Typescript and Jest: Avoiding type errors on mocked functions

Question

When wanting to mock external modules with Jest, we can use the jest.mock() method to auto-mock functions on a module.

We can then manipulate and interrogate the mocked functions on our mocked module as we wish.

For example, consider the following contrived example for mocking the axios module:

import myModuleThatCallsAxios from '../myModule';
import axios from 'axios';

jest.mock('axios');

it('Calls the GET method as expected', async () => {
  const expectedResult: string = 'result';

  axios.get.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });
  const result = await myModuleThatCallsAxios.makeGetRequest();

  expect(axios.get).toHaveBeenCalled();
  expect(result).toBe(expectedResult);
});

The above will run fine in Jest but will throw a Typescript error:

Property 'mockReturnValueOnce' does not exist on type '(url: string, config?: AxiosRequestConfig | undefined) => AxiosPromise'.

The typedef for axios.get rightly doesn't include a mockReturnValueOnce property. We can force Typescript to treat axios.get as an Object literal by wrapping it as Object(axios.get), but:

What is the idiomatic way to mock functions while maintaining type safety?

Answer 1

Add this line of code const mockedAxios = axios as jest.Mocked<typeof axios>. And then use the mockedAxios to call the mockReturnValueOnce. With your code, should be done like this:

import myModuleThatCallsAxios from '../myModule';
import axios from 'axios';

jest.mock('axios');
const mockedAxios = axios as jest.Mocked<typeof axios>;

it('Calls the GET method as expected', async () => {
  const expectedResult: string = 'result';

  mockedAxios.get.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });
  const result = await myModuleThatCallsAxios.makeGetRequest();

  expect(mockedAxios.get).toHaveBeenCalled();
  expect(result).toBe(expectedResult);
});

Answer 2

Please use mocked function from ts-jest

import myModuleThatCallsAxios from '../myModule';
import axios from 'axios';

jest.mock('axios');

// OPTION - 1
const mockedAxios = mocked(axios, true)
// your original `it` block
it('Calls the GET method as expected', async () => {
  const expectedResult: string = 'result';

  mockedAxios.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });
  const result = await myModuleThatCallsAxios.makeGetRequest();

  expect(mockedAxios.get).toHaveBeenCalled();
  expect(result).toBe(expectedResult);
});

// OPTION - 2
// wrap axios in mocked at the place you use
it('Calls the GET method as expected', async () => {
  const expectedResult: string = 'result';

  mocked(axios).get.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });
  const result = await myModuleThatCallsAxios.makeGetRequest();

  // notice how axios is wrapped in `mocked` call
  expect(mocked(axios).get).toHaveBeenCalled();
  expect(result).toBe(expectedResult);
});

I can't emphasise how great mocked is, no more type-casting ever.

Answer 3

To idiomatically mock the function while maintaining type safety use spyOn in combination with mockReturnValueOnce:

import myModuleThatCallsAxios from '../myModule';
import axios from 'axios';

it('Calls the GET method as expected', async () => {
  const expectedResult: string = 'result';

  // set up mock for axios.get
  const mock = jest.spyOn(axios, 'get');
  mock.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });

  const result = await myModuleThatCallsAxios.makeGetRequest();

  expect(mock).toHaveBeenCalled();
  expect(result).toBe(expectedResult);

  // restore axios.get
  mock.mockRestore();
});

Answer 4

A usual approach to provide new functionality to imports to extend original module like declare module "axios" { ... }. It's not the best choice here because this should be done for entire module, while mocks may be available in one test and be unavailable in another.

In this case a type-safe approach is to assert types where needed:

  (axios.get as jest.Mock).mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });
  ...
  expect(axios.get as jest.Mock).toHaveBeenCalled();

Answer 5

@hutabalian The code works really well when you use axios.get or axios.post but if you use a config for requests the following code:

const expectedResult: string = 'result';
const mockedAxios = axios as jest.Mocked<typeof axios>;
mockedAxios.mockReturnValueOnce({ data: expectedResult });

Will result in this error:

TS2339 (TS) Property 'mockReturnValueOnce' does not exist on type 'Mocked'.

You can solve it like this instead:

AxiosRequest.test.tsx

import axios from 'axios';
import { MediaByIdentifier } from '../api/mediaController';

jest.mock('axios', () => jest.fn());

test('Test AxiosRequest',async () => {
    const mRes = { status: 200, data: 'fake data' };
    (axios as unknown as jest.Mock).mockResolvedValueOnce(mRes);
    const mock = await MediaByIdentifier('Test');
    expect(mock).toEqual(mRes);
    expect(axios).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
});

mediaController.ts:

import { sendRequest } from './request'
import { AxiosPromise } from 'axios'
import { MediaDto } from './../model/typegen/mediaDto';

const path = '/api/media/'

export const MediaByIdentifier = (identifier: string): AxiosPromise<MediaDto> => {
    return sendRequest(path + 'MediaByIdentifier?identifier=' + identifier, 'get');
}

request.ts:

import axios, { AxiosPromise, AxiosRequestConfig, Method } from 'axios';

const getConfig = (url: string, method: Method, params?: any, data?: any) => {
     const config: AxiosRequestConfig = {
         url: url,
         method: method,
         responseType: 'json',
         params: params,
         data: data,
         headers: { 'X-Requested-With': 'XMLHttpRequest', 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    }
    return config;
}

export const sendRequest = (url: string, method: Method, params?: any, data?: any): AxiosPromise<any> => {
    return axios(getConfig(url, method, params, data))
}

Answer 6

After updating to the newest Axios (0.21.1) I started to have this kind of problem. I tried a lot of solutions but with no result.

My workaround:

type axiosTestResponse = (T: unknown) => Promise<typeof T>;

...

it('some example', async () => {
  const axiosObject = {
    data: { items: [] },
    status: 200,
    statusText: 'ok',
    headers: '',
    config: {},
  } as AxiosResponse;

  (Axios.get as axiosTestResponse) = () => Promise.resolve(axiosObject);
});