Karma was created by Vojta J\u00edna. The project was originally called Testacular. In Vojtech J\u00edna\u2019s thesis, he discusses the design, purpose, and implementation of Karma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his thesis (JavasScript Test Runner, https:\/\/github.com\/karma-runner\/karma\/raw\/master\/thesis.pdf<\/a>), he describes Karma as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201ca test runner that helps web application developers to be more productive and effective by making automated testing simpler and faster. In fact, I have a much higher ambition and this thesis is only a part of it \u2013 I want to promote Test Driven Development (TDD) as \u201cthe\u201d way to develop web applications because I believe it is the most effective way to develop high-quality software.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karma has the ability to easily and automatically run JavaScript unit tests on real browsers. Traditionally, tests were run by launching a browser manually and checking for results by continually clicking on the refresh button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installing Karma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s time to start using Karma. Installations and applications are constantly changing. The following guide is intended to be brief; you can go to the Karma website at http:\/\/karma-runner.github.io\/<\/a> and find the latest instructions there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The focus of this section will be the specific configuration used in this book and not an in-depth installation guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Installation prerequisites Developers can publish node applications and modules using NPM (Node Package Manager). NPM allows developers to quickly integrate applications and modules into their applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karma runs and is installed through the npm package; therefore, we need Node.js before we can use or install Karma. To install Node.js, go to http:\/\/nodejs.org\/<\/a> and follow the installation instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we have Node.js installed, let\u2019s type the following command in the Command Prompt to install Karma:<\/p>\n\n\n\n $ npm install karma -g Configuring Karma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Karma comes equipped with an automated way to create a configuration file. To use the automated way, type the following command: Customizing Karma\u2019s configuration
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To install Karma, we will need to have Node.js on our computer. Node.js runs on Google\u2019s V8 engine and allows JavaScript to be run on several operating systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The preceding command uses npm to install Karma globally using -g. This means that we can use Karma on the Command Prompt by simply typing the following:
$ karma \u2013version
By default, installing Karma will install karma-chrome-launcher and karma-jasmine as dependencies. Ensure that these modules are installed globally as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ karma init
Here is a sample of the options chosen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/viewmyprojects.com\/winwirewp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Karma-V.webp\")
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The following instructions describe the specific configuration required to get Karma running for the project. Customization includes the test framework (Jasmine), the browser (Chrome) to test with, and the files to test. To customize the configuration, open karma.conf.js and perform the following steps:
1. Ensure that the enabled framework says jasmine using the following code:
frameworks: [\u2018jasmine\u2019],
2. Configure the test directory. Note that the following definition needs to include the tests that are required to be run along with any potential dependencies. The directory that will hold our tests is \/test\/unit\/:
files: [\u2018test\/unit\/**\/*.js\u2019],
3. Set the test browser to Chrome, as follows. It will then be initialized and will run a popup after every test:
browsers: [\u2018Chrome\u2019],
Confirming Karma\u2019s installation and configuration
To confirm Karma\u2019s installation and configuration, perform the following steps:
1. Run the following command to confirm that Karma starts with no errors:
$ karma start
2. The output should be something like this:
$ INFO [karma]: Karma v0.12.16 server started at
http:\/\/localhost:9876\/
3. In addition to this, the output should state that no test files were found:
$ WARN [watcher]: Pattern \u201ctest\/unit\/**\/*.js\u201d does not match any file.
The output should do this along with a failed test message:
$ Chrome 35.0.1916 (Windows 7): Executed 0 of 0 ERROR
(0.016 secs \/ 0 secs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n