Using Ava as a test runner

Overview

Ava is a test runner for Node.js with a concise API, which embraces new language features, has detailed error output and process isolation. While Ava is mostly used to run unit tests, it can be configured with Nightwatch.js to function as an integrated test framework for performing automated end-to-end tests on web applications across all major browsers.

Configuration with Example

Step 0: install Nightwatch

Follow the guide or watch the video to install Nightwatch from scratch.

Step 1: Install Ava

npm i ava --save-dev

And make sure you have included the following script in your package.json file in order to run ava tests.

{
 "scripts": {
   "test": "ava"
 }
}

Step 2: Configure Ava

You can configure all the CLI options in either package.json file or can create a file ava.config.js. Follow the guide for more details :

{
    "ava": {
        "files": [
            "test/**/*",
            "!test/exclude-files-in-this-directory",
            "!**/exclude-files-with-this-name.*"
        ],
        "match": [
        //	"*oo",
        //	"!foo"
        ],
        "concurrency": 5,
        "failFast": true,
        "failWithoutAssertions": false,
        "environmentVariables": {
            "MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE": "some value"
        },
        "verbose": true,
        "nodeArguments": [
            "--trace-deprecation",
            "--napi-modules"
        ]
    }
}

Step 3: Nightwatch environment setup for Ava

You have to create an environment of Nightwatch to make it compatible with Ava. You need to write a _setup-nightwatch-env.js file and make sure it has been included in your tests files :

const Nightwatch = require('nightwatch');

const createNightwatchClient = function({
  headless = true,
  browserName = undefined,
  silent = true,
  verbose = false,
  output = true,
  env = null,
  parallel = false,
  devtools = false,
  debug = false,
  persistGlobals = true,
  configFile = './nightwatch.conf.js',
  globals = {},
  webdriver = {},
  timeout = null,
  enableGlobalApis = false,
  reporter = null,
  alwaysAsync = true,
  desiredCapabilities = {}
} = {}) {

  const client = Nightwatch.createClient({
    headless,
    browserName,
    reporter,
    env,
    timeout,
    parallel,
    output,
    devtools,
    debug,
    enable_global_apis: enableGlobalApis,
    silent: silent && !verbose,
    always_async_commands: alwaysAsync,
    webdriver,
    persist_globals: persistGlobals,
    config: configFile,
    globals,
    desiredCapabilities
  });

  client.updateCapabilities(desiredCapabilities);

  return client.launchBrowser();
};

module.exports = async (t, run) => {
 global.browser = await createNightwatchClient();
 try {
   await run(t);
 } finally {
   await global.browser.end();
 }
};

Nightwatch options

The default behavior of Nightwatch can be modified by supplying any of the following configuration options. Below is a list of available options and their default values.

Name Type Description Default
headless Boolean Run Nightwatch in headless mode (available in Firefox, Chrome, Edge) true
browserName String Browser name to use; available options are: chrome, firefox, edge, safari none
baseUrl String The base url to use for the when using .navigateTo() with relative urls. When doing component testing it needs to be set to the url running the Vite dev server. http://localhost:3000
verbose Boolean Enable complete Nightwatch http logs. false
output Boolean Show Nightwatch output true
env String Nightwatch test environment to use, from nightwatch.conf.js. Learn more about test environments in the Nightwatch docs. none
parallel Boolean Set this to true when running tests in parallel false
devtools Boolean Chrome only: automatically open the chrome devtools false
debug Boolean Component testing only: pause the test execution after rendering the component false
autoStartSession Boolean Start the Nightwatch session automatically. If this is disabled, you'll need to call jestNightwatch.launchBrowser() in your tests. true
persistGlobals Boolean Persist the same globals object between runs or have a (deep) copy of it per each test. Learn more about test globals in the Nightwatch docs. true
configFile String The Nightwatch config file to use. A config file will be auto-generated by default, but this allows you to change that. Learn more about the Nightwatch config in the Nightwatch docs. ./nightwatch.conf.js
globals Object A list of globals to be used in Nightwatch. Globals are available on browser.globals. Learn more about the Nightwatch test globals in the Nightwatch docs. none
webdriver Object A list of Webdriver related settings to configure the Nightwatch Webdriver service. Learn more about the Nightwatch webdriver settings in the Nightwatch docs. Nightwatch webdriver settings in the Nightwatch docs. none
timeout Number Set the global timeout for assertion retries before an assertion fails. 5000
enableGlobalApis Boolean The Nightwatch global APIs (element(), expect()) are disable by default. false
desiredCapabilities Object Define custom Selenium capabilities for the current session. Learn more about the specific browser driver that it is being used on the Nightwatch docs. none
setup() Function Additional setup hook to be executed after Nightwatch has been started. none
teardown() Function dditional teardown hook to be executed with the Nightwatch api object. none

Step 4: Run an example test

Consider the below example test :

const test = require('ava');
const await_nightwatch_browser = require('../../../_setup-nightwatch-env.js');

test('duckduckgo example', await_nightwatch_browser, async function(t) {
 browser
   .navigateTo('https://www.ecosia.org/')
   .waitForElementVisible('body')

 const titleContains = await browser.assert.titleContains('Ecosia');
 t.is(titleContains.passed, true);

 const visible =  await browser.assert.visible('input[type=search]')
 t.is(visible.passed, true);

 t.pass();
});

To run the tests you can use the following commands :

npm test

or

npx ava

Note : Ava has different naming conventions so you should confirm that your tests are following this guide

Step 5: View the results of Ava test runner

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