Learning React, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10. React Testing

In order to keep up with our competitors, we must move quickly while ensuring quality. One vital tool that allows us to do this is unit testing. Unit testing makes it possible to verify that every piece, or unit, of our application functions as intended.¹

One benefit of practicing functional techniques is that they lend themselves to writing testable code. Pure functions are naturally testable. Immutability is easily testable. Composing applications out of small functions designed for specific tasks produces testable functions or units of code.

In this section, we’ll demonstrate techniques that can be used to unit test React applications. This chapter will not only cover testing, but also tools that can be used to help evaluate and improve your code and your tests.

ESLint

In most programming languages, code needs to be compiled before you can run anything. Programming languages have pretty strict rules about coding style and will not compile until the code is formatted appropriately. JavaScript does not have those rules and does not come with a compiler. We write code, cross our fingers, and run it in the browser to see if it works or not. The good news is that there are tools we can use to analyze our code and make us stick to specific formatting guidelines.

The process of analyzing JavaScript code is called hinting or linting. JSHint and JSLint are the original tools used to analyze JavaScript and provide feedback about formatting. ESLint is the latest ...