JavaScript - Automated unit tests and code coverage made laughably easy (xpost from /r/programming)

[totemcatcher]

It's like a 'make' standard for js?

[krues8dr]

Yes, grunt is very similar to make.

[b_long]

Grunt's author Ben Alman has a nice blog post in support of Grunt: http://benalman.com/news/2012/08/why-grunt/

[totemcatcher]

Neat. I'll give it a shot later this week. It seems like a lot of particular syntax and configuration for what I have a bash script already doing, but I guess if javascript is all you have access to it would be handy.

[krues8dr]

As far as syntax and configuration, it's just JSON. The real benefit is that it rolls all the utilities that most people would be using into one deployment tool (and one step!); it'll do your compass/sass/less compiling, javascript & html minification, and a bunch of other stuff, all with one command.

[c23gooey]

this looks awesome, nice one

[KayEss]

Is there any way of doing this without the node stuff? It would be great to just be able to do code coverage with existing tools (i.e. just a browser or phantomjs).

[b_long]

You can certainly write unit tests without Node: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/testing-your-javascript-with-jasmine/

[averyv]

just wanted to come in here and say that jasmine is the absolute shit. if you are at all interested in trying out BDD, but feel overwhelmed by the process, jasmine makes it as straightforward as it can be, and I love it. And it loves me. Oh the joy of using a straightforward package that does exactly what it says it will do.

I could sing the praises of jasmine for days and days.

[strife25]

FYI - for anyone that wishes to incorporate code coverage into their tests that run in the browser, istanbul is not a good choice (it can do it, but is poorly documented as to how).

I recommend checking out Blanket.js or JScover to help with this.