Angular 2 Karma Test 'component-name' is not a known element

Question

Because in unit tests you want to test the component mostly isolated from other parts of your application, Angular won't add your module's dependencies like components, services, etc. by default. So you need to do that manually in your tests. Basically, you have two options here:

A) Declare the original NavComponent in the test

describe('AppComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
      TestBed.configureTestingModule({
        declarations: [
          AppComponent,
          NavComponent
        ]
      }).compileComponents();
    }));

B) Mock the NavComponent

describe('AppComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
      TestBed.configureTestingModule({
        declarations: [
          AppComponent,
          MockNavComponent
        ]
      }).compileComponents();
    }));

// it(...) test cases 

});

@Component({
  selector: 'app-nav',
  template: ''
})
class MockNavComponent {
}

You'll find more information in the official documentation.

You can also use NO_ERRORS_SCHEMA

describe('AppComponent', () => {
beforeEach(async(() => {
  TestBed.configureTestingModule({
    declarations: [
      AppComponent
    ],
    schemas: [NO_ERRORS_SCHEMA]
  }).compileComponents();
}));

https://2018.ng-conf.org/mocking-dependencies-angular/