ReferenceError: describe is not defined NodeJs

Question

I am trying to define some endpoints and do a test using nodejs. In server.js I have:

var express = require('express');
var func1 = require('./func1.js');
var port = 8080;
var server = express();

server.configure(function(){
  server.use(express.bodyParser());
});

server.post('/testend/', func1.testend);

and in func1.js:

    var testend = function(req, res) {
           serialPort.write("1", function(err, results) {
           serialPort.write("2" + "\n", function(err, results) {
           });
      });
   });
    exports.testend = testend;

Now in test.js I am trying to use this endpoint:

var should = require('should');
var assert = require('assert');
var request = require('supertest');
var http = require('http');
var app = require('./../server.js');
var port = 8080;

describe('Account', function() {
        var url = "http://localhost:" + port.toString();
        it('test starts', function(done) {
                request(url).post('/testend/')
                // end handles the response
                .end(function(err, res) {
                        if (err) {
                                throw err;
                        }
                        res.body.error.should.type('string');
                        done();
                });
        });
});

But when I run node test.js I am getting this error:

describe('Account', function() {
^

ReferenceError: describe is not defined
    at Object. (/test/test.js:9:1)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
    at startup (node.js:119:16)
    at node.js:906:3

How can I fix the issue?

Answer 1

To run tests with node/npm without installing Mocha globally, you can do this:

• Install Mocha locally to your project (npm install mocha --save-dev)

• Optionally install an assertion library (npm install chai --save-dev)

• In your package.json, add a section for scripts and target the mocha binary

"scripts": {
  "test": "node ./node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha"
}

• Put your spec files in a directory named /test in your root directory

• In your spec files, import the assertion library

var expect = require('chai').expect;

• You don't need to import mocha, run mocha.setup, or call mocha.run()

• Then run the script from your project root:

npm test

Answer 2

You can also do like this:

  var mocha = require('mocha')
  var describe = mocha.describe
  var it = mocha.it
  var assert = require('chai').assert

  describe('#indexOf()', function() {
    it('should return -1 when not present', function() {
      assert.equal([1,2,3].indexOf(4), -1)
    })
  })

Reference: http://mochajs.org/#require

Answer 3

OP asked about running from node not from mocha. This is a very common use case, see Using Mocha Programatically

This is what injected describe and it into my tests.

mocha.ui('bdd').run(function (failures) {
    process.on('exit', function () {
      process.exit(failures);
    });
  });

I tried tdd like in the docs, but that didn't work, bdd worked though.

Answer 4

Assuming you are testing via mocha, you have to run your tests using the mocha command instead of the node executable.

So if you haven't already, make sure you do npm install mocha -g. Then just run mocha in your project's root directory.