Mocha/Chai with TypeScript (2023 update)
#typescript#tutorial#javascript#webdev
Matteo Bruni

Matteo Bruni @matteobruni

About: Full Stack Developer, mainly working in .NET with web technologies and mobile (Xamarin). WWDC14 Attendee, when Swift was presented, a bit rusty but can work in Swift too.

Joined:
Mar 12, 2020

Mocha/Chai with TypeScript (2023 update)

Publish Date: Aug 13 '23
53 8

I wrote an article in 2020 for using Mocha/Chai in a TypeScript project, that I'm using in tsParticles (leave a star if you want 🌟, it's free 👀).

GitHub logo tsparticles / tsparticles

tsParticles - Easily create highly customizable JavaScript particles effects, confetti explosions and fireworks animations and use them as animated backgrounds for your website. Ready to use components available for React.js, Vue.js (2.x and 3.x), Angular, Svelte, jQuery, Preact, Inferno, Solid, Riot and Web Components.

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Since then, I've made some changes to my codebase that could be helpful to someone.

New requirements

Previous packages were these:



npm install chai mocha ts-node @types/chai @types/mocha --save-dev
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But now I recommend to install these instead



npm install chai mocha ts-node cross-env @types/chai @types/mocha --save-dev
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If you can't spot the difference, I added cross-env to the dependencies.

The test command changed too, using cross-env instead of the env command, which works in all environments correctly.

The old command was:



"test": "env TS_NODE_COMPILER_OPTIONS='{\"module\": \"commonjs\" }' mocha -r ts-node/register 'tests/**/*.ts'"
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the new one is:



"test": "cross-env TS_NODE_COMPILER_OPTIONS='{\"module\": \"commonjs\" }' mocha -r ts-node/register 'tests/**/*.ts'"
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or you can create a custom tsconfig for your tests using this command instead



"test": "env TS_NODE_PROJECT='./tsconfig.test.json' mocha -r ts-node/register 'tests/**/*.ts'"
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and for a shorter command you can create a .mocharc.json file like this



{
  "extension": [
    "ts"
  ],
  "spec": "tests/**/*.ts",
  "require": [
    "jsdom-global/register",
    "ts-node/register",
    "source-map-support/register"
  ],
  "recursive": true
}
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and the command



"test": "cross-env TS_NODE_PROJECT='./tsconfig.test.json' mocha"
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Coverage

Since then I started using the package nyc which is useful for seeing how much code is covered by tests.

It's really easy to use, and it's not interfere with mocha or chai.

Just install it like this:



npm install nyc --save-dev
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You can start using nyc just putting nyc in front of mocha. Like this:



"test": "cross-env TS_NODE_PROJECT='./tsconfig.test.json' nyc mocha"
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Now when you run the tests, you will see a table containing every file called by tests, with uncovered lines and percentages.

matteobruni

Mocha/Chai with TypeScript

Matteo Bruni ・ Apr 15 '20

#tutorial #typescript #javascript #webdev

Happy TypeScript testing to everyone.

If you want to support me, here's my GitHub sponsor profile

Comments 8 total

  • rulatir
    rulatirOct 3, 2023

    "module": "commonjs" is worrying. It forces me to target commonjs. That's a nasty limitation, like "it's 2023 and you wish you could live in an ESM world, but good things are not for you if you want to be able to test".

    • Matteo Bruni
      Matteo BruniOct 3, 2023

      You can target that only for testing, like I did. I did now some research and it seems that it could be possible but the issue is still opened so maybe it's like in a beta state or something

      github.com/mochajs/mocha-examples/...

      Maybe I will give it a try to see if it works.

  • Vishal Kamal
    Vishal KamalFeb 29, 2024

    Getting below error:
    project-name@0.0.1 test

    cross-env TS_NODE_COMPILER_OPTIONS='{"module": "commonjs" }' mocha -r ts-node/register 'test/*/.ts'

    TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension ".ts" for /var/www/html/project-name/test/calculator.service.spec.ts
    at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:399:5)
    at Object.getFileProtocolModuleFormat as file:
    at defaultGetFormat (node:internal/modules/esm/get_format:139:38)
    at ESMLoader.defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:83:20)
    at ESMLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:342:43)
    at ESMLoader.moduleProvider (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:207:22)
    at new ModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:63:26)
    at ESMLoader.#createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:231:17)
    at ESMLoader.getModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:184:34)

  • Shelfiehome
    ShelfiehomeMay 14, 2024

    nice
    norsemaison.com

  • Kannan Thulasi Doss
    Kannan Thulasi DossNov 19, 2024

    @matteobruni where do we need to write the .mocharc.json file? Is ./tsconfig.test.json and .mocharc.json both are same?

  • Prajyot Khandeparkar
    Prajyot KhandeparkarNov 28, 2024

    these are good updates and it works till restricted versions of mocha and chai
    here is what I'm using
    "@types/chai": "^4.3.5",
    "@types/mocha": "^10.0.1",
    "chai": "^4.3.7",
    "cross-env": "^7.0.3",
    "mocha": "^10.2.0",

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