Testing ES6 Code with Mocha and Babel
By default JavaScript unit tests only work with es5 code. This tutorial covers how to create custom unit tests with Babel and Mocha to test newer versions of JavaScript such as es6 and es7.
Stack
To get started, create a new content and pick either the HTML/CSS/JS stack or the Node.js stack from the list of stacks.
Execute the following commands in the terminal to create a package.json file and install Babel:
npm init -y
npm install babel-preset-env babel-register --save-dev
Next create a .babelrc file with the following contents:
.babelrc
{
"presets": ["env"]
}
Next create a file named add.js with the following es6 code as its contents:
add.js
export const add = (a, b) => {
return a + b;
}
Save the files that that have been created by clicking 'Files->Save Files' in the top menubar.
Now, add a custom test check and select the "Mocha with Babel (JS Unit Test)" template. Next, add a Description for the test, such as ''add() function adds two numbers". For this tutorial, the default Test Contents are what we want; however, make sure to replace the default Test Contents with your test when creating custom tests. The remaining fields should not need to be changed.
As with any check, you'll need to add it to a task. For more information, checkout the article on Tasks.
Now click the Test button in the content preview and verify that the test passes.
The final content should look similar to the image below:
Unit test example using Mocha and Babel