Skip or Only Run a Test with JavaScript Mocha

By  on  

Whenever I start to feel anxiety about a big change I'm making, I start writing more unit tests. I'll write down my fear and then write a test that attacks, and eventually relaxes, that fear. There are two actions that I've been frequently using with test writing: skipping all but one test or single tests.

Skip a Test

Oftentimes I will create tests with empty bodies so that I don't forget to write them. To skip a test which is incomplete or known to fail, you can use xit:

xit('does the thing I want', () => {

});

Once the test is complete or ready to be applied, you can change xit back to it.

Run a Single Test

To run only a single test with the Mocha test framework, use it.only:

it.only('does the thing I want', () => {

});

it.only is especially helpful if you have a large test suite and just want the result of a work-in-progress test quickly.

Let's be honest: writing tests isn't very fun. Like taking your cousin to the school dance or changing a diaper. But test writing is important enough to save yourself, and more importantly, your users, from disaster.

Recent Features

  • By
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Vibration API

    Many of the new APIs provided to us by browser vendors are more targeted toward the mobile user than the desktop user.  One of those simple APIs the Vibration API.  The Vibration API allows developers to direct the device, using JavaScript, to vibrate in...

  • By
    Highlighter: A MooTools Search & Highlight Plugin

    Searching within the page is a major browser functionality, but what if we could code a search box in JavaScript that would do the same thing? I set out to do that using MooTools and ended up with a pretty decent solution. The MooTools JavaScript Class The...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!