Pipe testing

Spectacular's pipe testing API configures the Angular testing module and sets up a host component for the Angular pipe under test.

The pipe test harness makes it straightforward to test pipes in the same way as they are used in a component template. This gives us the confidence that our Angular pipe works as intended.

Example Angular pipe

As an example, try imagining how to test the Angular pipe in the following code snippet:

// pow.pipe.ts
import { Pipe, PipeTransform } from '@angular/core';

@Pipe({ name: 'pow' })
export class PowPipe implements PipeTransform {
  transform(base: number, exponent = 1): number {
    return Math.pow(base, exponent);
  }
}

Testing an Angular pipe in isolation with the Angular testbed

We could unit test it in isolation by exercising its transform method as seen in the following example:

import { TestBed } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { PowPipe } from './pow.pipe';

describe(PowPipe.name, () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      providers: [PowPipe],
    });
    pipe = TestBed.inject(PowPipe);
  });

  let pipe: PowPipe;

  it('raises the base to the power of 1 by default', () => {
    const base = 2;

    const actual = pipe.transform(base);

    expect(actual).toBe(2);
  });
});

How would we pass additional options? This is easy in an isolated unit test as seen in the following test case:

it('raises the base to the specified power', () => {
  const base = 5;
  const exponent = 3;

  const actual = pipe.transform(base, exponent);

  expect(actual).toBe(125);
});

What would that look like in a component template? Do you feel confident about this test? Are we in control of how this is formatted in the DOM?

Integration testing an Angular pipe with the Angular testbed

To achieve a higher level of confidence, we could create a test host component with a template and configure the Angular testing module by declaring the test host component and the pipe as seen in the following example:

import { Component, Input } from '@angular/core';
import { ComponentFixture, TestBed } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { PowPipe } from './pow.pipe';

@Component({
  template: '{{ base | pow }}',
})
class TestHostComponent {
  @Input()
  base = 2;
}

describe(PowPipe.name, () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      declarations: [PowPipe, TestHostComponent],
    });
    hostFixture = TestBed.createComponent(TestHostComponent);
    hostFixture.autoDetectChanges(true);
    host = hostFixture.componentInstance;
    hostElement = hostFixture.nativeElement;
  });

  let hostElement: HTMLElement;
  let hostFixture: ComponentFixture<TestHostComponent>;
  let host: TestHostComponent;
});

That's a lot of setup for testing a pure pipe without any dependencies, don't you think?

With that out of the way, let's add a basic test case. In the following example, we are exercising the pipe in a template and asserting how it's formatted for the DOM:

it('raises the base to the power of 1 by default', () => {
  expect(hostElement.textContent).toBe('2');

  host.base = 4;
  hostFixture.detectChanges();

  expect(hostElement.textContent).toBe('4');
});

To add the exponent option, we have to add a second input parameter to our test host component as seen in the following example:

@Component({
  template: '{{ base | pow:exponent }}',
})
class TestHostComponent {
  @Input()
  base = 2;
  @Input()
  exponent?: number;
}

This allows us to add the exponent option through the template as seen in the following test case:

it('raises the base to the specified power', () => {
  host.base = 5;
  host.exponent = 3;
  hostFixture.detectChanges();

  expect(hostElement.textContent).toBe('125');
});

Testing an Angular pipe with Spectacular

Now, let's compare this to using Spectacular's pipe test harness. First, we set up the pipe harness by calling a test harness factory:

import {
  createPipeHarness,
  SpectacularPipeHarness,
} from '@ngworker/spectacular';

import { PowPipe } from './pow.pipe';

describe(PowPipe.name, () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    harness = createPipeHarness({
      pipe: PowPipe,
      pipeName: 'pow',
      value: 2,
    });
  });

  let harness: SpectacularPipeHarness;
});

Without specifying a template, we can inspect how the transformed value is formatted and rendered to the DOM:

it('raises the base to the power of 1 by default', () => {
  expect(harness.text).toBe('2');

  harness.value = 4;

  expect(harness.text).toBe('4');
});

We can change the value and inspect the formatted value without having to manually trigger change detection:

it('raises the base to the power of 1 by default', () => {
  expect(harness.text).toBe('2');

  harness.value = 4;

  expect(harness.text).toBe('4');
});

We can easily add the exponent option by changing the default template:

it('raises the base to the specified power', () => {
  harness.value = 5;
  harness.template = '{{ value | pow:3 }}';

  expect(harness.text).toBe('125');
});

It's then possible to immediately inspect the DOM again:

it('raises the base to the specified power', () => {
  harness.value = 5;
  harness.template = '{{ value | pow:3 }}';

  expect(harness.text).toBe('125');
});

Using the pipe test harness, we call the pipe through the template of a component without the trouble of setting up a test host component ourselves.

Spectacular benefits

In this page, we saw traditional Angular test suites for testing an Angular pipe and compared them to Spectacular's lightweight setup.

With the benefits of a proper integration test, Spectacular offers:

• Testing an Angular pipe in a template
• Testing a multi-parameter Angular pipe
• Testing an Angular pipe composed with other pipes
• Easily change the host component template
• Easily change the test value
• Usually no need to worry about change detection