Testing Mongoose Node.JS app

Question

I'm trying to write unit tests for parts of my Node app. I'm using Mongoose for my ORM.

I've searched a bunch for how to do testing with Mongoose and Node but not come with anything. The solutions/frameworks all seem to be full-stack or make no mention of mocking stuff.

Is there a way I can mock my Mongoose DB so I can return static data in my tests? I'd rather not have to set up a test DB and fill it with data for every unit test.

Has anyone else encountered this?

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 13 '12 at 14:44

I too went looking for answers, and ended up here. This is what I did:

I started off using mockery to mock out the module that my models were in. An then creating my own mock module with each model hanging off it as a property. These properties wrapped the real models (so that child properties exist for the code under test). And then I override the methods I want to manipulate for the test like save. This had the advantage of mockery being able to undo the mocking.

but...

I don't really care enough about undoing the mocking to write wrapper properties for every model. So now I just require my module and override the functions I want to manipulate. I will probably run tests in separate processes if it becomes an issue.

In the arrange part of my tests:

// mock out database saves
var db = require("../../schema");
db.Model1.prototype.save = function(callback) { 
    console.log("in the mock");
    callback();
};
db.Model2.prototype.save = function(callback) {
    console.log("in the mock");
    callback("mock staged an error for testing purposes");
};

did you do this with NodeJS? – bouncingHippo Feb 12 '13 at 21:59 — bouncingHippo, Feb 12 '13 at 21:59
@Michelle most probably the Mongoose schema definition – sshow May 09 '16 at 04:36 — sshow, May 09 '16 at 04:36

Gilad Beeri · Answer 2 · 2015-03-03T14:07:13.150

6

Also worth mentioning:
mockgoose - In-memory DB that mocks Mongoose, for testing purposes.
~~monckoose - Similar, but takes a different approach (Implements a fake driver).~~ Monckoose seems to be unpublished as of March 2015.

edited Mar 03 '15 at 14:07

answered Mar 07 '14 at 10:14

Gilad Beeri

306
3
5

Your second link is dead, it seems to have been unpublished. – Kevin B Mar 02 '15 at 16:03

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '11 at 09:32

I solved this by structuring my code a little. I'm keeping all my mongoose-related stuff in separate classes with APIs like "save", "find", "delete" and no other class does direct access to the database. Then I simply mock those in tests that rely on data.

I did something similar with the actual objects that are returned. For every model I have in mongoose, I have a corresponding class that wraps it and provides access-methods to fields. Those are also easily mocked.

Testing Mongoose Node.JS app

3 Answers3

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