Using express with Karma to test ember app kit app - ember.js

Question

I've just downloaded and installed ember app kit. I've got it running and am using express to fake a backend by following the included directions.
I've also installed Karma and am attempting to run the tests with it in conjunction with the express backend. I don't believe the express app is being started though because when i view the output of Karma i see it attempting to perform a GET request and failing.
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) http://1.10.1.10:9876/api/posts/1
Json is returned when i hit the development port(8000) though.
How do i tell Karma to start up the express app on port 9876 to test against?
I'm using the karma.conf.js from from the ember-app-kit-todos repo
Here is my Gruntfile.js. I also took bits from the todos repo:
module.exports = function(grunt) {
// To support Coffeescript, SASS, LESS and others, just install
// the appropriate grunt package and it will be automatically included
// in the build process:
//
// * for Coffeescript, run `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-coffee`
//
// * for SCSS (without SASS), run `npm install --save-dev grunt-sass`
// * for SCSS/SASS support (may be slower), run
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-sass`
// This depends on the ruby sass gem, which can be installed with
// `gem install sass`
// * for Compass, run `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-compass`
// This depends on the ruby compass gem, which can be installed with
// `gem install compass`
// You should not install SASS if you have installed Compass.
//
// * for LESS, run `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-less`
//
// * for Stylus/Nib, `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-stylus`
//
// * for Emblem, run the following commands:
// `npm uninstall --save-dev grunt-ember-templates`
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-emblem`
// `bower install emblem.js --save`
//
// * For EmberScript, run `npm install --save-dev grunt-ember-script`
//
// * for LiveReload, `npm install --save-dev connect-livereload`
//
// * for displaying the execution time of the grunt tasks,
// `npm install --save-dev time-grunt`
//
// * for minimizing the index.html at the end of the dist task
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-htmlmin`
//
// * for minimizing images in the dist task
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-contrib-imagemin`
//
// * for using images based CSS sprites (http://youtu.be/xD8DW6IQ6r0)
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-fancy-sprites`
// `bower install --save fancy-sprites-scss`
//
// * for automatically adding CSS vendor prefixes (autoprefixer)
// `npm install --save-dev grunt-autoprefixer`
//
var Helpers = require('./tasks/helpers'),
filterAvailable = Helpers.filterAvailableTasks,
_ = grunt.util._,
path = require('path');
Helpers.pkg = require("./package.json");
if (Helpers.isPackageAvailable("time-grunt")) {
require("time-grunt")(grunt);
}
// Loads task options from `tasks/options/` and `tasks/custom-options`
// and loads tasks defined in `package.json`
var config = _.extend({},
require('load-grunt-config')(grunt, {
configPath: path.join(__dirname, 'tasks/options'),
loadGruntTasks: false,
init: false
}),
require('load-grunt-config')(grunt, { // Custom options have precedence
configPath: path.join(__dirname, 'tasks/custom-options'),
init: false
})
);
grunt.loadTasks('tasks'); // Loads tasks in `tasks/` folder
config.env = process.env;
// App Kit's Main Tasks
// ====================
// Generate the production version
// ------------------
grunt.registerTask('dist', "Build a minified & production-ready version of your app.", [
'clean:dist',
'build:dist',
'copy:assemble',
'createDistVersion'
]);
// Default Task
// ------------------
grunt.registerTask('default', "Build (in debug mode) & test your application.", ['test']);
// Servers
// -------------------
grunt.registerTask('server', "Run your server in development mode, auto-rebuilding when files change.", function(proxyMethod) {
var expressServerTask = 'expressServer:debug';
if (proxyMethod) {
expressServerTask += ':' + proxyMethod;
}
grunt.task.run(['clean:debug',
'build:debug',
expressServerTask,
'watch'
]);
});
grunt.registerTask('server:dist', "Build and preview a minified & production-ready version of your app.", [
'dist',
'expressServer:dist:keepalive'
]);
// Testing
// -------
grunt.registerTask('test', "Run your apps's tests once. Uses Google Chrome by default.", [
'clean:debug', 'build:debug', 'karma:test' ]);
grunt.registerTask('test:ci', "Run your app's tests in PhantomJS. For use in continuous integration (i.e. Travis CI).", [
'clean:debug', 'build:debug', 'karma:ci' ]);
grunt.registerTask('test:browsers', "Run your app's tests in multiple browsers (see tasks/options/testem.js for configuration).", [
'clean:debug', 'build:debug', 'karma:browsers' ]);
grunt.registerTask('test:server', "Start a Karma test server and the standard development server.", function(proxyMethod) {
var expressServerTask = 'expressServer:debug';
if (proxyMethod) {
expressServerTask += ':' + proxyMethod;
}
grunt.task.run(['clean:debug',
'build:debug',
'karma:server',
expressServerTask,
'addKarmaToWatchTask',
'watch'
]);
});
// Worker tasks
// =================================
grunt.registerTask('build:dist', filterAvailable([
'createResultDirectory', // Create directoy beforehand, fixes race condition
'fancySprites:create',
'concurrent:buildDist', // Executed in parallel, see config below
]));
grunt.registerTask('build:debug', filterAvailable([
'jshint:tooling',
'createResultDirectory', // Create directoy beforehand, fixes race condition
'fancySprites:create',
'concurrent:buildDebug', // Executed in parallel, see config below
]));
grunt.registerTask('createDistVersion', filterAvailable([
'useminPrepare', // Configures concat, cssmin and uglify
'concat', // Combines css and javascript files
'cssmin', // Minifies css
'uglify', // Minifies javascript
'imagemin', // Optimizes image compression
// 'svgmin',
'copy:dist', // Copies files not covered by concat and imagemin
'rev', // Appends 8 char hash value to filenames
'usemin', // Replaces file references
'htmlmin:dist' // Removes comments and whitespace
]));
// Parallelize most of the build process
_.merge(config, {
concurrent: {
buildDist: [
"buildTemplates:dist",
"buildScripts",
"buildStyles",
"buildIndexHTML:dist"
],
buildDebug: [
"buildTemplates:debug",
"buildScripts",
"buildStyles",
"buildIndexHTML:debug"
]
}
});
// Templates
grunt.registerTask('buildTemplates:dist', filterAvailable([
'emblem:compile',
'emberTemplates:dist'
]));
grunt.registerTask('buildTemplates:debug', filterAvailable([
'emblem:compile',
'emberTemplates:debug'
]));
// Scripts
grunt.registerTask('buildScripts', filterAvailable([
'jshint:app',
'jshint:tests',
'coffee',
'emberscript',
'copy:javascriptToTmp',
'transpile',
'concat_sourcemap'
]));
// Styles
grunt.registerTask('buildStyles', filterAvailable([
'compass:compile',
'sass:compile',
'less:compile',
'stylus:compile',
'copy:cssToResult',
'autoprefixer:app'
]));
// Index HTML
grunt.registerTask('buildIndexHTML:dist', [
'preprocess:indexHTMLDistApp',
'preprocess:indexHTMLDistTests'
]);
grunt.registerTask('buildIndexHTML:debug', [
'preprocess:indexHTMLDebugApp',
'preprocess:indexHTMLDebugTests'
]);
// Appends `karma:server:run` to every watch target's tasks array
grunt.registerTask('addKarmaToWatchTask', function() {
_.forIn(grunt.config('watch'), function(config, key) {
if (key === 'options') { return; }
config.tasks.push('karma:server:run');
grunt.config('watch.' + key, config);
});
});
grunt.registerTask('createResultDirectory', function() {
grunt.file.mkdir('tmp/result');
});
grunt.initConfig(config);
};
I'm very new to EAK and Karma. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

You can configure the location of the proxyURL in the package.json file, as seen here. You'll also need to make sure that the APIMethod is set to 'proxy' instead of 'stub'.
To actually have the server startup on a port other than 8000, you need to set an environment variable at the time you're running the tests. So, if you invoke grunt like this: PORT=9876 grunt test it should start the server on the port you specified.