Small Jasmine test for Javascript file: Best approach to test it - backbone.js

Question

First of all I want to say that I am new in Jasmine, so I beg for your kind comprehension if the question is very basic. I am writing a test for this file:
define([
'q',
'backbone',
'marionette',
'education/eet/views/destinationview',
'education/eet/views/editdestinationview',
'education/eet/models/destination',
'common/ajaxerrorhandler',
'common/alertdialog'
], function (Q, Backbone, Marionette, DestinationView, EditDestinationView, Destination, AjaxErrorHandler, AlertDialog) {
'use strict';
var ReferenceDataController = Marionette.Controller.extend({
initialize: function (options) {
this._subjectCompositeId = options.subjectCompositeId;
},
getView: function (destinationTypes, editMode) {
var self = this,
deferred = Q.defer(),
destination = new Destination();
destination.fetch({
data: {subjectCompositeId: self._subjectCompositeId}
}).done(function () {
var view;
if (editMode) {
view = new EditDestinationView({
model: destination,
'destinationTypes': destinationTypes
});
view.on('click:saveDestination', self._handleSaveDestination, view);
} else {
view = new DestinationView({
model: destination
});
}
deferred.resolve(view);
}).fail(function (jqXHR) {
deferred.reject(jqXHR);
});
return deferred.promise;
},
_handleSaveDestination: function () {
if (this.model.isValid(true)) {
this.model.save(null, {
success: function () {
Backbone.Wreqr.radio.vent.trigger('education', 'show:destination');
},
error: function (jqXHR) {
var userFriendlyErrorString = AjaxErrorHandler.buildDefaultErrorMessage(jqXHR);
return new AlertDialog(userFriendlyErrorString);
}
});
}
}
});
return ReferenceDataController;
});
The problem is that I am not very sure about how can I access the variables inside it to test it. I am a Java Tester but never test Javascript even when I wrote, so I am very confused with it.
Any hint or code will be actually appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Think of Jasmine suite/spec as your application that is dependent on this module.
We do our specs as RequireJS modules that require the appropriate module, instantiate it - sometimes on module level, sometimes on suite (describe) level, sometimes on spec (it) level.
At this point, due to you (in it) having an access to an actual instance of the class, you invoke its various methods and test for the results using various asserts in the form of
expect(something).toBeTruthy();
or similar.