ESM Tape Runner

Basic test runner for tape that supports ECMAScript Modules (ESM; es6 modules).

Runs your tests in isolation, one after the other.

I originally created this module because tape runner did not support ESM files. This has now been fixed so:

For most purposes, you can simply use Tape directly now without need of this module.

Where version 2.x of this module is still useful is if you need to run your tests using a custom ES Module Loaders because your application uses one. You cannot specify this with Tape directly as tape is a CJS application.

Install

npm i --save-dev @small-tech/esm-tape-runner

Usage

Run all the tests in the test folder:

npx esm-tape-runner 'test/**/*.js'

Run all the tests in the test folder and pipe the output to tap-monkey for a monkeyrific experience.

npx esm-tape-runner 'test/**/*.js' | npx tap-monkey

Do the same thing as above, but from a test script in your package.json file:

"scripts": {
  "test": "esm-tape-runner 'test/**/*.js' | tap-monkey",
}

(Now your tests will run whenever you invoke npm test.)

Advanced usage (with custom ES Module Loaders)

Pass the glob as your first argument as usual. Follow that with any environment variables and/or Node flags you want the runner to pass onto the Node process, including specifying your ES Module Loader.

For example:

"scripts": {
  "test": "esm-tape-runner tests/utils.js NODE_OPTIONS='--require=./suppress-experimental.cjs' --enable-source-maps --experimental-modules --experimental-specifier-resolution=node --experimental-vm-modules --experimental-loader ./lib/processes/loader.js | tap-monkey",
}

In the example above, the environment variable NODE_OPTIONS will be passed to the Node process (in this case, to require the suppress-experimental.cjs CJS script to hide Node warnings about using experimental features), it will also pass all the Node flags to Node, including the --experimental-loader flag to load your custom ES Module Loader. The example also pipes the output to tap-monkey.

Note that if you have a broadcast channel open between your ES Module Loader process and your main process while running your tests, you will have to manually exit your tests once they’re finished. e.g.,

import test from '@small-tech/tape-with-promises'

test.onFinish(() => {
  // We must exit manually as we are using a custom ES Module Loader.
  process.exit()
})

Coverage

For code coverage, run your tests using c8 and pipe your output to tap-monkey because you like beautiful borders and rounded corners in your coverage output (admit it, you do, and the monkey knows it).

npx c8 esm-tape-runner 'test/**/*.js' | npx tap-monkey

As with testing, you don’t need npx to run coverage when invoking it from a test script:

"scripts": {
  "test": "c8 esm-tape-runner 'test/**/*.js' | tap-monkey",
}

(Now your coverage will run whenever you invoke npm run coverage.)

Similar libraries

I initially tried using tape-es but I ran into a bunch of problems due to it running tests in parallel. If you’re smarter than I am, you might want to give it a shot and see if it works for you.

The tape readme recommends using bable-tape-runner and buble-tape-runner but my stuff doesn’t use or need babel/buble/Bublé. If yours does, those might be the right test runners for you.

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Copyright

© 2021 Aral Balkan, Small Technology Foundation.

License

ISC.