Running a single test suite/spec in Jasmine
Every developer knows that writing tests is important. To me, tests are like an evidence that I present to my team (or my future self) that the code I’ve written actually works the way I claim it be. This sounds nice and stuff but it wasn’t until recently that I started writing actual tests.
Something I’ve noticed, even with my little testing experience, is that test suites can grow pretty fast. It’s not long before you end up with a bunch of suites each containing a lot of specs. This can make the execution very slow. And when you’re developin, there’s no point of running all tests, when you work with a certain single file. Then you ask yourself “How can I run only a single suite/spec instead of the whole thing?”
I’ve already asked myself this question. And there’s a simple solution:
Running a single suite
This should look familiar.
describe("A suite", function() {
// ... specs here
});
Well, if you use fdescribe instead of describe, Jasmine will only run that particular test suite.
fdescribe("A suite", function() {
// ... specs here
});
Running a single spec
The usual stuff here…
describe("A suite", function() {
it("should check whether `true` is really `true`", function() {
expect(true).toBe(true);
});
});
But if you use fit instead of it, Jasmine will run only that particular spec.
describe("A suite", function() {
fit("should check whether `true` is really `true`", function() {
expect(true).toBe(true);
});
});
So here you go. If you need to run a single suite/spec, you can quickly do so by using fdescribe and fit.
But beware! When you’re done with your tests, don’t commit the fdescribe/fit because that will give you a false confidence that your tests are successful when in reality it’s only one suite/spec that is being executed.
Update: I built a VS Code extension that will highlight tests using fdescribe/fit so you don’t miss them.