What JavaScript Tests Could Learn From RSpec

When I started at Artsy a few years ago, I'd never written a line of Ruby. I feel at home with JavaScript — it's been my buddy since I started my career over 20 years ago. I've written enough tests in JavaScript that I sometimes feel like I can write them in my sleep (as long as they don't involve async React events 😅).

Most of the code I write at Artsy is still JavaScript, but now I write some Ruby code too, and I've written enough RSpec tests that I'm starting to form opinions about what I think they should look like.

My most recent work has been JavaScript again. I've been writing Jest tests against one of our React apps. But rather than reaching for the testing patterns I'd become accustomed to over my years of JavaScripting, I'm finding that something's missing in my Jest tests! My experiences with RSpec have me longing for two features in Jest:

1. context blocks
2. let blocks

1. context blocks

A context block in an RSpec test is, as I understand it, literally the same thing as a describe block. Like it's just an alias of describe. What's the point, you ask?

The difference is in, well, context. Well-organized RSpec tests use describe to describe what's being tested...and context to describe scenarios of the thing being tested.

For example, if I wanted to test the multiply method of a Calculator class, I might write some test scenarios that look like this:

describe "Calculator" do
  describe ".multiply" do
    context "when the first value is negative" do
      context "when the second value is negative" do
        it "returns a positive number" do
        end
      end
      context "when the second value is positive" do
        it "returns a negative number" do
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

See the difference in those test cases between describe and context? The way I think about it is: if the statement coming after my describe/context describes a pre-condition for the test, it's a context; otherwise it's a describe.

context wouldn't be hard to implement in JavaScript — I'd bet there are test frameworks that have it. It'd just be an alias of describe.

2. let blocks

let blocks are used in an RSpec test to set things up for your test scenario.

Here's a test for a Counter class, verifying that when I call the increment method on an instance, its stored value becomes 1.

describe "counter" do

  let(:counter) { Counter.new }

  describe "increment" do
    it "increments by 1" do
      counter.increment

      counter.value.should eq(1)
    end
  end
end

If you're new to Ruby, the only line that doesn't translate almost directly to a similar JavaScript expression is the let statement.

The let statement in RSpec creates a method with a specified name, which lazily evaluates to the result of a block. In this case, we get a method named counter, which is evaluated to a new instance of the Counter class. There are a few important things to note about let blocks:

1. They're evaluated lazily (by default). That counter doesn't actually get created until I reference it.
2. They're memoized. Wherever I reference counter within that describe "counter" block, I'm getting the same instance. It's initialized to whatever I return inside the let block.
3. I can override a let block deeper inside the tree of tests, by declaring another let(:counter) later. When I do this, the closest let block in the tree for that thing is the one that gets used.

I don't think it's possible to implement let in JavaScript — at least not in the way it exists in RSpec. It relies on Ruby meta-programming to intercept calls to missing methods, which just doesn't exist in JavaScript. The givens library does something pretty close, but it relies on string keys to define things, and there's a bit of extra work when working with TypeScript.

What's the big deal?

On the surface these two features don't seem like much, but they provide a really powerful framework for organizing test cases and the associated test setup.

With the let blocks being lazily evaluated, and override-able, I can set up data at the exact level of tests that I need it. When I need to override it for a certain set of tests, I can put another let block in that set. In JavaScript I can define functions to set up my data for me with just the changes I need at each test level, or I can use beforeEach blocks, but all that can get pretty noisy.

And with context blocks, I can more clearly lay out the scenarios of my tests. Yes, I could just do this with more describe blocks in JavaScript, but how often have you found JavaScript tests that actually do this? I've personally seen/written too many tests to count named something like it("returns false when the flag is enabled, they're located in the US, but they have brown hair."). That's three scenarios rolled into one test name. It works, but being able to nest different context blocks to define my complex scenarios is much easier to read.

Examples

Here's an example of some tests I could write in RSpec with let and context:

describe "Calculator" do
  let(:calculator) { Calculator.new }

  describe ".multiply" do
    let(:result) { calculator.multiply(first, second) }

    context "when the first value is negative" do
      let(:first) { -1 }

      context "when the second value is negative" do
        let(:second) { -3 }

        it "returns a positive number" do
          result.should eq(3)
        end
      end

      context "when the second value is positive" do
        let(:second) { 3 }

        it "returns a negative number" do
          result.should eq(-3)
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

HOW COOL IS THAT! Every describe/context block has exactly the setup data it needs defined clearly inside it. And each block has very little noise to distract you.

Here's what I'd do in JavaScript/Jest to accomplish something similar:

describe("Calculator", () => {
  let calculator
  beforeEach(() => { calculator = new Calculator() })

  describe(".multiply", () => {
    let first, second
    function getResult() {
      return calculator.multiply(first, second)
    }

    describe("when the first value is negative", () => {
      beforeEach(() => { first = -1 })

      describe("when the second value is negative", () => {
        beforeEach(() => { second = -3 })

        it("returns a positive number", () => {
          expect(getResult()).toEqual(3)
        })
      })

      describe("when the second value is positive", () => {
        beforeEach(() => { second = 3 })

        it("returns a negative number", () => {
          expect(getResult()).toEqual(-3)
        })
      })
    })
  })
})

There's definitely a bit more noise here, especially with the beforeEach and let statements. It's not a lot more noise, but it is definitely more noise.

In real life I wouldn't expect to find tests like the above JavaScript example. I'd expect to find the tests in JavaScript looking more like this:

describe("Calculator", () => {
  let calculator
  beforeEach(() => { calculator = new Calculator() })

  describe(".multiply", () => {
    it("returns a positive number when the first number is negative and the second number is negative", () => {
      const result = calculator.multiply(-1, -3)

      expect(result).toEqual(3)
    })

    it("returns a negative number when the first number is negative and the second number is positive", () => {
      const result = calculator.multiply(-1, 3)

      expect(result).toEqual(-3)
    })
  })
})

You could certainly make the case for this contrived example that this is actually the most readable set of tests, because there's less code. I would have a hard time arguing. But most real-life tests are more complex than these examples, with state and side-effects to mock out, and more scenarios and edge cases worth testing. Each test case here includes multiple conditions, but there are only two permutations represented. Once things get a little more complicated than these contrived examples, the RSpec tests become the clear winner for me — they're easier to read and manage, with their let and context blocks more discretely describing your test scenarios.

You could also argue that the bigger win here would be breaking scenarios into individual describe blocks in JavaScript tests, instead of cramming the entire scenario into one long it("...") statement. I wouldn't argue that either.

Caveats

The day after I wrote this article, a conversation started in the Artsy slack about how confusing let was because it moved variable initializations far away from where the tests used them.

This makes sense! I think it points to two truths in software development:

Code readability is subjective

For years I was convinced that practices like small functions or long and descriptive function names were objectively more readable. I leaned into this, and my code reviews almost always included comments on what I thought would make the code more readable.

As more people pushed back on my feedback over time, I realized that the feedback I was giving was subjective. I still like code that uses many short functions wired together, but not everyone finds that more readable! I've stopped giving readability feedback on PRs, unless I can provide nearly-objective facts or scenarios that point to a readability improvement.

In this article, I find the RSpec let examples to be much more readable than the JavaScript examples. But you and your team might not! Maybe the distance between a let block's definition and its method's usage makes it hard for you to follow the test. That's cool!

Any cool thing can be abused

Earlier in this article I linked to an article that describes let blocks in more detail. It includes a warning from the actual let docs:

Note: let can enhance readability when used sparingly (1,2, or maybe 3 declarations) in any given example group, but that can quickly degrade with overuse. YMMV.

I've definitely seen code where I had a hard time following a stream of let blocks. The RSpec example I gave above reads nicely to me — but it's probably teetering on the edge of where let usage becomes confusing. I'm guessing I have a slightly higher tolerance for this particular abstraction than my friends who don't like it...again pointing to readability being subjective.

Having said all that — lately every time I try to write JavaScript tests, I find myself trying (unsuccessfully) to recreate that RSpec example above. It represents exactly how I want to think about complex test scenarios. Each level of the tests has exactly the setup that is unique to that level. There's very little distraction or noise at each context and it. It totally aligns with my desire to minimize irrelevant test setup. I'm in ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️.