Fishery

Fishery is a library for setting up JavaScript objects for use in tests and anywhere else you need to set up data. It is loosely modeled after the Ruby gem, factory_bot.

Fishery is built with TypeScript in mind. Factories accept typed parameters and return typed objects, so you can be confident that the data used in your tests is valid. If you aren't using TypeScript, that's fine too – Fishery still works, just without the extra typechecking that comes with TypeScript.

Installation

Install fishery with:

npm install --save-dev fishery

or

yarn add --dev fishery

Usage

A factory is just a function that returns your object. Fishery provides several arguments to your factory function to help with common situations. After defining your factory, you can then call build() on it to build your objects. Here's how it's done:

Define factories

// factories/user.ts
import { Factory } from 'fishery';
import { User } from '../my-types';
import postFactory from './post';

export default Factory.define<User>(({ sequence }) => ({
  id: sequence,
  name: 'Rosa',
  address: { city: 'Austin', state: 'TX', country: 'USA' },
  posts: postFactory.buildList(2),
}));

Build objects with your factories

const user = userFactory.build({ name: 'Sandra' });

Pass parameters as the first argument to build to override your factory defaults. These parameters are deep-merged into the default object returned by your factory.

build also supports a seconds argument with the following keys:

• transient: data for use in your factory that doesn't get overlaid onto your result object. More on this in the Transient Params section
• associations: often not required but can be useful in order to short-circuit creating associations. More on this in the Associations section

// my-test.test.ts
import { factories } from './factories';

const user = factories.user.build({
  name: 'Susan',
  address: { city: 'El Paso' },
});

user.name; // Susan
user.address.city; // El Paso
user.address.state; // TX (from factory)

Asynchronously create objects with your factories

In some cases, you might want to perform an asynchronous operation when building objects, such as saving an object to the database. This can be done by calling create instead of build:

const user = await userFactory.create({ name: 'Maria' });
user.name; // Maria

create returns a promise instead of the object itself but otherwise has the same API as build. The action that occurs when calling create can be specified in your factory's onCreate method as described below.

Documentation

Typechecking

Factories are fully typed, both when defining your factories and when using them to build objects, so you can be confident the data you are working with is correct.

const user = factories.user.build();
user.foo; // type error! Property 'foo' does not exist on type 'User'

const user = factories.user.build({ foo: 'bar' }); // type error! Argument of type '{ foo: string; }' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Partial<User>'.

export default Factory.define<User, UserTransientParams>(
  ({
    sequence,
    params,
    transientParams,
    associations,
    afterBuild,
    onCreate,
  }) => {
    params.firstName; // Property 'firstName' does not exist on type 'DeepPartial<User>
    transientParams.foo; // Property 'foo' does not exist on type 'Partial<UserTransientParams>'
    associations.bar; // Property 'bar' does not exist on type 'Partial<User>'

    afterBuild(user => {
      user.foo; // Property 'foo' does not exist on type 'User'
    });

    return {
      id: `user-${sequence}`,
      name: 'Bob',
      post: null,
    };
  },
);

Associations

Factories can import and reference other factories for associations:

import userFactory from './user';

const postFactory = Factory.define<Post>(() => ({
  title: 'My Blog Post',
  author: userFactory.build(),
}));

If you'd like to be able to pass in an association when building your object and short-circuit the call to yourFactory.build(), use the associations variable provided to your factory:

const postFactory = Factory.define<Post>(({ associations }) => ({
  title: 'My Blog Post',
  author: associations.author || userFactory.build(),
}));

Then build your object like this:

const jordan = userFactory.build({ name: 'Jordan' });
factories.post.build({}, { associations: { author: jordan } });

If two factories reference each other, they can usually import each other without issues, but TypeScript might require you to explicitly type your factory before exporting so it can determine the type before the circular references resolve:

// the extra Factory<Post> typing can be necessary with circular imports
const postFactory: Factory<Post> = Factory.define<Post>(() => ({ ...}));
export default postFactory;

Use params to access passed in properties

The parameters passed in to build are automatically overlaid on top of the default properties defined by your factory, so it is often not necessary to explicitly access the params in your factory. This can, however, be useful, for example, if your factory uses the params to compute other properties:

const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(({ params }) => {
  const { name = 'Bob Smith' } = params;
  const email = params.email || `${kebabCase(name)}@example.com`;

  return {
    name,
    email,
    posts: [],
  };
});

Params that don't map to the result object (transient params)

Factories can accept parameters that are not part of the resulting object. We call these transient params. When building an object, pass any transient params in the second argument:

const user = factories.user.build({}, { transient: { registered: true } });

Transient params are passed in to your factory and can then be used however you like:

interface User {
  name: string;
  posts: Post[];
  memberId: string | null;
  permissions: { canPost: boolean };
}

interface UserTransientParams {
  registered: boolean;
  numPosts: number;
}

const userFactory = Factory.define<User, UserTransientParams>(
  ({ transientParams, sequence }) => {
    const { registered, numPosts = 1 } = transientParams;

    const user = {
      name: 'Susan Velasquez',
      posts: postFactory.buildList(numPosts),
      memberId: registered ? `member-${sequence}` : null,
      permissions: {
        canPost: registered,
      },
    };

    return user;
  },
);

In the example above, we also created a type called UserTransientParams and passed it as the second generic type to define. This gives you type checking of transient params, both in the factory and when calling build.

When constructing objects, any regular params you pass to build take precedence over the transient params:

const user = factories.user.build(
  { memberId: '1' },
  { transient: { registered: true } },
);
user.memberId; // '1'
user.permissions.canPost; // true

Passing transient params to build can be a bit verbose. It is often a good idea to consider creating a reusable builder method instead of or in addition to your transient params to make building objects simpler.

After-build hook

You can instruct factories to execute some code after an object is built. This can be useful if a reference to the object is needed, like when setting up relationships:

export default Factory.define<User>(({ sequence, afterBuild }) => {
  afterBuild(user => {
    const post = factories.post.build({}, { associations: { author: user } });
    user.posts.push(post);
  });

  return {
    id: sequence,
    name: 'Bob',
    posts: [],
  };
});

On-create hook

You can instruct factories to chain promises together when creating an object. This allows you to perform asynchronous actions when building models such as creating the model on a server.

export default Factory.define<User>(({ sequence, onCreate }) => {
  onCreate(user => {
    return apiService.create(user);
  });

  return {
    id: sequence,
    name: 'Bob',
    posts: [],
  };
});

Extending factories

Factories can easily be extended using the extension methods: params, transient, associations, afterBuild, and onCreate. These set default attributes that get passed to the factory on build:

const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(() => ({
  name: 'Kassandra',
  admin: false,
}));

const adminFactory = userFactory.params({ admin: true });
const admin = adminFactory.build();
admin.admin; // true

The extension methods return a new factory with the specified params, transientParams, associations, or afterBuild added to it and do not modify the factory they are called on. When build is called on the factory, the params, transientParams, and associations are passed in along with the values supplied to build. Values supplied to build override these defaults.

afterBuild just adds a function that is called when the object is built. The afterBuild defined in Factory.define is always called first if specified, and then any afterBuild functions defined with the extension method are called sequentially in the order they were added. The onCreate methods use the same order precedence.

These extension methods can be called multiple times to continue extending factories, and they do not modify the original factory:

const eliFactory = userFactory
  .params({ admin: true })
  .params({ name: 'Eli' })
  .afterBuild(user => console.log('hello'))
  .afterBuild(user => console.log('there'));

const user = eliFactory.build();
// log: hello
// log: there
user.name; // Eli
user.admin; // true

const user2 = eliFactory.build({ admin: false });
user.name; // Eli
user2.admin; // false

Adding reusable builders (traits) to factories

If you find yourself frequently building objects with a certain set of properties, it might be time to either extend the factory or create a reusable builder method.

Factories are just classes, so adding reusable builder methods is as simple as subclassing Factory and defining any desired methods:

class UserFactory extends Factory<User, UserTransientParams> {
  admin(adminId?: string) {
    return this.params({
      admin: true,
      adminId: adminId || `admin-${this.sequence()}`,
    });
  }

  registered() {
    return this
      .params({ memberId: this.sequence() })
      .transient({ registered: true })
      .associations({ profile: profileFactory.build() })
      .afterBuild(user => console.log(user))
  }
}

// instead of Factory.define<User>
const userFactory = UserFactory.define(() => ({ ... }))

const user = userFactory.admin().registered().build()

To learn more about the factory builder methods params, transient, associations, and afterBuild, see Extending factories, above.

Rewind Sequence

A factory's sequence can be rewound with rewindSequence(). This sets the sequence back to its original starting value.

Given the following factory

export default Factory.define<User>(({ sequence }) => ({
  email: `person${sequence}@example.com`,
}));

You can rewind a factory's sequence at your discretion

import { factories } from './factories';

factories.user.build(); // { email: '[email protected]' }
factories.user.build(); // { email: '[email protected]' }

factories.user.rewindSequence();

factories.user.build(); // { email: '[email protected]' }

Contributing

See the CONTRIBUTING document. Thank you, contributors!

Credits

This project name was inspired by Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles books. In the books, the artificery, or workshop, is called the Fishery for short. The Fishery is where things are built.

License

Fishery is Copyright © 2020 Stephen Hanson and thoughtbot. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file.

About thoughtbot

Fishery is maintained and funded by thoughtbot, inc. The names and logos for thoughtbot are trademarks of thoughtbot, inc.

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