How do I inject dependencies into AngularJS controller tests without using Jasmine-specific inject()

Question

I'm trying to wrap my brain around dependency injection in AngularJS. Let's say this is my very exciting application code:

function PrideRockCtrl($scope, King) {
  $scope.king = King;
}
  
angular.module('Characters', ['ngResource'])
  .factory('King', function() {
    return "Mufasa";
  });

I want to test PrideRockCtrl. If I follow examples in the documentation and in the tutorial, I could use the module('Characters') to configure the injector and use inject() to get some dependencies. i.e.:

describe('Pride Rock', function() {
  beforeEach(module('Characters'));
  it('should be ruled by Simba', inject(function($rootScope, $controller) {
    var scope = $rootScope.$new();
    var ctrl = $controller(PrideRockCtrl, {$scope: scope});
    expect(scope.king).toEqual("Mufasa");
  }));
});

This works fine, but this isn't a cross-test-framework solution. The module() and inject() test helpers are only compatible with Jasmine.

What's the best way to manually accomplish the same dependency injection without using module() or inject()?

I came up with this:

describe('Pride Rock', function() {
  it('should be ruled by Mufasa', function() {
    var $injector = angular.injector(['Characters']);
    var $controller = $injector.get('$controller');
    var scope = $injector.get('$rootScope').$new();
    var king = $injector.get('King');
    var ctrl = $controller(PrideRockCtrl, {$scope: scope, King: king});
    expect(scope.king).toEqual("Mufasa");
  });
});

This seems very verbose. Is there a better way?

jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/johnlindquist/d63Y3/

Answer 1

The simplest possible version, without using modules would look like this:

describe('Pride Rock', function() {

    it('should be ruled by Simba', inject(function($rootScope, $controller) {
        var scope = $rootScope.$new();
        var ctrl = $controller(PrideRockCtrl, {
            $scope: scope,
            King:"Mufasa"
        });
        expect(scope.king).toEqual("Mufasa");
    }));
});

In fact you were pretty close with your attempts, the only thing missing was a local dependency in a controller (King:"Mufasa").

In the tests like those, where we do focus on a one, selected class only it is not necessary to use the $injector, as we can manually mock / stub our dependencies. At the end of the day $injector is just giving instances of objects so we can create those our self as well.

Answer 2

Angular controllers are just JS functions. If you don't want anything injected, just call them.

describe('king should be set', function() {
  var scope = {};
  var lion = "Simba";
  PrideController(scope, lion);
  expect(scope.king).toEqual(lion)
});