testing Angular async services with Jasmine - angularjs

Question

I am trying to test a real http call with Jasmine (integration test), but when i call a method that uses $http.get, it times out and the server never gets called.
I know that I am supposed to inject the implementation of $http but not sure where that should happen.
searchSvc
app.service('searchSvc', ['$http', '$q', searchSvc]);
function searchSvc($http, $q) {
return {
search: function(text) {
console.log('svc.search called with ', text); // this does get called
return $q.when($http.get('/search/' + text));
}
};
}
searchSpec
describe("searchTest", function() {
var ctrl, svc, $http;
beforeEach(function () {
module('testApp');
inject(function(_$controller_, searchSvc, _$http_){
ctrl = _$controller_('searchCtrl');
svc = searchSvc;
$http = _$http_;
})
});
it('test server search', function(done) {
svc.search('re').then(function(result) {
console.log('promise then'); // this never gets called, because server never gets called
expect(result).not.toBeNull();
expect(result.data).not.toBeNull();
expect(result.data.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
done();
});
});

Answer 1

In case if you use promises you can find out how to deal with them here http://entwicklertagebuch.com/blog/2013/10/how-to-handle-angularjs-promises-in-jasmine-unit-tests/

Answer 2

This is sort of hypothetical, but if you include both ngMock & ngMockE2E modules as your app module's dependency (ngMock needs to come before ngMockE2E in the dependency list) you should be able to use $httpBackend service provided by ngMockE2E module to passThrough the search api call to actual backend in your test specs.
Try something like this and see whether it works:
describe("searchTest", function() {
var ctrl, svc, $httpBackend;
beforeEach(function () {
module('testApp');
inject(function(_$controller_, searchSvc, _$httpBackend_){
$httpBackend = _$httpBackend_;
ctrl = _$controller_('searchCtrl');
svc = searchSvc;
});
});
it('test server search', function(done) {
$httpBackend.whenGET(/^\/search\//).passThrough();
svc.search('re').then(function(result) {
console.log('promise then'); // this never gets called, because server never gets called
expect(result).not.toBeNull();
expect(result.data).not.toBeNull();
expect(result.data.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
done();
});
});
});

Answer 3

Here is a solution that I use to make real HTTP calls when I'm using ngMock for unit tests. I mainly use it for debugging, working through the test, getting JSON examples etc.
I wrote a more detailed post about the solution on my blog: How to Unit Test with real HTTP calls using ngMockE2E & passThrough.
The solution is as follows:
angular.mock.http = {};
angular.mock.http.init = function() {
angular.module('ngMock', ['ng', 'ngMockE2E']).provider({
$exceptionHandler: angular.mock.$ExceptionHandlerProvider,
$log: angular.mock.$LogProvider,
$interval: angular.mock.$IntervalProvider,
$rootElement: angular.mock.$RootElementProvider
}).config(['$provide', function($provide) {
$provide.decorator('$timeout', angular.mock.$TimeoutDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$$rAF', angular.mock.$RAFDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$$asyncCallback', angular.mock.$AsyncCallbackDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$rootScope', angular.mock.$RootScopeDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$controller', angular.mock.$ControllerDecorator);
}]);
};
angular.mock.http.reset = function() {
angular.module('ngMock', ['ng']).provider({
$browser: angular.mock.$BrowserProvider,
$exceptionHandler: angular.mock.$ExceptionHandlerProvider,
$log: angular.mock.$LogProvider,
$interval: angular.mock.$IntervalProvider,
$httpBackend: angular.mock.$HttpBackendProvider,
$rootElement: angular.mock.$RootElementProvider
}).config(['$provide', function($provide) {
$provide.decorator('$timeout', angular.mock.$TimeoutDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$$rAF', angular.mock.$RAFDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$$asyncCallback', angular.mock.$AsyncCallbackDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$rootScope', angular.mock.$RootScopeDecorator);
$provide.decorator('$controller', angular.mock.$ControllerDecorator);
}]);
};
Include this source file after ngMock, for example:
<script type="text/javascript" src="angular.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="angular-mocks.js"></script>
<!-- this would be the source code just provided -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="ngMockHttp.js"></script>
How to write the test?
describe('http tests', function () {
beforeEach(module('moviesApp'));
var $controller;
var $httpBackend;
var $scope;
describe('real http tests', function() {
beforeEach(angular.mock.http.init);
afterEach(angular.mock.http.reset);
beforeEach(inject(function(_$controller_, _$httpBackend_) {
$controller = _$controller_;
$scope = {};
$httpBackend = _$httpBackend_;
// Note that this HTTP backend is ngMockE2E's, and will make a real HTTP request
$httpBackend.whenGET('http://www.omdbapi.com/?s=terminator').passThrough();
}));
it('should load default movies (with real http request)', function (done) {
var moviesController = $controller('MovieController', { $scope: $scope });
setTimeout(function() {
expect($scope.movies).not.toEqual([]);
done();
}, 1000);
});
});
});
How it works?
It uses ngMockE2E's version of $httpBackEndProvider, which provides us with the passThrough function we see being used in the test. This does as the name suggests and lets a native HTTP call pass through.
We need to re-define the ngMock module without its fake version of the $BrowserProvider, since that is what prevents the real HTTP calls in unit tests that use ngMock.