Karma - Unit Testing Angular Controller with Mocked API - angularjs

Question

I wrote some unit tests for an angular factory that mock the response with a fake promise using $q.resolve({}). I'm now writing the controller test and want to call the factory from the controller and assign the resolved mock factory response to the controller scope (vm), and verify the data. Is this the proper way to test a factory from within a controller?
factory test
describe('getVICs()', function() {
var vicFactory, $q, $httpBackend, result;
beforeEach(module('vicModule'));
beforeEach(inject(function(_vicFactory_, _$q_, _$httpBackend_) {
vicFactory = _vicFactory_;
$q = _$q_;
$httpBackend = _$httpBackend_;
}));
beforeEach(function() {
result = {};
spyOn(vicFactory, 'getVICs').and.callThrough(function() {
var deferred = $q.defer();
return deferred.promise;
});
});
it('should be defined', function() {
expect(vicFactory.getVICs()).toBeDefined();
});
it('should return list of vics', function() {
var vicList = {
"results": [
{
"version": 5
},
{
"version": 1
}
]
};
var qs = '?sort=version&dir=DESC&page=1&limit=10&status=ACTIVE';
$httpBackend.expectGET('/path/to/my/api' + qs).respond(200, vicList);
$httpBackend.whenGET('http://localhost:3000/path/to/my/api' + qs).respond(200, $q.when(vicList));
vicFactory.getVICs(qs)
.then(function(response) {
result = response;
});
// flush pending HTTP requests
$httpBackend.flush();
expect(result.data.results).toBeDefined();
});
});
factory
function getVICs(query) {
return $http.get('/path/to/my/api' + query)
.then(function(response) {
return response;
});
}
controller test
describe('vicController', function() {
var $controller, vicController, vicFactory, $q, $scope, $httpBackend, deferred;
var vicList = {
"results": [
{
"version": 5
},
{
"version": 1
}
]
};
var qs = '?sort=version&dir=DESC&page=1&limit=10&status=ACTIVE';
beforeEach(module('vicModule'));
beforeEach(inject(function(_$controller_, _vicFactory_, _$q_, _$rootScope_, _$httpBackend_, _$httpParamSerializer_) {
$controller = _$controller_;
vicFactory = {
getVICs: function () {
deferred = $q.defer();
return deferred.promise;
}
};
$q = _$q_;
$rootScope = _$rootScope_;
$scope = $rootScope.$new();
$httpBackend = _$httpBackend_;
$httpParamSerializer = _$httpParamSerializer_;
spyOn(vicFactory, 'getVICs').and.callThrough();
vicController = $controller('vicController', {vicFactory: vicFactory});
deferred.resolve(vicList);
}));
it('should be defined', function() {
expect(vicController).toBeDefined();
});
it('should call getVICs() on load', function() {
$httpBackend.expectGET(''/path/to/my/api?' + qs).respond(200, vicList);
$scope.$digest();
expect(vicFactory.getVICs).toHaveBeenCalledWith(qs);
expect($scope.vicList).toEqual(vicList);
});
});
controller
angular.module('vicModule')
.controller('vicController', vicController);
vicController.$inject = [
'vicFactory'
];
function vicController(vicFactory) {
var vm = this;
var qs = '?sort=version&dir=DESC&page=1&limit=10&status=ACTIVE';
vicFactory.getVICs(qs)
.then(function(response) {
console.log('vic controller success');
console.log(response);
vm.vicList = response;
}, function(response) {
console.log('vic controller error');
console.log(response);
});
}
Fixed
Got this working by injecting $q and $scope, setting vicFactory in beforeEach, updating spy, and then resolving the deferred with the expected data set after controller initialization. The controller test spec has been updated, hope this help someone.