Testing promises returned by getList()

I’m trying to write unit tests for a controller that uses

$scope.users = Restangular.all('user').getList();

But when I test the value of $scope.users, it’s

{"restangularCollection":true}

I’m not really familiar with promises, but I think this has to do with the fact that the return value hasn’t been applied to the scope yet, since if I set $scope.users in the success callback it works fine.

    Restangular.all('user').getList()
      .then(function(users) {
        $scope.users = users;
      });

I made a gist with a more complete example.

[Dashue]

‘use strict’; angular.module(‘myApp’, [“restangular”])

.controller('UserCtrl', function ($scope, Restangular) {
    Restangular.all('user').getList().then(function(users) {
        $scope.users = users;
    });
});

describe(‘Controller: UserCtrl’, function () { beforeEach(module(‘myApp’));

var UserCtrl;
var scope;
var httpBackend;

// Initialize the controller and a mock scope
beforeEach(inject(function ($controller, $rootScope, $httpBackend) {
    httpBackend = $httpBackend;

    var fauxUsersList = [ 'foo' ];

    // Create a faux HTTP response on HTTP-GET /api/user
    httpBackend.when('GET', '/user').respond(fauxUsersList);

    scope = $rootScope.$new();

    $controller('UserCtrl', {
         $scope: scope
    });
}));

afterEach(function() {
    httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingExpectation();
    httpBackend.verifyNoOutstandingRequest();
});

it('should attach a faux users list to scope', function () {
    httpBackend.flush();

    console.log(JSON.stringif   y(scope.users));
    expect(scope.users.length).toBe(1);
});

});

[mgonto]

Hey,

The sugar of $scope.users = a.getList() is added when you use a promise in a template. What it actually does is add a $$v property which once the promise is fullfilled, it’s set to the value, so the DOM watches for changes on that property. While waiting it’s null, then it’s fullfilled.

That will work with templates. If you try to get it to work with something else, it won’t.

You can still use the sugar on the Controller, but on the test, to check if everything is OK, you’ll need to do $scope.users.then(function(users) {...} and in there check, but you can still keep the sugar on the controller. Hope it helps!