JS Unit Testing using YUI

Ok, Selenium was a partial success that you can read about here, but it really was harder then I wanted it to be and it required a lot of setup for only a little bit of testing.  I noticed that a project that I use a lot ExtJS uses a modified version of YUI Test.  So I converted my Selenium test example to YUI Test.

My initial impression was confusion because you have to download the entire YUI 2 suite just get to get the test tools.  Also, when you download the entire suite they are many different copies of the same file in various stages of minification.  But following the documentation I boiled down exactly what I needed and threw away the rest.  I put all the code for my test here so you can follow along.

You will need the following files from the YUI archive:

1. build/logger/assets/logger.css
2. build/logger/logger.js
3. build/yuiloader-dom-event/yuiloader-dom-event.js
4. build/yuitest/assets/testlogger.css
5. build/yuitest/yuitest.js

Create an HTML file that includes the css and js files:

The HTML will also need to instantiate the test logger and run the test runner global.  I bound the test run to a button so I could control when it ran:

Now that we have a YAHOO.tool.TestRunner we need to add a test that can be run. Instanciate a new YAHOO.tool.TestCase and add it to the TestRunner.  All a TestCase needs is a name and a bunch of functions that start with "test".  Everything else is automatic.  Below is a simplified version of the full file.



Conclusion
Though Selenium is more automated that comes at the cost of being more complicated then testing should be.  If I were a team of programmers then sure setting up and maintaining Selenium Remote controls would be a small part of the overall effort, but since I am not a team of programmers I think it is overkill.

What I really need is an easy to run, easy to write, repeatable, unit testing framework in JS.  I do the leg work on pointing my various browsers at the html and reviewing the results.  When things get big enough that I need to setup a continuous integration server, or I have a QA department, then I will give Selenium another go.  For now YUI test is the way to go.