Writing Testable & Shareable Code inAngular

Xiyang Chen

rangle.io

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Why?

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Motivation #1I want adequate test coverage for my and myteam's codebase so that I can enjoy a quality sleepschedule during the week as well as tranquil anduninterrupted weekends.

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Motivation #2I want my code to be clear, readable and reusablewith clearly defined specs, so that my colleages orthe suceeding dev team will be appreciative of mywork and thus offer to buy me a beer from time totime for saving them time and money.

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Motivation #3I want a testable and maintanable codebase sothat my stakeholder's interest is taken care of.

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ObjectivesWrite frontend code that's friendly for Unit & E2ETestingKeep a maintainable & sharable codebase

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Overall Guidelines

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No Big, Giant, Fat ControllersWrap business logic into servicesControllers should only be used to set up scopeand handle view interactions

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No DOM Manipulation insideControllers

Use service and directives instead

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This controller is trying to take over the world

angular.module('awesome-app') .controller('itemController', ['$scope', '$http', function ($scope, $http) {

function transform (items) { /* ... */ }

$scope.getItemList = function () { //Retrieve list of from remote API server $http.get('/api/item').then( function success (success) { $scope.items = transformItems(res.items); }, function error (error) { alert('No item for you!'); }); }; ...

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...continued

$scope.addItem = function (item) { $http({method: 'POST', ...}).then(...); };

$scope.updateItem = function (itemId) { $http({method: 'PUT', ...}).then(...) };

/* ... */

}]);

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...better

angular.module('awsome-app') .service('itemRetriever', [$q, $http, function ($q) { function transform () { ... } this.get = function () { var deferred = $q.defer(); $http.get('/api/items').then(function success (res) { ... }); return deferred.promise; }; });

.controller('itemController', ['$scope', itemRetriever function ($scope, itemRetriever) { itemRetriever.get().then(function (transformedItems) { $scope.items = transformedItems; });

$scope.addItem = function (item) {...};

/* ... */

}]);

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Group your code into bundles(modules)

Why? Separating functionalities into modules makes it easier to isolate andtroubleshoot errors during testing

Keep modularization horizontal instead of vertical

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Vertical Modularizationangular.module('app', []);angular.module('services', []);angular.module('filters', []);angular.module('controllers', ['services', 'filters']);...

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...betterangular.module('app', []);angular.module('company-api', []);angular.module('products', ['company-api']);angular.module('personnels', ['company-api']);...

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All External References Should Comefrom Dependency Injections

Put or wrap global variable and constants intoangular.value() or angular.constant()Inject them as needed

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Bad for tests

.service('myService', function () { ... ThirdPartyLib.externalMethod(...); ... });

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..better

angular.module('app') .factory('ThirdPartyLib', function ($window) { return $window.ThirdPartyLib; });

.service('myService', ['ThirdPartyLib', function (ThirdPartyLib) { ... }]);

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Small Controllers, Small ServicesBreak controllers into smaller sub-controllers if itgets too large

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Small Controllers, Small ServicesSeparation of Concerns & Single ResponsibilityEliminate the word "and" in your service'sdescriptionServices should be loosely coupled

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Too tighly coupledangular.module('app').service('productService', ['$http', 'cartService', 'statsEngine' function ($http, CartService, statsEngine) { this.getProduct = function () {...} this.updateProduct = function (id, product) {...} this.getProductStatistics = function (id) {...} this.addProductToCart = function (id) {...} ... }]);

Would be combersome to mock all thedependencies in tests

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A Better Approach

angular.module('app') .service('productLoader', ['$http', function ($http) { this.getProduct = function () {...} ... }]);

.service('productUpdater', ['$http', function ($http) { this.purchaseProduct = function () {...} ... }]);

.service('productStats', ['$http', function ($statEngine) { this.getProductStats = function () {...} ... }]);

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Use Routes + Resolve PatternAvailable in $routeProvider or AngularUI RouterDefine/divide resource loading by routes. Exposestate on routesGood for E2E testing

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Route Definition

angular.module("app") .config(["$routeProvider", function routeConfig($routeProvider) { $routeProvider. when("/", { controller: "itemController", templateUrl: "view/items.html", resolve: { items: function ($itemLoader, $q) { var deferred = $q.defer(); itemLoader.loadItems().then( function (items) { deferred.resolve(helper); }); return deferred.promise; } } }); }]);

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...continued

angular.module("app") .controller('itemController', ['items', function (items) { $scope.items = items; }]);

"items" will be available when controller isinitialized

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Tips

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Use $window, $location, $interval, instead ofwindow, location, setInterval

So that dependencies are isolated

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Use $log.info(), .debug(), .error(), etc. instead ofconsole.log

So that your tests won't be litered with log messages

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Use angular.copy, angular.extend, angular.forEach

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Wrap external js library into their own minimalservices

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Use $interval instead of $timeoutSo that E2E testing won’t return a timeout error

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Thank youSlides: http://github.com/settinghead/angular-best-practices-slides

Or follow me @settinghead or @rangleio

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ReferencesAngular Best Practices and anti-patternshttps://github.com/angular/angular.js/wiki/Best-PracticesJoe Eames, AngularJS Best Practices, Pluralsight.comMiško Hevery, Writing Testable Code,http://googletesting.blogspot.ca/2008/08/by-miko-hevery-so-you-decided-to.htmlMark Ethan Trostler, Testable JavaScript, O'Reilly Media, Jan 2013

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