Vfrdtyky

I have a directive which has a form property. The directive is put on the submit button for the form, and listens to click events. When the submit button is clicked, the directive checks if the form is valid and prevents the click event bubbling up to the ngSubmit handler if it's not. It also marks each form control as dirty so validation messages show.

The directive works fine and I'd like to add unit tests, but I can't work out how to set up a form containing a submit button. This is my test as it stands so far, but I can't work out how to relate the NgForm which the directive takes with the fake form I've created which contains the button.

describe('ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective', () => {



    let fakeSubmitButtonRef: ElementRef<HTMLButtonElement>;

    let fakeForm: HTMLFormElement;



    beforeEach(() => {

        const fakeSubmitButton = document.createElement('BUTTON') as HTMLButtonElement;

        fakeSubmitButton.type = 'submit';

        fakeSubmitButtonRef = new ElementRef(fakeSubmitButton);



        fakeForm = document.createElement('form');

        fakeForm.appendChild(fakeSubmitButton);

    });



    it('should bubble click event to the submit method if form is valid', () => {

        //arrange

        const directive = new ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective(fakeSubmitButtonRef);

        directive.form = new NgForm(, );

        spyOn(directive.form, 'ngSubmit');

        expect(directive.form.valid).toBe(true, 'Test has been set up incorrectly, the form should be valid for this test.');



        //*** What do I need to do to link my NgForm with fakeForm? ***



        //act

        fakeSubmitButtonRef.nativeElement.click();



        //assert

        expect(directive.form.ngSubmit).toHaveBeenCalled();

    });

});

For reference, this is my directive code:

@Directive({

    selector: '[appValidateBeforeSubmit]'

})

export class ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective {



    /**

     * @param element This will be the element on which the directive is being used.

     */

    constructor(private readonly element: ElementRef<HTMLButtonElement>) {  }



    @Input('appValidateBeforeSubmit')

    form: NgForm;



    @HostListener('click', ['$event'])

    private onClick(event: Event) {



        if (!this.form.valid) {

            Object.keys(this.form.controls).forEach(key => {

                this.form.controls[key].markAsDirty();

            });

        }



        return this.form.valid; //if false, this will prevent the event from bubbling up to the ngSubmit handler

    }

}

It is used as follows:

<form #componentTypeForm="ngForm" (ngSubmit)="ok()">

    <button type="submit" [appValidateBeforeSubmit]="componentTypeForm">Submit</button>

</form>

Any ideas how I can set up a form within my test so that the button click event bubbles up to the form's ngSubmit handler?

Someone did post an answer which put me on the right lines, but they've sadly deleted their answer so I can't give them credit. They pointed out that directives should be tested using a dummy component which is defined within the test file. I have created a component whose template is a form with an input, and I have been able to test the behaviour of the directive by testing the component.

This is my working test code:

import { NgForm, FormsModule } from '@angular/forms';

import { Component } from '@angular/core';

import { ComponentFixture, TestBed, async } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective } from './validate-before-submit.directive';



@Component({

    //The input on this form is required, so we can easily set the form validity by giving it an empty/non-empty string.

    template: `<form #testForm="ngForm">

                   <input name="providedValue" [(ngModel)]="providedValue" type="text" required />

                   <button type="submit" [appValidateBeforeSubmit]="testForm">Submit</button>

               </form>`

})

class TestValidateBeforeSubmitComponent {

    providedValue: string;

}



describe('ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective', () => {

    let form: NgForm;

    let fixture: ComponentFixture<TestValidateBeforeSubmitComponent>;



    beforeEach(() => {

        fixture = TestBed.configureTestingModule({

            declarations: [ValidateBeforeSubmitDirective, TestValidateBeforeSubmitComponent],

            imports: [FormsModule],

            providers: [NgForm, HTMLButtonElement]

        }).createComponent(TestValidateBeforeSubmitComponent);



        const formElement = fixture.debugElement.children[0];

        form = formElement.injector.get(NgForm);



        fixture.detectChanges(); // initial binding

    });



    it('should allow submission of a valid form', async(() => {

        //arrange

        fixture.componentInstance.providedValue = 'Arbitrary content'; //valid value

        fixture.detectChanges();

        fixture.whenStable().then(() => {

            expect(form.valid).toBe(true, 'Test has been set up incorrectly, form should be valid.');



            //act

            const buttonElement = fixture.debugElement.children[0].children[1];

            const button = buttonElement.nativeElement;

            button.click();



            //assert

            expect(form.submitted).toBe(true, 'Clicking the submit button on a valid form should have submitted the form.');

        });

    }));



    it('should prevent submission of an invalid form', async(() => {

        //arrange

        fixture.componentInstance.providedValue = ''; //invalid value

        fixture.detectChanges();

        fixture.whenStable().then(() => {

            expect(form.valid).toBe(false, 'Test has been set up incorrectly, form should be invalid.');



            //act

            const buttonElement = fixture.debugElement.children[0].children[1];

            const button = buttonElement.nativeElement;

            button.click();



            //assert

            expect(form.submitted).toBe(false, 'The directive should prevent an invalid form from submitting when the submit button is clicked.');

        });

    }));

});