AngularJS + Jasmine: Comparing objects

Question

I'm just starting out writing tests for my AngularJS app and am doing so in Jasmine.

Here are the relevant code snippets

ClientController:

'use strict';

adminConsoleApp.controller('ClientController',
    function ClientController($scope, Client) {

        //Get list of clients
        $scope.clients = Client.query(function () {
            //preselect first client in array
            $scope.selected.client = $scope.clients[0];
        });

        //necessary for data-binding so that it is accessible in child scopes.
        $scope.selected = {};

        //Current page
        $scope.currentPage = 'start.html';

        //For Client nav bar
        $scope.clientNavItems = [
            {destination: 'features.html', title: 'Features'},
        ];

        //Set current page
        $scope.setCurrent = function (title, destination) {
            if (destination !== '') {
                $scope.currentPage = destination;
            }

        };

        //Return path to current page
        $scope.getCurrent = function () {
            return 'partials/clients/' + $scope.currentPage;
        };

        //For nav bar highlighting of active page
        $scope.isActive = function (destination) {
            return $scope.currentPage === destination ? true : false;
        };

        //Reset current page on client change
        $scope.clientChange = function () {
            $scope.currentPage = 'start.html';
        };
    });

ClientControllerSpec:

'use strict';

var RESPONSE = [
    {
        "id": 10,
        "name": "Client Plus",
        "ref": "client-plus"
    },
    {
        "id": 13,
        "name": "Client Minus",
        "ref": "client-minus"
    },
    {
        "id": 23805,
        "name": "Shaun QA",
        "ref": "saqa"
    }
];

describe('ClientController', function() {

    var scope;

    beforeEach(inject(function($controller, $httpBackend, $rootScope) {
        scope = $rootScope;
        $httpBackend.whenGET('http://localhost:3001/clients').respond(RESPONSE);
        $controller('ClientController', {$scope: scope});
        $httpBackend.flush();
    }));

    it('should preselect first client in array', function() {
        //this fails.
        expect(scope.selected.client).toEqual(RESPONSE[0]);
    });

    it('should set current page to start.html', function() {
        expect(scope.currentPage).toEqual('start.html');
    });
});

The test fails:

Chrome 25.0 (Mac) ClientController should preselect first client in array FAILED
    Expected { id : 10, name : 'Client Plus', ref : 'client-plus' } to equal { id : 10, name : 'Client Plus', ref : 'client-plus' }.
    Error: Expected { id : 10, name : 'Client Plus', ref : 'client-plus' } to equal { id : 10, name : 'Client Plus', ref : 'client-plus' }.
        at null.<anonymous> (/Users/shaun/sandbox/zong-admin-console-app/test/unit/controllers/ClientControllerSpec.js:43:39) 

Does anyone have any ideas on why this might be happening?

Also .. as I'm new to writing AngularJS tests, any comments on whether I'm setting up my test wrong or whether it can be improved will be welcome.

Update:

Including ClientService:

'use strict';

AdminConsoleApp.services.factory('Client', function ($resource) {
    //API is set up such that if clientId is passed in, will retrieve client by clientId, else retrieve all.
    return $resource('http://localhost:port/clients/:clientId', {port: ':3001', clientId: '@clientId'}, {

    });
});

Also, I got around the problem by comparing ids instead:

it('should preselect first client in array', function () {
    expect(scope.selected.client.id).toEqual(RESPONSE[0].id);
});

Answer 1

toEqual makes a deep equality comparison. Which means that when all the properties of the objects' values are equal, the objects are considered to be equal.

As you said, you are using resource which adds a couple of properties to the objects in the array.

So this {id:12} becomes this {id:12, $then: function, $resolved: true} which are not equal. Id checking should be fine if you are just testing if you set the values properly.