Wallaby.js Introduction: VS Code tutorial

First you need to install wallaby.js extension for Visual Studio Code, if you haven’t done it yet.

For this tutorial I will use this sample calculator repository. You can clone it to try locally:

git clone https://github.com/wallabyjs/calculator-sample.git

Once you have the source code locally, open the project folder in Visual Studio Code.

There you will find a simple calculator project there with wallaby.js configuration file. Wallaby configuration file is a simple JavaScript file in your project root folder with just a couple of mandatory settings. The configuration file includes a list of files and tests of your application as well as some settings for various technologies that you may be using to build your project, such as Webpack or Browserify configuration Babel/CoffeeScript/TypeScript compiler options, etc.

Wallaby supports lots of technologies and scenarios, we have a collection of sample projects with configuration files for different tools, frameworks and languages, such as Webpack, Browserify, ES6 and ES7 via Babel, TypeScript and CoffeeScript, React and Angular, node.js and io.js, etc.

Note that the tutorial config is using PhantomJs 2 to run tests. You may also use Chrome, Electron, or node.js as an environment to run your tests.

First steps

Selecting wallaby.js config file

Wallaby.js for Visual Studio Code needs to know what configuration file to use to run your tests. If you only have one file named wallaby.js/wallaby.conf.js in your project root, wallaby will automatically select it.

However, if you have multiple configuration files, use different naming convention or have the config file not in the root folder, you may select the config file using Wallaby.js: Select Configuration File command from the editor Command Palette.

Wallaby.js Command Palette

As you probably know, you may press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P in Visual Studio Code to get the editor Command Palette in case if you’ve forgotten some shortcuts or just like invoking commands this way. There you may search for wallaby and use the found commands.

Also, for your convenience wallaby.js adds its own Command Palette to the editor that you may display by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + =. It’s a fast and easy way to quickly use various wallaby features.

Now let’s have some fun.

Let’s try starting wallaby.js: to do that you need to invoke wallaby Start command. You may do it by using the Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R, R shortcut, or using wallaby Command Palette.

To stop wallaby.js, you may use the Stop command.

Wallaby.js in action

Once you have started wallaby.js, at the bottom right corner of the editor you’ll see wallaby status indicator. It’s job is pretty simple: when it displays a spinner - your tests are running, when it shows a cross - you have some failing tests, when it shows a tick - all of your tests are passing. It also shows the number of failing or passing tests, and you may also use the indicator to show ‘Wallaby.js Tests’ Output Channel by clicking it.

Now, let’s open the sample calculator project spec (test/calculatorSpec.js).

When wallaby.js is running, you can see the code coverage in opened source files (specified in wallaby configuration file). As you can see, there are various colored squares displayed for each line of your source code.

Try jumping to any of the passing tests and break it, for example try changing the 2 plus 2 expectation result to 5 in the should add numbers test, or try breaking the code covered by the test. Right after the change wallaby.js automatically runs your tests and displays the result in status bar.

The code coverage and messages are automatically updated, just as you type.

Also, try editing some console.log arguments or just console.log any object you like.

This is a great way to quickly inspect any objects without having to leave your editor, without switching to any other console. Think how cool it is - your code editor is your console with all the required context.

We also recommend reading about some more powerful ways to log things and measure code performance with wallaby.js.

Watch expressions in action

Watch performance in action

Coverage indicators

Let’s have a look at the editor gutter where you may see some indicators. Here is what these coverage indicators mean:

Gray square means that the source line is not covered by any of your tests.
Green square means that the source line is covered by at least one of your tests.
Yellow square means that the source line is only partially covered by some of your tests.
Red square means that the source line is the source of an error or failed expectation, or is in the stack of an error.
Pink square means that the source line is on the execution path of a failing test.

Failing tests

‘Wallaby.js Tests’ Output Channel displays all tests that are currently failing along with the error stacks and registered console.log calls. Some bits of the displayed information are hyperlinks so you can navigate to different places, for example to the exact error line, or a line where something is logged to console. To quickly focus the panel you may use the Show Failing Tests wallaby command (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R, T).

Also, when a test error contains expected and actual properties, the ‘Wallaby Tests’ output channel, as well as the error hover tip, displays compact diff view and can display side-by-side diff view. This allows to quickly debug failing equality assertions and snapshots.

Diff views

Value Explorer

Value Explorer integrates with Wallaby’s existing variable and expression output mechanisms (console.log, live comments, identifier expressions, and the Show Value command) to display values in an easy-to-navigate, real-time tree view. The tree can be expanded to any depth and can copy paths/values to the clipboard.

ValueExplorer in action

Test focusing

Sometimes when writing or debugging a test (or a set of tests, or a test file) for a particular feature, you may need to see code coverage and output only for this specific test (or the set of tests, or the test file). To allow it, wallaby fully supports testing frameworks test focusing functions, as well as special comments to focus/skip specific test files.

Commands

To help you writing/navigating your code and tests more efficiently, wallaby.js provides a few commands. You may see the full list in the wallaby.js Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + =).

These commands include:

Show line tests: displays the line related test data. The command allows you to quickly view all tests (both failing and passing) that cover the current line of code, navigate to test and code errors, view console messages related to some specific test or some source code line.

Jump to failing test: allows to quickly navigate to the failing test from any ‘pink’ context (the failing test execution path).
Jump to error source: allows to quickly navigate to the source of the test error from any ‘pink’ context (failing test execution path).
Toggle uncovered regions: displays/hides uncovered regions for an opened file. The command is very useful for ‘yellow’ lines to display what is exactly not covered in the line. Highlighted markers will automatically disappear when you start editing your code.

Run line tests: the command is pretty simple, it just runs a single test (if invoked from within the test) or all related tests (if invoked within some source code covered by the tests).
Run file tests: the command runs all tests within the test file it is invoked in, or all tests in all the test files that cover the source file that the command is invoked within.
Run project tests: the command runs all tests in your project.
Update project snapshots: the command updates all Jest snapshots in your project.
Update file snapshots: the command updates all Jest snapshots in the current (focused) file, or all snapshots in all the test files that cover the source file that the action is invoked within.
Update test snapshots: the command updates snapshots of a single test (if invoked from within the test) or all snapshots in all related tests (if invoked within some source code covered by the tests).

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues with configuring or using wallaby.js and not sure why it happens, check out our troubleshooting docs section or search our public repository issues to see if someone else have been experiencing something similar.

Another useful technique is to run wallaby.js with the debug flag set to true. In this case wallaby outputs a lot of additional information about the test execution progress which may help you to understand what’s going on if something goes wrong. The output can be viewed in the Wallaby.js Console Output Channel (View - Output).

Changing icon colors

Coverage indicator colors may be changed in VS Code user settings (settings.json file). You may find the example with the default colors below.

{
    ...

    "wallaby.colors": {
        "covered": "#62b455",
        "errorPath": "#ffa0a0",
        "errorSource": "#fe536a",
        "notCovered": "#cccccc",
        "partiallyCovered": "#d2a032"
    }
}

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

For Microsoft Windows environments, Wallaby can be configured to run using WSL. This configuration option is only available in your VS Code settings file. To use WSL, you must set wallaby.useWsl to true, for example:

{
    "wallaby.useWsl": true
}

This setting is ignored on non-Windows environments. If configuring a custom version of node, the path must refer to a version of node on your Linux installation.

Note that you need to restart the editor after the changes to apply them.

Trial version

Note that trial version of wallaby.js (the one without a valid license) will be displaying prompts and stopping after some time, so you will need to restart the tool or your editor. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a trial period for yourself or your team without activation prompts and restarts.