Setting up mocha with sinon and chai

I was unable to quickly find a solution for this, so here’s a little guide on how to set it up together in a proper way.

First, install the libraries:

npm install mocha --save-dev
npm install sinon --save-dev
npm install chai --save-dev

I come from the Ruby world, so I expect to have a spec command, spec_helper.js file and specs living inside spec/ directory (with a nested structure).

Inside package.json file define the spec command:

"scripts" : {
  "spec": "mocha --opts spec/mocha.opts"
}

We will be using BDD style (expect().to()) of chai. Inside spec/mocha.opts add:

--recursive **/*_spec.js
--require spec/spec_helper.js
--ui bdd

Create spec/spec_helper.js, which will require chai and sinon and we will require `spec_helper.js` inside all specs (similarly to how RSpec in Ruby world works).

const sinon = require('sinon')
const expect = require('chai').expect

global.sinon = sinon
global.expect = expect

And now create your spec file (spec/module_spec.js). You should not be required to include any libraries there. Now you can run your specs:

npm run spec

References:

• http://chaijs.com/
• https://mochajs.org/
• http://sinonjs.org/
• http://angelika.me/2016/04/22/rubyists-first-attempt-at-testing-javascript/