How to trigger $onInit or $onChanges implictly in unit testing Angular component controller?

Question

I'm using Angular 1.5.5 and Jasmine as test framework. Currently I have to do something like this so that the test passes:

function createController(bindings) {
    return $componentController('myController', null, bindings);
}

beforeEach(inject(function (_$componentController_) {
    $componentController = _$componentController_;
}));

describe('on pages updated', function () {

    beforeEach(function () {
        controller = createController({prop1: 0, prop2: 0});
        controller.$onInit(); // you see I have to explitcitly call this $onInit function
    });

    it('should update isSelected and currentPage', function () {
        expect(controller.prop1).toBe(0);
        expect(controller.prop2).toBe(0);

        controller.prop1= 1;
        controller.prop2= 2;
        controller.$onChanges(controller); // and $onChanges here as well

        expect(controller.prop1).toBe(1);
        expect(controller.prop2).toBe(2);
    });

});

Answer 1

There is an issue in github regarding this: https://github.com/angular/angular.js/issues/14129

Basically it is working as intended, not calling $onInit or $onChanges automatically.

it makes no sense (or low sense) to execute $onInit, I explain it: $componentController is to instance controllers a kind of replacement for $controller, but instead of creating instances of controllers registered by the controllerProvider it creates instances of controllers registered through directives (the ones that satisfies a component definition). So, once you have the instance of the controller, you can call manually $onInit, and all the lifecycle of your controller, the idea is that you are testing a controller, not a directive (and its relationships).