chai-jest-snapshot

Chai assertion for jest-snapshot. See Jest 14.0: React Snapshot Testing for background knowledge about snapshot testing.

Installation

On the command line:

$ npm install --save-dev chai-jest-snapshot

Usage

There are four different ways to use chai-jest-snapshot.

Mocha Configuration Mode (Recommended for Mocha Users)

If you are using mocha as your test runner, it is recommended to use chai-jest-snapshot in "mocha configuration mode".

Note: do not use an arrow function for the beforeEach as these will not receive the correct this value provided by mocha.

In your test setup file:

import chai from "chai";
import chaiJestSnapshot from "chai-jest-snapshot";
 
chai.use(chaiJestSnapshot);
 
before(function() {
  chaiJestSnapshot.resetSnapshotRegistry();
});
 
beforeEach(function() {
  chaiJestSnapshot.configureUsingMochaContext(this);
});

In your spec file(s) (as an example):

import React from "react";
import renderer from "react-test-renderer";
import { expect } from "chai";
import Link from "./Link";
 
describe("Link", function() {
  it("renders correctly", () => {
    const tree = renderer.create(
      <Link page="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</Link>
    ).toJSON();
    expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot();
  });
});

This will automatically write snapshots to a file with the same name as your test file, with .snap added to the end. This will also choose snapshot names based on the test name, adding a number to the end based on the number of times matchSnapshot was called in each test (similar to jest).

In this mode, to update a single snapshot, you can pass true as an argument to matchSnapshot:

expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot(true);

If you want to update all snapshots without adding true to each one, set the environment variable CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest -u.

If you want tests to fail when a snapshot is missing (instead of writing a new one), set the environment variable CI to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CI=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CI=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest --ci.

Jest Configuration Mode (Recommended for Jest Users)

If you are using Jest, but prefer Chai assertions, you don’t have anything to configure except loading the plugin itself: the matchSnapshot Chai assertion will automatically delegate to Jest’s built-in snapshot capability, so all usual options, settings, CLI flags, method arguments, etc. will work out of the box.

import chai from "chai";
import chaiJestSnapshot from "chai-jest-snapshot";
 
chai.use(chaiJestSnapshot);

Framework-agnostic Configuration Mode (Recommended for Non-Mocha/Jest Users)

If you are using neither mocha nor Jest as your test runner, it is recommended to use chai-jest-snapshot in "framework-agnostic configuration mode".

In your test setup file:

import chai from "chai";
import chaiJestSnapshot from "chai-jest-snapshot";
 
chai.use(chaiJestSnapshot);
 
before(function() {
  // In order for watch mode to work correctly, the snapshot registry needs to
  // be reset at the beginning of each suite run. In mocha, `before` callbacks
  // are called before the whole suite runs, but in other test runners you may
  // need to run this somewhere else; for example, in jasmine, you'd put it in a
  // `beforeAll` instead of `before`.
  chaiJestSnapshot.resetSnapshotRegistry();
});

In your spec file(s) (as an example):

import React from "react";
import renderer from "react-test-renderer";
import { expect } from "chai";
import Link from "./Link";
 
describe("Link", function() {
  beforeEach(function() {
    chaiJestSnapshot.setFilename(__filename + ".snap");
  });
 
  it("renders correctly", () => {
    // There may be a way to automate this in your test runner; for example,
    // getting the test name in the beforeEach callback, or using a custom
    // reporter to hook into the test lifecycle.
    chaiJestSnapshot.setTestName("Link renders correctly");
 
    const tree = renderer.create(
      <Link page="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</Link>
    ).toJSON();
    expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot();
  });
});

This will write snapshots to the file name you specify, (in this example, a file with the same name and location as the spec file, but with .snap added to the end). This will use whatever snapshot name you specify as a template, adding a number to the end based on the number of times matchSnapshot was called using the same file name and snapshot name (similar to what jest does).

In this mode, to update a single snapshot, you can pass true as an argument to matchSnapshot:

expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot(true);

If you want to update all snapshots without adding true to each one, set the environment variable CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest -u.

If you want tests to fail when a snapshot is missing (instead of writing a new one), set the environment variable CI to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CI=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CI=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest --ci.

Manual Mode

If Mocha Configuration Mode or Framework-agnostic Configuration Mode do not satisfy your needs, you can use "manual mode".

In your test setup file:

import chai from "chai";
import chaiJestSnapshot from "chai-jest-snapshot";
 
chai.use(chaiJestSnapshot);

In your spec file(s) (as an example):

import React from "react";
import renderer from "react-test-renderer";
import { expect } from "chai";
import Link from "./Link";
 
describe("Link", function() {
  it("renders correctly", () => {
    const tree = renderer.create(
      <Link page="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</Link>
    ).toJSON();
 
    let snapshotFilename = __filename + ".snap";
    let snapshotName = "Link renders correctly";
    expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot(snapshotFilename, snapshotName);
  });
});

This will write snapshots to the file name you specify, (in this example, a file with the same name and location as the spec file, but with .snap added to the end). This will use whatever snapshot name you specify as the snapshot name. NOTE: unlike other modes, this mode does not add a number to the end of the snapshot name.

In this mode, to update a single snapshot, you can pass true as an extra, third argument to matchSnapshot:

expect(tree).to.matchSnapshot(snapshotFilename, snapshotName, true);

If you want to update all snapshots without adding true to each one, set the environment variable CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CHAI_JEST_SNAPSHOT_UPDATE_ALL=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest -u.

If you want tests to fail when a snapshot is missing (instead of writing a new one), set the environment variable CI to "true":

# assuming `npm test` runs your tests: 
# sh/bash/zsh 
$ CI=true npm test
# fish 
$ env CI=true npm test

This behaves similarly to running jest --ci.

Tips

• If you are referencing __filename or __dirname in your snapshot file names, and compile your tests using babel, you will probably want to use babel-plugin-transform-dirname-filename to ensure your snapshots end up in your source directory instead of the directory where your tests were built (ie dist or build).

Contributing

$ npm install
$ npm test

Pull Requests and Issues welcome