FactoryMate

FactoryMate is a TypeScript-based fixture library for instantiating domain objects for testing purposes, inspired by the Factory Duke project.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
  
• Example Project
  
• Usage
  
  • Factory Classes
    
  • Additional Building Methods
    
    • Named Templates
      
    • Overriding a Template's Variables
      
    • Building Many of the Same Object
      
• Sequence Generation
  
  • NumberGenerator
    
  • ProvidedValueGenerator
    
• Recipes
  
  • Creating a Random Number Generator
    
• License
  

Getting Started

FactoryMate can be installed via NPM:

npm install --save-dev factory-mate

Example Project

An example project using FactoryMate can be found here: FactoryMateConsumer

Usage

Given a simple domain object:

// GroceryItem.ts
export class GroceryItem {
    public groceryName = '';
}

A factory can be registered using FactoryMate.define():

import { FactoryMate } from 'factory-mate';
import { GroceryItem } from './GroceryItem';

FactoryMate.define(GroceryItem, (): GroceryItem => {
    const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
    groceryItem.groceryName = 'crispy chips';
    return groceryItem;
});

FactoryMate.define() takes two arguments:

1. The class being registered
2. An initialization function - a function that returns the 'template' of the object.

Every time FactoryMate is used to create an instance of the registered object, that instance's properties will have the same values as those defined in template. To build an instance of a registered class:

const groceryItem: GroceryItem = FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name);

console.log(JSON.stringify(groceryItem)); // '{"groceryName":"crispy chips"}'

Factory Classes

It is recommended that a factory class be created for each domain object. Factory classes can be created by annotating the new class with @FactoryMateAware and calling the static FactoryMate.define() method in that class:

// GroceryItemFactory.ts
import { FactoryMate, FactoryMateAware } from 'factory-mate';
import { GroceryItem } from './GroceryItem';

@FactoryMateAware
export class GroceryItemFactory {
    // The @FactoryMateAware annotation will automatically call the define() function at runtime
    public define() { 
        FactoryMate.define(GroceryItem, (): GroceryItem => {
            const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
            groceryItem.groceryName = 'crispy chips';
            return groceryItem;
        });
    }
}

Additional Building Methods

Named Templates

In certain cases, it may be desirable to have more than one template per class. In order to create more than one template per class, or to give a template a name other than the class it is representing, a 'named template' can be created using defineWithName:

// GroceryItemFactory.ts
import { FactoryMate, FactoryMateAware } from 'factory-mate';
import { GroceryItem } from './GroceryItem';

@FactoryMateAware
export class GroceryItemFactory {
    // The @FactoryMateAware annotation will automatically call the define() function at runtime
    public define() { 
        FactoryMate.define(GroceryItem, (): GroceryItem => {
            const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
            groceryItem.groceryName = 'crispy chips';
            return groceryItem;
        });

        FactoryMate.defineWithName(GroceryItem, 'specialChips', (): GroceryItem => {
            const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
            groceryItem.groceryName = 'limited edition flavor chips';
            return groceryItem;
        });
    }
}

Overriding a Template's Variables

If for specific tests there is a need to override one or more variables in the template, this can be accomplished via an optional parameter to build:

const groceryItem: GroceryItem = FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name,
      (u: GroceryItem) => {
        u.groceryName = 'chunky cookies';
      });

Building Many of the Same Object

To build several objects of the same type:

const groceryItems: GroceryItem[] = FactoryMate.buildMany(GroceryItem.name, 3);

Sequence Generation

NumberGenerator

FactoryMate supports infinite, numerical sequence generation via the NumberGenerator class. This can be helpful for the purposes of generating ID values for domain objects to better represent real world scenarios (e.g. IDs in a data store)

In order to add sequential generation support to an entity, it can be imported into it's factory as such:

import { FactoryMate, FactoryMateAware } from 'factory-mate';
import { NumberGenerator } from 'factory-mate';
import { GroceryItem } from './GroceryItem';

@FactoryMateAware
export class GroceryItemFactory {
    public define() {
        // Defines the NumberGenerator instance to be used across all calls to FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name);
        const numberGenerator = new NumberGenerator();

        FactoryMate.define(GroceryItem, (): GroceryItem => {
            const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
            // The nextValue() method retrieves the next value in the sequence
            groceryItem.id = numberGenerator.nextValue();
            groceryItem.groceryName = 'chewy cookies';
            return groceryItem;
        });
    }
}

Using the factory method above, three sequential calls to FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name) will result in the following:

const groceryItem1: GroceryItem = FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name);
const groceryItem2: GroceryItem = FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name);
const groceryItem3: GroceryItem = FactoryMate.build(GroceryItem.name);

console.log(JSON.stringify(groceryItem1)); //'{"id":1,"groceryName":"chewy cookies"}'
console.log(JSON.stringify(groceryItem2)); //'{"id":2,"groceryName":"chewy cookies"}'
console.log(JSON.stringify(groceryItem3)); //'{"id":3,"groceryName":"chewy cookies"}'

Changing Numerical Sequence Values

By default, NumberGenerator starts at a value of 1 and increments by 1. These values can be altered at instantiation time if desired

// Start at one, increment by one: 1, 2, 3 ...
const numberGenerator = new NumberGenerator();
// Start at one, increment by two: 1, 3, 5 ...
const numberGenerator = new NumberGenerator(1, 2);
// Start at zero, increment by one: 0, 1, 2, ...
const numberGenerator = new NumberGenerator(0);

ProvidedValueGenerator

FactoryMate also supports sequence generation by means of the ProvidedValueGenerator class. ProvidedValueGenerator is capable of returning values from an Array of numbers, strings, objects, etc. that was provided to the class upon instantiation:

const providedValueGenerator = new ProvidedValueGenerator(['up', 'left', 'right']);
const firstValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue();  // 'up'
const secondValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue(); // 'left'
const thirdValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue();  // 'right'
const fourthValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue(); // Error: 'Out of bounds!'

By default, ProvidedValueGenerator supports finite-sequence generation. In order to create an infinite-sequence generator, set the continuousMode flag to true as a part of the class's instantiation:

const providedValueGenerator = new ProvidedValueGenerator(['up', 'left', 'right'], true);
const firstValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue();  // 'up'
const secondValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue(); // 'left'
const thirdValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue();  // 'right'
const fourthValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue(); // 'up'
const fifthValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue(); // 'left'
const sixthValue = providedValueGenerator.nextValue();  // 'right'
...

Recipes

Creating a Random Number Generator

A random number generator can be created by passing a Math.random() function call wrapped in an array to the ProvidedNumberGenerator class:

// Each call to randomNumberGenerator.nextValue() will produce a number between 0 and 9
const randomNumberGenerator = new ProvidedValueGenerator([Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)], true);

FactoryMate.define(GroceryItem, (): GroceryItem => {
  const groceryItem = new GroceryItem();
  groceryItem.id = randomNumberGenerator.nextValue();
  groceryItem.groceryName = 'Chips';
  return groceryItem;
});

License

FactoryMate is distributed under the MIT license