How to test with Jasmine an AngularJS controller that calls service method that returns promise

Question

I am using v1.2.0-rc.3 of AngularJS with Jasmine test framework.

I am trying to assert that a controller calls a service method. The service method returns a promise. The controller looks like this:

angular.module('test', [])
.controller('ctrl', ['$scope', 'svc', function ($scope, svc) {
  $scope.data = [];
  svc.query()
  .then(function (data) {
    $scope.data = data;
  });
}]);

I want to test that data is assigned to the scope when the service method's deferred is resolved. I have created a mock for the service and the unit test looks like this:

describe('ctrl', function () {
  var ctrl, scope, svc, def, data = [{name: 'test'}];
  beforeEach(module('test'));
  beforeEach(inject(function($controller, $rootScope, $q) {
    svc = {
      query: function () {
        def = $q.defer();
        return def.promise;
      }
    };
    scope = $rootScope.$new();
    controller = $controller('ctrl', {
      $scope: scope,
      svc: svc
    });
  }));
  it('should assign data to scope', function () {
    spyOn(svc, 'query').andCallThrough();
    deferred.resolve(data);
    scope.$digest();
    expect(svc.query).toHaveBeenCalled();
    expect(scope.data).toBe(data);
  });
});

I expect the query method of svc to be called, but apparently it hasn't.

I followed this guide to mocking promises in unit tests.

What am I doing wrong?

gwhn gwhn · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-24T10:35:48

It seems I was placing my spy in the wrong place. When I place it in the beforeEach, the test passes.

  beforeEach(inject(function($controller, $rootScope, $q) {
    svc = {
      query: function () {
        def = $q.defer();
        return def.promise;
      }
    };
    spyOn(svc, 'query').andCallThrough();
    scope = $rootScope.$new();
    controller = $controller('ctrl', {
      $scope: scope,
      svc: svc
    });
  }));

How to test with Jasmine an AngularJS controller that calls service method that returns promise

1 Answers