.json, unless it's imported manually in the code.