MochaJS - Reuse block in other files

Question

Currently I'm using SuperTest to test an API and to each request I need to get the access token from admin user, so I created this request (works fine):

authenticate.js

const request = require('supertest');

var storeAccessToken;

describe ('POST /Authenticate', function() {
    it ('Should return access token', function(done) {
        request('http://myendpoint.com')
        .post('/TokenAuth/Authenticate')
        .send({
            "username": "admin",
            "password": "admin"})
        .end(function(err, res) {
            if (err) return done(err);
            storeAccessToken = res.body.result.accessToken;
            done();
        });
    });
}); 

Now I have the access token stored (variable storeAccessToken), I need to call this same code in the before() of another file.

getKpiRequest.js

const request = require('supertest');

var storeAccessToken;

describe ('GET /Kpi/Availables', function() {

    before(function (done){
        request('http://myendpoint.com')
        .post('/TokenAuth/Authenticate')
        .send({
            "username": "admin",
            "password": "admin"})
        .end(function(err, res) {
            if (err) return done(err);
            storeAccessToken = res.body.result.accessToken;
            assert.equal(res.status, 200);
            done();
        });
    });
});

How can avoid to repeat the code in getKpiRequest.js file?

Answer 1

You can define authentication function in another file, then import it into test files

// common.js
function authenticate() {

  return request('http://myendpoint.com')
        .post('/TokenAuth/Authenticate')
        .send({
            "username": "admin",
            "password": "admin"})
        .then((res) => {
            assert.equal(res.status, 200);
            return res.body.result.accessToken;
        });
}

module.exports = {
  authenticate
}

// authenticate.js 

const request = require('supertest');
const authenticate = require('./common').authenticate;

var storeAccessToken; 

describe ('POST /Authenticate', function() {
    it ('Should return access token', function(done) {
        authenticate().then((token) => {
          storeAccessToken = token;
          done();
        }).catch(done);
    });
}); 

// getKpiRequest.js

const request = require('supertest');
const authenticate = require('./common').authenticate;

var storeAccessToken;

describe ('GET /Kpi/Availables', function() {

    before(function (done){
        authenticate()
        .then((token) {
            storeAccessToken = token;
            done();
        }).catch(done);
    });
});

Keep the function general so you can reuse it