Our First Test

It's time to start writing some tests! The type of tests that we will be writing are called integration tests. This is where our tests are checking that our application is communicating with external services (in this case a database) in the way we expect.

Integration tests sit above unit tests in the testing pyramid. We don't need to write as many, but they are slower and more complex. We are opting to use them here to help build a solid understanding of the relationship between web app and database.

You can read more about the testing pyramid here.

Our First Test

We will keep our first test simple for now. We will POST an object containing a name and a genre to /artists and expect a 201 status in return.

To keep our test files easier to maintain, we will split them up according to the CRUD operation they are testing.

As we are testing create operations on the Artist table first, we should make a file called tests/artist-create.test.js:

// tests/artist-create.js
const { expect } = require('chai');
const request = require('supertest');
const app = require('../src/app');
 
describe('create artist', () => {
  describe('/artists', () => {
    describe('POST', () => {
      it('creates a new artist in the database', async () => {
        const res = await request(app).post('/artists').send({
          name: 'Tame Impala',
          genre: 'rock',
        });
 
        expect(res.status).to.equal(201);
      });
    });
  });
});

It should be fairly trivial to pass this test with a controller function in your app.js, however, we expect this app to grow in size and complexity as we add features. If we put all our code in app.js, it will quickly become unmaintainable.

Good practice says we should separate our app into routers and controllers.

You will need to:

1. Create a src/controllers/artist.js file and write a controller function which returns a 201 status code.

2. Import your controller into a src/routes/artist.js router and define a POST / route to connect to your controller.

3. Import your artistRouter into app.js and direct all /artists to your artistController.

Refer to your express basics project if you need a quick refresh on creating routers and controllers.

Once this test is passing, commit and push your code to Github.

There is a solution to this challenge [here](It's time to start writing some tests! The type of tests that we will be writing are called integration tests. This is where our tests are checking that our application is communicating with external services (in this case a database) in the way we expect.

Integration tests sit above unit tests in the testing pyramid. We don't need to write as many, but they are slower and more complex. We are opting to use them here to help build a solid understanding of the relationship between web app and database.

You can read more about the testing pyramid here.

Our First Test

We will keep our first test simple for now. We will POST an object containing a name and a genre to /artists and expect a 201 status in return.

To keep our test files easier to maintain, we will split them up according to the CRUD operation they are testing.

As we are testing create operations on the Artist table first, we should make a file called tests/artist-create.test.js:

// tests/artist-create.js
const { expect } = require('chai');
const request = require('supertest');
const app = require('../src/app');
 
describe('create artist', () => {
  describe('/artists', () => {
    describe('POST', () => {
      it('creates a new artist in the database', async () => {
        const res = await request(app).post('/artists').send({
          name: 'Tame Impala',
          genre: 'rock',
        });
 
        expect(res.status).to.equal(201);
      });
    });
  });
});

It should be fairly trivial to pass this test with a controller function in your app.js, however, we expect this app to grow in size and complexity as we add features. If we put all our code in app.js, it will quickly become unmaintainable.

Good practice says we should separate our app into routers and controllers.

You will need to:

1. Create a src/controllers/artist.js file and write a controller function which returns a 201 status code.

2. Import your controller into a src/routes/artist.js router and define a POST / route to connect to your controller.

3. Import your artistRouter into app.js and direct all /artists to your artistController.

Refer to your express basics project if you need a quick refresh on creating routers and controllers.

Once this test is passing, commit and push your code to Github.

There is a solution to this challenge here