Using Jasmine with Node

The jasmine module is a command line interface and supporting code for running Jasmine specs under Node.js. Jasmine 5.x supports Node versions 18, 20, and 22. (Odd-numbered Node versions aren’t supported, but many of them work.)

Install

You can install Jasmine using npm locally in your project:

npm install --save-dev jasmine

With the above local installation you can invoke the CLI tool using npx jasmine ... commands.

Optionally you can also install jasmine globally so that you can invoke the CLI tool without npx. This is not recommended, however, since it’s difficult to keep the globally installed jasmine version in sync with each project that uses it.

npm install -g jasmine

Init a Project

Initialize a project for Jasmine by creating a spec directory and configuration json for you:

npx jasmine init

Generate examples

Generate example spec and source files:

npx jasmine examples

At this point you should be able to write your first suite.

Configuration

Customize spec/support/jasmine.json to enumerate the source files and spec files you would like the Jasmine runner to include. You may use dir glob strings.

Paths starting with ! are excluded, for example !**/*nospec.js.

spec_dir is used as a prefix for all spec_files and helpers. Helpers are executed once before all specs. For an example of some helpers see the React tutorial.

{
  // Spec directory path relative to the current working dir when jasmine is executed.
  // The value "" represents the current working directory.
  "spec_dir": "spec",

  // Array of filepaths (and globs) relative to spec_dir to include and exclude
  "spec_files": [
    "**/*[sS]pec.?(m)js",
    "!**/*nospec.js"
  ],

  // Array of filepaths (and globs) relative to spec_dir to include before jasmine specs
  "helpers": [
    "helpers/**/*.?(m)js"
  ],
  
  // Configuration of the Jasmine environment
  // "env" is optional, as are all of its properties.
  "env": {
    // Whether to fail a spec that ran no expectations
    "failSpecWithNoExpectations": false,
    
    // Stop execution of a spec after the first expectation failure in it
    "stopSpecOnExpectationFailure": false,

    // Stop execution of the suite after the first spec failure  
    "stopOnSpecFailure": false,

    // Run specs in semi-random order
    "random": false
  }
}

You can also specify a different config file by using either the --config command line argument or the JASMINE_CONFIG_PATH environment variable, as follows. Config files may be either .json or .js. A .js config file should be a module whose default export is a configuration object.

jasmine JASMINE_CONFIG_PATH=relative/path/to/your/jasmine.json
jasmine --config=relative/path/to/your/jasmine.json

Running Specs

Once you have set up your jasmine.json, you can execute all your specs by running jasmine from the root of your project (or npx jasmine if you had installed it locally).

If you want to just run one spec or only those in files that match a certain glob pattern you can do it like this:

npx jasmine spec/appSpec.js
npx jasmine "**/model/**/critical/**/*Spec.js"

Filtering specs

Execute only those specs which filename match given glob:

npx jasmine "spec/**/critical/*Spec.js"

Or a single file:

npx jasmine spec/currentSpec.js

Or execute only those specs which name matches a particular regex:

npx jasmine --filter "adapter21*"

(where the name of a spec is the first parameter passed to describe())

Using ES Modules

Jasmine loads your code using dynamic import, which should be compatible with both ES modules and CommonJS modules. This means that a script will be loaded as an ES module if its name ends in .mjs or if the package.json of the package containing the file contains "type": "module".

The default configuration should work fine for nearly all CommonJS projects as well as those that use ES modules. But if necessary you can configure Jasmine to load scripts using require by adding "jsLoader": "require" to your Jasmine config file. If you have code that works with "jsLoader": "require" but not without it, please let us know. Files with names ending in .mjs will be loaded via dynamic import even if jsLoader is set to "require".

CLI Options

JASMINE_CONFIG_PATH=

Specify a relative or absolute path to your configuration file. Can be used as an option or set as an environment variable.

JASMINE_CONFIG_PATH=spec/config/jasmine.json jasmine

npx jasmine --config=spec/config/jasmine.json

--no-color

Turns off color in spec output

npx jasmine --no-color

--filter=

Only runs specs that match the given string

npx jasmine --filter="a spec name"

--fail-fast

Stops execution of the suite after the first expectation failure or other error

npx jasmine --fail-fast=true

--random=[true|false]

Tells jasmine to run specs in semi random order or not for this run, overriding jasmine.json

npx jasmine --random=true

--seed=

Sets the randomization seed if randomization is turned on

npx jasmine --seed=4321

--reporter=

Sets the default reporter. The value must be a valid import specifier for a module whose default export is a reporter constructor.

npm i --save-dev jasmine-ts-console-reporter
npx jasmine --reporter=jasmine-ts-console-reporter

Using the library

If you want more granular control over the configuration, Jasmine can also be used as a library in your project. This allows you to load multiple config files or control your configuration in different ways.

const Jasmine = require('jasmine');
const runner = new Jasmine();

Load configuration from a file or from an object

runner.loadConfigFile('spec/support/jasmine.json');

runner.loadConfig({
    spec_dir: 'spec',
    spec_files: [
        'appSpec.js',
        'requests/**/*[sS]pec.js',
        'utils/**/*[sS]pec.js'
    ],
    helpers: [
        'helpers/**/*.js'
    ]
});

Custom completion handler

By default, Jasmine will cause the Node process to exit once the suite finishes running. The exit code will be 0 if the overall status of the suite is 'passed' and nonzero in all other cases. If you want to handle completion differently, you can set the Jasmine instance’s exitOnCompletion property to false and use the promise returned from execute. This is often used to message a status to task runners like grunt.

runner.exitOnCompletion = false;
const result = await runner.execute();

if (result.overallStatus === 'passed') {
    console.log('All specs have passed');
} else {
    console.log('At least one spec has failed');
}

Reporters

A ConsoleReporter is included if no other reporters are added. You can configure the default reporter with configureDefaultReporter. The default values are shown in the example.

runner.configureDefaultReporter({
    // The `timer` passed to the reporter will determine the mechanism for seeing how long the suite takes to run.
    timer: new jasmine.jasmine.Timer(),
    // The `print` function passed the reporter will be called to print its results.
    print: function() {
        process.stdout.write(arguments);
    },
    // `showColors` determines whether or not the reporter should use ANSI color codes.
    showColors: true
});

You can add a custom reporter with addReporter. If you add a reporter through addReporter, the default ConsoleReporter will not be added. Multiple reporters can be added.

const CustomReporter = require('./myCustomReporter');

runner.addReporter(new CustomReporter());

Run the tests

Calling execute will run the specs.

runner.execute();

execute can optionally be called with a list of spec file paths to execute relative to the current working directory and a string to filter by spec name.

runner.execute(['fooSpec.js'], 'a spec name');

A simple example using the library

const Jasmine = require('jasmine');
const runner = new Jasmine();

runner.loadConfigFile('spec/support/jasmine.json');
runner.configureDefaultReporter({
    showColors: false
});
runner.execute();