How do I test variables local to an Angular controller in Jasmine - unit-testing

Question

I have a controller with a local variable
function IndexCtrl($scope) {
var pagesById = [];
loadPages();
// snip
function loadPages() {
// pagesById gets populated
}
// snip
}
I'd like to test that pagesById is correctly populated but I'm not sure how to get at it from my it(). I don't need this variable to be in the $scope, it's just an intermediate set of information, so if I can avoid adding it to $scope that would be ideal.
it('scope.pages should populated based on pages data.', function() {
$httpBackend.flush();
expect(pagesById).toEqualData(mock_page_results);
});
gives me
ReferenceError: pagesById is not defined
Do I have any other options besides attaching it to $scope?

Answer 1

In your jasmine spec, first create the controller:
var ctrl;
beforeEach(inject(function($rootScope, $controller) {
scope = $rootScope.$new();
ctrl = $controller('myController', {
$scope: scope
});
}));
Then you can access its properties by doing ctrl.pagesById. Of course, rather than doing var pagesById you'll need to use this.pagesById in your controller.

Answer 2

Here is my way for testing local variables in Angular methods:
//------- Function for getting value of local variables
function getLocalVariable(sLocalVarName, obj, method, args){
method = method.toString();
let changedMethod = method.substring(0, method.lastIndexOf("}")) + ";" + "return " + sLocalVarName + "}";
eval(' changedMethod = ' + changedMethod);
return changedMethod.call(obj, args)
}
//----------- service
class assignStuffService {
getAvaliableStuff(shift) {
const params = {
agency_id: 0 ,
start_time: shift.data.shift.start_time,
end_time : shift.data.shift.end_time
};
}
}
//----------- part of spec
it('should set values to "params" object props', () => {
let shift = {
data:{
shift:{
start_time:'',
end_time:''
}
}
};
let params = getLocalVariable('params',
assignStuffService,
assignStuffService.getAvaliableStuff,
shift);
expect(params).toEqual({
agency_id: 0 ,
start_time: shift.data.shift.start_time,
end_time : shift.data.shift.end_time
});
});