Running Mocha setup before each suite rather than before each test

Question

Using NodeJS and Mocha for testing. I think I understand how before() and beforeEach() work. Problem is, I'd like to add a setup script that runs before each "describe" rather than before each "it".

If I use before() it will run only once for the entire suite, and if I use beforeEach() it will execute before every single test, so I'm trying to find a middle ground.

So, if this is my test file:

require('./setupStuff');  describe('Suite one', function(){   it('S1 Test one', function(done){     ...   });   it('S1 Test two', function(done){     ...   }); }); describe('Suite two', function(){   it('S2 Test one', function(done){     ...   }); }); 

I'd like to have "setupStuff" contain a function that runs before 'Suite one' and 'Suite two'

Or, in other words, before 'S1 Test one' and 'S2 Test one' but NOT before 'S1 Test two'.

Can it be done?

Answer 1

There's no call similar to beforeEach or before that does what you want. But it is not needed because you can do it this way:

function makeSuite(name, tests) {     describe(name, function () {         before(function () {             console.log("shared before");         });         tests();         after(function () {             console.log("shared after");         });     }); }  makeSuite('Suite one', function(){   it('S1 Test one', function(done){       done();   });   it('S1 Test two', function(done){       done();   }); });  makeSuite('Suite two', function(){   it('S2 Test one', function(done){     done();   }); }); 

Answer 2

you can also do it in this more flexible way:

require('./setupStuff');  describe('Suite one', function(){   loadBeforeAndAfter(); //<-- added   it('S1 Test one', function(done){     ...   });   it('S1 Test two', function(done){     ...   }); }); describe('Suite two', function(){   loadBeforeAndAfter();//<-- added   it('S2 Test one', function(done){     ...   }); }); describe('Suite three', function(){   //use some other loader here, before/after, or nothing   it('S3 Test one', function(done){     ...   }); });  function loadBeforeAndAfter() {   before(function () {     console.log("shared before");   });   after(function () {     console.log("shared after");   }); }