How to spyOn a value property (rather than a method) with Jasmine

Question

Jasmine\'s spyOn is good to change a method\'s behavior, but is there any way to change a value property (rather than a method) for an object? the code could be

Answer 1

Suppose there is a method like this that needs testing The src property of the tiny image needs checking

function reportABCEvent(cat, type, val) {
                var i1 = new Image(1, 1);
                var link = getABC('creosote');
                    link += "&category=" + String(cat);
                    link += "&event_type=" + String(type);
                    link += "&event_value=" + String(val);
                    i1.src = link;
                }

The spyOn() below causes the "new Image" to be fed the fake code from the test the spyOn code returns an object that only has a src property

As the variable "hook" is scoped to be visible in the fake code in the SpyOn and also later after the "reportABCEvent" is called

describe("Alphabetic.ads", function() {
    it("ABC events create an image request", function() {
    var hook={};
    spyOn(window, 'Image').andCallFake( function(x,y) {
          hook={ src: {} }
          return hook;
      }
      );
      reportABCEvent('testa', 'testb', 'testc');
      expect(hook.src).
      toEqual('[zubzub]&arg1=testa&arg2=testb&event_value=testc');
    });

This is for jasmine 1.3 but might work on 2.0 if the "andCallFake" is altered to the 2.0 name

Answer 2

I'm a bit late to the party here i know but,

You could directly access the calls object, which can give you the variables for each call

expect(spy.calls.argsFor(0)[0].value).toBe(expectedValue)

Answer 3

Jasmine doesn't have that functionality, but you might be able to hack something together using Object.defineProperty.

You could refactor your code to use a getter function, then spy on the getter.

spyOn(myObj, 'getValueA').andReturn(1);
expect(myObj.getValueA()).toBe(1);

Answer 4

You can not mock variable but you can create getter function for it and mock that method in your spec file.