jQuery Trigger Event in AngularJS Karma Test

Question

I'm trying to test a new directive I'm writing. However, I can't seem to get the keydown event to trigger with jQuery inside Karma/Jasmine.

Here is a simplified version of the test :

'use strict';

describe('', function() {

  var $compile;
  var $scope;

  beforeEach(inject(function(_$compile_, _$rootScope_) {
    $compile = _$compile_;
    $scope = _$rootScope_.$new();
  }));

  describe('Getting Trigger To Work', function() {

    it('Should Trigger a KeyDown Event', function() {

      var el = $compile('<form name="testing"><input id="field1" name="testfield" ng-model="result" type="text" ng-minlength="5" ng-maxlength="50"/></form>')($scope);
      console.log(el);

      var inputEl = el.find('input');
      console.log(inputEl);

      var e = $.Event('keydown');
      e.which = 65;

      inputEl.trigger(e);

    });

  });

});

My karma config includes AngularJS and jQuery. Here's that section:

//
files: [
  'lib/angular.js',
  'lib/angular-mocks.js',
  'lib/jquery-1.10.2.min.js',
  'test/**/*Spec.js'
],

When I run the test, I get an error that my input element has no trigger method :

INFO [watcher]: Changed file "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/dev_libraries/val-on-timeout/test/valOnTimeoutSpec.js".
LOG: Object{0: <form name="testing" class="ng-scope ng-pristine ng-valid"><input id="field1" name="testfield" ng-model="result" type="text" ng-minlength="5" ng-maxlength="50" class="ng-pristine ng-valid"></form>, length: 1}
LOG: Object{0: <input id="field1" name="testfield" ng-model="result" type="text" ng-minlength="5" ng-maxlength="50" class="ng-pristine ng-valid">, length: 1}
Chrome 32.0.1700 (Mac OS X 10.8.5)  testing valOnTimeout Should load FAILED
    TypeError: Object [object Object] has no method 'trigger'
        at null.<anonymous> (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/dev_libraries/val-on-timeout/test/valOnTimeoutSpec.js:79:21)
Chrome 32.0.1700 (Mac OS X 10.8.5): Executed 1 of 1 (1 FAILED) ERROR (0.327 secs / 0.033 secs)

At first, you may think that jQuery is not included. However, it is included. If it were not, the test would fail at $.Event.

Suggestions on getting the keydown event to work on the input?

Answer 1

I hope this works

  var e = $.Event('keydown');
  e.which = 65;

  $(inputEl).trigger(e); // convert inputEl into a jQuery object first
  // OR
  angular.element(inputEl).triggerHandler(e); // angular.element uses triggerHandler instead of trigger to trigger events