Javascript unit testing in Visual Studio using Karma

Title Text

• Alternative way of setting up 
• Simplify Angular code testing, especially directives
• Lots of helpful packages for preprocessing
• Bullet Three

Stuff that you need

• NodeJS
• Python
• Karma
• Karma Test Adapter Visual Studio extension
  
• 
  

NodeJS

Node installation location

• Install Node from: https://nodejs.org/en/
• If you want to change nodejs installation location and where global node packages and cache are stored, follow instructions on this post:
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7300132/how-to-use-npm-with-node-exe/9366416#9366416

NPM

• NPM is a Node Package Manager, and it's included in NodeJS installation package

• It's good to update NPM in order to tackle some windows related symptoms, like too deep folder structures that some node packages use

• There's a powershell script by MS that's an easy way to update NPM:
  https://github.com/felixrieseberg/npm-windows-upgrade

   

Installation

You may need to alter the execution policy first

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser -Force

npm install -g npm-windows-upgrade
npm-windows-upgrade

Then run these commands

Python

Python Version

• Install Python from: https://www.python.org/downloads/
• Recommend to install latest 2.x version and not 3.x version, because otherwise you'll get following error when installing Karma:

gyp ERR! stack Error: Python executable "python" is v3.5.0, which is not supported by gyp.
gyp ERR! stack You can pass the --python switch to point to Python >= v2.5.0 & < 3.0.0.

Karma

Description

• Karma installation instructions: http://karma-runner.github.io/0.13/intro/installation.html
• Karma configuration instructions: http://karma-runner.github.io/0.13/intro/configuration.htmlBullet

Karma Test Adapter

• You can run integrate Karma to Visual Studio and run unit tests from Test Explorer using Karma Test Adapter extension: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/4cd59e4a-82e8-4b4e-8302-d102fc81b090
• Additional details: http://mortenhoustonludvigsen.github.io/KarmaTestAdapter/

Testing Method

• You can run the tests either in Visual Studio using extension, or running Karma in command line
• Extension is nice, because you can easily navigate to failing tests