Working with Angular 6 and Electron: The limitations of using a mocked class for unit testing and extending the real class

I encountered a problem while trying to write a unit test for my Electron app using Jasmine and Angular 6. The issue arises from the fact that I have a service which is not required to be tested in the specific test scenario of another service. To handle this, I attempted to mock the first service in the following way:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { TestService } from '../../services/test/test.service';

@Injectable()
export class TestServiceMock extends TestService {

    private somePath: string;

    public isFileExistent(path: string): boolean {
        return path === '\\some\\kind\\of\\path\\some.json' ? true : false;
    }
}

However, Visual Studio Code displayed the error message:

[ts] Class 'TestServiceMock' incorrectly extends base class 'TestService'.
Types have separate declarations of a private property 'somePath'.

I believe this error might be occurring due to a perceived difference in the "somePath" member between the "TestService" and the "TestServiceMock", although I can't seem to identify any actual distinction (in my understanding). This is the implementation of the original "TestService":

import {Injectable} from '@angular/core';
import {ElectronService} from '../electron/electron.service';

@Injectable()
export class TestService {

    private somePath: string;

    constructor(private electron: ElectronService) {
        this.somePath = this.electron.remote.app.getAppPath();
    }

    public isFileExistent(path: string): boolean {
        return // some boolean after a lot of operations not needed here
    }
}

Furthermore, when attempting to run the test, it resulted in the error:

[ts] Type 'typeof TestServiceMock' cannot be converted to type 'TestService'.
Property 'somePath' is missing in type 'typeof TestServiceMock'.

Here's the relevant test code snippet:

import { RealService } from './real.service';
import { TestServiceMock } from '../../response-models/test/test.service.mock';
import { TestService } from '../../services/test/test.service';

describe('RealService:', () => {
    let realservice: RealService;

    beforeEach(() => {
        realservice = new RealService(TestServiceMock as TestService);
    });

    it('should be available:', () => {
        expect(realservice).toBeDefined();
    });
});

I would appreciate your assistance with resolving this issue. Thank you in advance!

Answer №1

Creating a mock service for testing purposes doesn't require it to extend the actual service. You can simply create a separate mock class like this:

export class TestServiceMock {
  public isFileExistent(path: string): boolean {
    return true;
  }
}

This defines all the public methods and fields that external code can interact with, especially during testing.

To use this mock service in your test file, add the following configuration inside the beforeEach block provided by Angular:

TestBed.configureTestingModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent
  ],
  providers: [
    {provide: TestService, useValue: new TestServiceMock()} // This line is crucial
  ]
}).compileComponents();

The highlighted line essentially tells Angular to provide the TestService but use the mock value instead. This ensures that components receiving TestService will actually get the mocked version.

By utilizing TestBed, you can access the injected mock TestService and apply spies to manipulate its method outputs as needed.

I hope this explanation clarifies things for you!

Answer №2

The response given by @M Mansour is quite impressive when it comes to addressing this particular issue.

Nevertheless, if you wish to carry out testing on this unit without relying on TestBed, an alternative approach would be to furnish your class with a spy object generated using jasmine.createSpyObj() or an actual object and then utilize spyOn for the functions that require mocking.

An instance utilizing an actual object followed by spying on the function:

import { RealService } from './real.service';
import { TestService } from '../../services/test/test.service';

describe('RealService:', () => {
  let realService: RealService;
  let testService: TestService;

  beforeEach(() => {
    testService = new TestService();
    realService = new RealService(TestService);
  });

  it('should invoke isFileExistent with a valid path', () => {
    spyOn(testService, 'isFileExistent').and.returnValue(true);
    realService.doSomething();
    expect(testService.isFileExistent).toHaveBeenCalledWith('VALID_PATH');
  });
});

Naturally, adopting this method may necessitate setting up all dependencies prior to the target unit. However, I have discovered it to be more efficient in terms of execution and comprehension.

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