How to unit test private methods in Typescript - unit-testing

Question

When I tried to do unit testing for private methods in a Class getting error as private methods are only accessible inside the class. Here I added sample snippet for my class and mocha test. Kindly provide me solution to implement unit test for private methods.
Class Name: Notification.ts
class Notification {
constructor() {}
public validateTempalte() {
return true;
}
private replacePlaceholder() {
return true;
}
}
Unit Test:
import {Notification} from 'Notification';
import * as chai from "chai";
describe("Notification", function(){
describe('#validateTempalte - Validate template', function() {
it('it should return success', function() {
const result = new Notification()
chai.expect(result.validateTempalte()).to.be.equal(true);
});
});
describe('#replacePlaceholder - Replace Placeholder', function() {
it('it should return success', function() {
const result = new Notification()
// As expected getting error "Private is only accessible within class"
chai.expect(result.replacePlaceholder()).to.be.equal(true);
});
});
});
As a workaround, currently, I am changing access specifier of function replacePlaceholder to public. But I don't think its a valid approach.

Answer 1

A possible solution to omit Typescript checks is to access the property dynamically (Not telling wether its good).
myClass['privateProp'] or for methods: myClass['privateMethod']()

Answer 2

Technically, in current versions of TypeScript private methods are only compile-time checked to be private - so you can call them.
class Example {
public publicMethod() {
return 'public';
}
private privateMethod() {
return 'private';
}
}
const example = new Example();
console.log(example.publicMethod()); // 'public'
console.log(example.privateMethod()); // 'private'
I mention this only because you asked how to do it, and that is how you could do it.
Correct Answer
However, that private method must be called by some other method... otherwise it isn't called at all. If you test the behaviour of that other method, you will cover the private method in the context it is used.
If you specifically test private methods, your tests will become tightly coupled to the implementation details (i.e. a good test wouldn't need to be changed if you refactored the implementation).
Disclaimer
If you still test it at the private method level, the compiler might in the future change and make the test fail (i.e. if the compiler made the method "properly" private, or if a future version of ECMAScript added visibility keywords, etc).

Answer 3

In my case, I use the prototype of the object to get access to a private method. It works well and TS does not swear.
For example:
class Example {
private privateMethod() {}
}
describe() {
it('test', () => {
const example = new Example();
const exampleProto = Object.getPrototypeOf(example);
exampleProto.privateMethod();
})
}
If you use a static method then use exampleProto.constructor.privateMethod();.

Answer 4

In HolgerJeromin's comment, the comment issue has a succinct solution that still uses the property syntax.
The solution is to type cast your object / class to any.
Examples:
(<any>myClass).privateMethod();
const value = (<any>myClass).privateValue;
(myClass as any).privateMethod();
const value = (myClass as any).privateValue;
This method satisfies the compiler as well as the VSCode syntax highlighting.
Here are some of my notes from the issue that talks about this
Accessing via a string is more common, although I don't see why it might be more typesafe.
These features are done deliberately, therefore they are helping more than hindering.
There is probably a way to disable this type of feature so people don't copy and paste this code into production. "noImplicitAny": true, might help in the tsconfig.json

Answer 5

Extract out the private function into a separate/stand alone function, but don't export it externally.
This is somewhat semantically correct, since after all — a private function is private and should not be accessed by anyone except the class itself.

Answer 6

My subjective solution: you could define a new testing-only interface that extends the original one by adding the private methods as (implicitly public) interface methods. Then, you cast the instantiated object to this new test type. This satisfies both tsc and VS code type checking. Your example with my solution:
interface INotification {
validateTemplate(): boolean,
}
class Notification implements INotification {
constructor() {}
public validateTemplate() {
return true;
}
private replacePlaceholder() {
return true;
}
}
Testing:
import {Notification} from 'Notification';
import * as chai from "chai";
interface INotificationTest extends INotification {
replacePlaceholder(): boolean;
}
describe("Notification", function(){
describe('#validateTemplate - Validate template', function() {
it('it should return success', function() {
const result = new Notification() as INotificationTest;
chai.expect(result.validateTemplate()).to.be.equal(true);
});
});
describe('#replacePlaceholder - Replace Placeholder', function() {
it('it should return success', function() {
const result = new Notification() as INotificationTest;
// Works!
chai.expect(result.replacePlaceholder()).to.be.equal(true);
});
});
});
Advantages:
tsc and vs code do not complain
IntelliSense (or any other autocomplete) works
simple (subjectively)
If you don't want to define the original interface (INotification), you could just fully define the test one (INotificationTest) instead of extending and cast it in the same manner.
Disadvantages:
Added boilerplate
Need to have both of the interfaces updated and in sync
Potentially introducing bugs by explicitly casting as a non original type.
I leave it up to you to decide whether this is worth it or no. In my case, the positives outweigh the negatives. I have tested this with jest, but I assume that mocha.js is no different here.
Edit: but generally I would agree with Fenton's answer

Answer 7

// module.ts
private async privateMethod = () => "private method executed"
public async testPrivateMethods(...args) {
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
return this.privateMethod(...args);
}
}
Now we can reach our private method to test. In jest file:
// module.spec.js
describe('Module', () => {
let service: Module = new Module();
it('private method should be defined', () => {
expect(service.testPrivateMethods).toBeDefined();
});
}
You need to set your enviroment variable name of NODE_ENV must be development.
// .env
NODE_ENV="development"

Answer 8

The fun thing is that it's just a typescript error (not javascript), so you can fix it with
// #ts-expect-error
and everything works fine.
I consider it as a legitimate solution, as the goal was to suppress typescript in this particular case.

Answer 9

Since private methods are not accessible outside class, you can have another public method which calls replacePlaceholder() in Notification class and then test the public method.