How to mock API calls made within a React component being tested with Jest

Question

I'm trying to mock a fetch() that retrieves data into a component.

I'm using this as a model for mocking my fetches, but I'm having trouble getting it to work.

I'm getting this error when I run my tests: babel-plugin-jest-hoist: The module factory of 'jest.mock()' is not allowed to reference any out-of-scope variables.

Is there a way I can have these functions return mock data instead of actually trying to make real API calls?

Code

utils/getUsers.js

Returns users with roles mapped into each user.

const getUsersWithRoles = rolesList =>
  fetch(`/users`, {
    credentials: "include"
  }).then(response =>
    response.json().then(d => {
      const newUsersWithRoles = d.result.map(user => ({
        ...user,
        roles: rolesList.filter(role => user.roles.indexOf(role.iden) !== -1)
      }));
      return newUsersWithRoles;
    })
  );

component/UserTable.js

const UserTable = () => {
  const [users, setUsers] = useState([]);
  useEffect(() => {
    getTableData();
  }, []);

  const getTableData = () => {
    new Promise((res, rej) => res(getRoles()))
      .then(roles => getUsersWithRoles(roles))
      .then(users => {
        setUsers(users);
      });
  };
  return (...)
};

component/tests/UserTable.test.js

import "jest-dom/extend-expect";
import React from "react";
import { render } from "react-testing-library";
import UserTable from "../UserTable";
import { getRoles as mockGetRoles } from "../utils/roleUtils";
import { getUsersWithRoles as mockGetUsersWithRoles } from "../utils/userUtils";

const users = [
  {
    name: "Benglish",
    iden: "63fea823365f1c81fad234abdf5a1f43",
    roles: ["eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc"]
  }
];

const roles = [
  {
    iden: "b70e1fa11ae089b74731a628f2a9b126",
    name: "senior dev"
  },
  {
    iden: "eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc",
    name: "dev"
  }
];

const usersWithRoles = [
  {
    name: "Benglish",
    iden: "63fea823365f1c81fad234abdf5a1f43",
    roles: [
      {
        iden: "eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc",
        name: "dev"
      }
    ]
  }
];

jest.mock("../utils/userUtils", () => ({
  getUsers: jest.fn(() => Promise.resolve(users))
}));
jest.mock("../utils/roleUtils", () => ({
  getRolesWithUsers: jest.fn(() => Promise.resolve(usersWithRoles)),
  getRoles: jest.fn(() => Promise.resolve(roles))
}));

test("<UserTable/> show users", () => {
  const { queryByText } = render(<UserTable />);

  expect(queryByText("Billy")).toBeTruthy();
});

Answer 1

Don't mock the tool making API calls; stub the server responses. Here's how I would re-write your test using an HTTP interceptor called nock.

import "jest-dom/extend-expect";
import React from "react";
import { render, waitFor } from "react-testing-library";
import UserTable from "../UserTable";

const users = [
  {
    name: "Benglish",
    iden: "63fea823365f1c81fad234abdf5a1f43",
    roles: ["eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc"]
  }
];

const roles = [
  {
    iden: "b70e1fa11ae089b74731a628f2a9b126",
    name: "senior dev"
  },
  {
    iden: "eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc",
    name: "dev"
  }
];

const usersWithRoles = [
  {
    name: "Benglish",
    iden: "63fea823365f1c81fad234abdf5a1f43",
    roles: [
      {
        iden: "eaac4d45c3c41f449cf7c94622afacbc",
        name: "dev"
      }
    ]
  }
];

describe("<UserTable/>", () => {
  it("shows users", async () => { // <-- Async to let nock kick over resolved promise
    nock(`${server}`)
      .get('/users')
      .reply(200, {
        data: users
      })
      .get('/usersWithRoles')
      .reply(200, {
        data: usersWithRoles
      })
      .get('/roles')
      .reply(200, {
        data: roles
      });
    const { queryByText } = render(<UserTable />);

    await waitFor(() => expect(queryByText("Billy")).toBeTruthy()); // <-- Is this supposed to be "Benglish"?
  });
});

Now your test suite is unaware of how you get the data, and you don't have to maintain complicated mocks. Check out Testing Components that make API calls for a deeper dive.

Answer 2

These days Mock Service Worker looks like a good option, to "mock by intercepting requests on the network level".

Answer 3

You need to rename the variables used in the scope of the mocks to be prefixed with mock (e.g. mockUsers).

Jest does some hoisting magic to allow you to replace the imported modules with mocks, but does seem to require these special variable name prefixes to do its thing.