react-test-tree

Install

With npm do:

npm install --save-dev react-test-tree

Overview

react-test-tree is a simple, scalable and concise way of testing React components. It is an evolution of the react-page-objects library.

A test tree is dev-friendly representation of your entire React component tree, built by recursing through special props applied to your components.

React gives us some great utilities for testing React components, however they lead to overly-verbose boilerplate that clutters your tests. react-test-tree tidies this clutter away, allowing you to manipulate your components with short, concise statements:

var BozComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div>
        <button testRef="biz">Biz</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
});
 
var FuzComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return <div />
  }
});
 
var FooComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div>
        <button testRef="bar">Bar</button>
        <select testRefCollection="baz">
          <option>blue</option>
          <option>gold</option>
        </select>
        <BozComponent testRef="boz" />
        <FuzComponent testRef="fuz" />
      </div>
    );
  }
});
 
var fooTree = testTree(<FooComponent />, {
  stub: {
    fuz: null
  }
});
fooTree.get("bar").click(); // simulates a click
fooTree.getIn(["boz", "biz"]).click(); // simulates a click on a deep node
fooTree.get("baz").length === 2; // collection of nodes
fooTree.get("fuz") === null; // null due to being stubbed out

In the above example react-test-tree has recursively built a tree out of the testRef and testRefCollection props, represented as nodes of the tree, which can be retrieved using get() or getIn(). Any names that appear in the stub tree config get replaced or removed.

testRef and testRefCollection

You should be familiar with the ref prop in React. They are used when you need to reference an element in your render function. You can look at the testRef prop like a ref, but purely for testing. It is necessary to distinguish between the two because of their applications; the React team is making it increasingly clear that refs should only be used for very specific purposes, which don't primarily include testing.

As well as the basic testRef prop, react-test-tree makes it possible to retrieve the children of an element by use of refCollection. Declaring testRefCollection on a component will make all it's direct children available on the corresonding tree node as an array:

var BarComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <select testRef="foo" testRefCollection="bar">
        <option value="blue">Blue</option>
        <option value="gold">Gold</option>
      </select>;
    );
  }
});
 
var barTree = testTree(<BarComponent />);
barTree.get("bar").length === 2;
barTree.get("bar")[0].getAttribute("value") === "blue";

Notes:

• You can still apply a testRef as well as a testRefCollection if you want to be able to manipulate the parent element too.
• testRefs and testRefCollections may not have the same name.
• Updates to the render tree will not be reflected in the test tree until the next tick. You should defer accessing the tree after causing any updates:

var tree = testTree(<MyComponent />);
tree.get('button').click();
defer(function () {
  expect(tree.state.clicked).to.be.true; // passes
});

Stubs

It is inevitable that at some point when testing React components you will want to avoid rendering part of a component. Perhaps it might trigger some sideways data loading, or maybe you want to replace it with a mock. react-test-tree allows you to quickly and easily stub out any testRefs in the tree with either null or a replacement component:

var MockComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    console.log(this.props.aProp);
    return <div>{this.props.children}</div>;
  }
});
 
var BizComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div>
        <button testRef="fuz">Fuz</button>
      </div>
    );
  }
});
 
var FooComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div>
        <div testRef="bar" />
        <div testRef="baz" aProp="hello">Baz</div>
        <div testRef="boz" aProp="hello">Boz</div>
      </div>
    );
  }
});
 
var fooTree = testTree(<FooComponent />, {
  stub: {
    bar: null,
    baz: <MockComponent />
    boz: <MockComponent aProp="foobar">Bazza</MockComponent>,
    biz: {
      fuz: null
    }
  }
});
fooTree.get("bar"); // -> null
fooTree.getIn(["biz", "fuz"]); // -> null
fooTree.get("baz"); // -> replaced with `MockComponent` and renders `Baz` string as child
fooTree.get("boz"); // -> replaced with `MockComponent` and renders `Bazza` string as child

Notes:

• You can use any falsy stub value other than undefined to completely remove a component (e.g. null, false).
• The stub object supports nesting; you can stub testRefs nested deep inside child composite components.
• Mock components are rendered with the new props (and children) of the mock component merged into the original props (and children) of the stubbed testRef. This behaviour is demonstrated in the example above; baz will log hello and have the child Baz, whilst boz will log foobar and have the child Bazza.

API

testTree(<Component />, {options})

Creates the tree and returns the root node.

Options

• stub: see section on stubs
• mount: if true, the tree's container will be mounted into the body rather than being rendered entirely in memory. Useful if you need to test various styling aspects.
• context: use this option to pass through the context object required for your component. test-tree will automatically wrap your component and pass through the context.
• wrap: if true, the tree will be wrapped in an outer component. This is useful if you want to pass elements with testRefs directly into test-tree without them being contained in a component, e.g.:

var tree = testTree(
  <ul testRefCollection="foo">
    <li testRef="bar" />
    <li />
  </ul>
, { wrap: true });
tree.foo; // exists

node.get(refName)

Returns the node for the specified testRef or testRefCollection name.

node.getIn([refName])

Same as node.get(refName) except it allows you to cleanly retrieve a node from deep down the testRef tree. For example, instead of:

tree.get("foo").get("bar").get("baz").click();

you could write:

tree.getIn(["foo", "bar", "baz"]).click();

rootNode.dispose()

Safely unmount the tree. Will only unmount if component is already mounted. Can only be called on the root node of the tree.

node.state

Returns the state of your component.

node.value

Getter/setter for the element value. Should only be used if the component is a valid HTML element that accepts the value attribute.

node.simulate

Instance of React.addons.TestUtils.Simulate, bound to the node. All its methods (beforeInput, blur, change, click, compositionEnd, compositionStart, compositionUpdate, contextMenu, copy, cut, doubleClick, drag, dragEnd, dragEnter, dragExit, dragLeave, dragOver, dragStart, drop, error, focus, input, keyDown, keyPress, keyUp, load, mouseDown, mouseEnter, mouseLeave, mouseMove, mouseOut, mouseOver, mouseUp, paste, reset, scroll, select, submit, touchCancel, touchEnd, touchMove, touchStart, wheel) can be called.

For example, to simulate double-clicking a node called myButton, use:

myButton.simulate.doubleClick();

node.click()

Shorthand method for simulating a click on the node's element.

node.getAttribute(attributeName)

Returns the specified attribute from the node's element.

node.getClassName()

Shorthand method for getting the class attribute of the node's element.

node.getProp()

Returns the specified prop from the node's element.

node.isMounted()

Returns true if the component/element is mounted, false if not.

node.getDOMNode()

Returns the DOM node for the node.

node.element

Reference to the original React element for the node.

node.innerText

Returns the innerText of the element (or textContent if innerText not present).

Updating to v1.0.0

React 0.14 introduced stateless function components. This new type of component cannot contain refs and also cannot have refs applied to them. The React team is trying to encourage refs to only be used for very specific purposes, which doesn't primarily include testing. We have taken the decision with react-test-tree to support the React team in their decision to separate the usage of refs from testing by switching to using the testRef and testRefCollection props instead of ref and testRef. Here is an example of a component pre-v1.0.0 and after:

// Pre-v1.0.0
var MyComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div ref='foo' refCollection='bar' />
    );
  }
});
 
// v1.0.0
var MyComponent = React.createClass({
  render: function () {
    return (
      <div testRef='foo' testRefCollection='bar' />
    );
  }
});

Pre-v1.0.0, refs and refCollections were accessible as direct properties of the node. This led to issues with collisions between ref names and react-test-tree's node methods. In v1.0.0 the API has been changed to solve this problem. Node are now accessed using the node.get() and node.getIn() methods:

// Pre-v1.0.0
tree.foo.bar.click();
 
// v1.0.0
tree.get("foo").get("bar").click();
// or
tree.getIn(["foo", "bar"]).click();

Post-v1.0.0 have a new option, wrap that you'll need to pass if you need a testRef or testRefCollection on the component that you're passing into react-test-tree.

// Pre-v1.0.0
var tree = testTree(
  <ul refCollection="foo">
    <li ref="bar" />
    <li />
  </ul>);
 
tree.foo; // exists
 
// v1.0.0
var tree = testTree(
  <ul testRefCollection="foo">
    <li testRef="bar" />
    <li />
  </ul>
, { wrap: true });
 
tree.foo; // exists

React versions

The master branch currently supports React 0.14 and is not backwards compatible.

• React 0.14: react-test-tree@latest
• React 0.13/0.12: react-test-tree@^0.3.1

Contributing

• make bootstrap - install dependencies
• make test - run unit tests
• make build - build into dist folder
• make lint - lint the project
• make test-watch - run karma with the watch option
• make release - increment and publish to npm