AngularJs Testing Sinon spy - angularjs

Question

I am new with Sinon so I wanted to check whether a specific function is being called, this is what I got:
terminalController.controller('CashAcceptorController', [
'PaymentService',
'$rootScope',
'$scope',
'PayingInfo',
'$interval',
'$location',
function (PaymentService, $rootScope, $scope, PayingInfo, $interval, $location) {
PaymentService.start();
....
]);
In tests, I try to check that PaymentService.start() is called on controller instantiation:
describe('CashAcceptorController', function() {
var PaymentService, rootScope, scope, PayingInfo, $interval, $location;
var mySpy = sinon.spy(PaymentService.start());;
beforeEach(module('eshtaPayTerminalApp.controllers'));
beforeEach(module('eshtaPayTerminalApp.services'));
beforeEach(inject(function($controller,
$rootScope, _PaymentService_, _$interval_, _PayingInfo_) {
$interval = _$interval_;
scope = $rootScope.$new();
rootScope = $rootScope.$new();
PaymentService = _PaymentService_;
PayingInfo = _PayingInfo_;
rootScope.serviceNumber = 'm1';
rootScope.phoneNumber = '05135309';
$controller('CashAcceptorController', {
$rootScope : rootScope,
$scope : scope,
$location : $location,
_PaymentService_ : PaymentService,
_$interval_:$interval,
_PayingInfo_:PayingInfo
});
}));
it('should call start paying', function() {
expect(mySpy.callCount).to.equal(1);
});
But this assertion fails. What am I doing wrong? Help please :)

Answer 1

There's a couple of issues with your code
The PaymentService object needs to be assigned before you can spy on it
To add a spy with sinon you need pass the method name as a string eg. sinon.spy(PaymentService, 'start');
I've created a working plunk of the above at http://plnkr.co/edit/AvqS3L?p=preview
Here's the updated test code:
describe('CashAcceptorController', function() {
var PaymentService;
var $controller;
beforeEach(module('eshtaPayTerminalApp.controllers'));
beforeEach(module('eshtaPayTerminalApp.services'));
beforeEach(inject(function(_PaymentService_, _$controller_) {
PaymentService = _PaymentService_;
$controller = _$controller_;
}));
it('should call start paying', function() {
var mySpy = sinon.spy(PaymentService, 'start');
$controller('CashAcceptorController', { PaymentService: PaymentService });
chai.expect(mySpy.callCount).to.equal(1);
// another way of checking that it was called once
chai.assert(PaymentService.start.calledOnce);
});
});