Node.js + Chai/Mocha/Should: running multiple tests against the same response

Question

I'm using something very similar to the following to execute a series of API tests using Mocha. This is great, but it requires making a separate API call for each test. I want to use the same API call and run multiple tests against that response. I've been reading that you can use before to do it, but none of the examples around the web actually show it working with API calls?

var chai = require('chai');
var request = require('request');
var async = require('async');
var assert = chai.assert,
    expect = chai.expect,
    should = chai.should();

describe('/', function () {
  it('should return 200', function (done) {
    request.get('http://localhost:8000', function (err, res, body) {
      res.should.have.status(200);
      done();
    });
  });

  it('should say "Hello, world!"', function (done) {
    request.get('http://localhost:8000', function (err, res, body) {
      body.should.have.property('type', 'aType');
      done();
    });
  });
});

Answer 1

You could do this with a before function like so...

var chai = require('chai');
var request = require('request');
var async = require('async');
var assert = chai.assert,
    expect = chai.expect,
    should = chai.should();

describe('/', function () {
  var firstRequest;

  before(function(done) {
    request.get('http://localhost:8000', function(err, res, body) {
      firstRequest = {
        err:err,
        res:res,
        body:body
      };
      done();
    });
  });

  it('should return 200', function (done) {
    firstRequest.res.should.have.status(200);
    done();
  });

  it('should say "Hello, world!"', function (done) {
    firstRequest.body.should.have.property('type','aType');
    done();
  });
});

However, unless you have a really good reason to do this, I think you're better off just combining the tests.

var chai = require('chai');
var request = require('request');
var async = require('async');
var assert = chai.assert,
    expect = chai.expect,
    should = chai.should();

describe('/', function () {
  it('should return 200 and say "Hello, world!"', function (done) {
    request.get('http://localhost:8000', function (err, res, body) {
      res.should.have.status(200);
      body.should.have.property('type', 'aType');
      done();
    });
  });
});

If the test fails Mocha will report the specific reason why it failed even though there are two assertions.