react-test-renderer

react-test-renderer

This package provides an experimental React renderer that can be used to render React components to pure JavaScript objects, without depending on the DOM or a native mobile environment.

Essentially, this package makes it easy to grab a snapshot of the "DOM tree" rendered by a React DOM or React Native component without using a browser or jsdom.

Documentation:

https://reactjs.org/docs/test-renderer.html

Usage:

const ReactTestRenderer = require('react-test-renderer');

const renderer = ReactTestRenderer.create(
  <Link page="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</Link>
);

console.log(renderer.toJSON());
// { type: 'a',
//   props: { href: 'https://www.facebook.com/' },
//   children: [ 'Facebook' ] }

You can also use Jest's snapshot testing feature to automatically save a copy of the JSON tree to a file and check in your tests that it hasn't changed: https://facebook.github.io/jest/blog/2016/07/27/jest-14.html.

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enzyme

Enzyme is a popular testing utility for React that makes it easier to assert, manipulate, and traverse your React Components' output. Unlike react-test-renderer, Enzyme allows you to simulate events and provides a more jQuery-like API for selecting elements. However, it requires an adapter to work with different versions of React.

react-testing-library

React Testing Library is a set of helpers that let you test React components without relying on their implementation details. This approach encourages better testing practices by focusing on the behavior of components rather than their internal structure. It's more aligned with user interaction compared to react-test-renderer, which is more about rendering components to JSON for snapshot testing.