Scott Hanselman

WallabyJS is a slick and powerful test runner for JavaScript in your IDE or Editor

January 13, 2016 Comment on this post [15] Posted in Javascript
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I was reminded by a friend to explore WallabyJS this week. I had looked at WallabyJS a while back when it was less mature but I hadn't installed a more recent version. WOW. It's coming along nicely and is super-powerful. You should check it out if you write JavaScript. It's also super fast, for these reasons:

Wallaby.js is insanely fast, because it only executes tests affected by your code changes and runs your tests in parallel.

WallabyJS has plugins for the IntelliJ platform, Visual Studio, Atom, and more recently, there's preview support for Visual Studio Code and Sublime Text support is coming soon.

It supports supports TypeScript, CoffeeScript, and ES7. Wallaby supports jasmine for running tests but you can plug in your own testing framework and assertion library as you like.

Installing WallabyJS for Visual Studio Code is very easy now that Code supports extensions.

Installing WallabyJS on Visual Studio Code

Once you've installed the extension it will download what's needed and bootstrap WallabyJS. I did have a small issue installing, but and uninstall/reinstall fixed it, so it may have been just a blip.

Visual Studio Code running WallabyJS

If you want to see it in action quickly without much setup, just clone their Calculator sample at

git clone https://github.com/wallabyjs/calculator-sample.git

Do note that it's not totally obvious once you've installed WallabyJS that you have to "start" its server manually...for now.

Starting WallabyJS

Once it has started, it's mostly automatic and runs tests as you type and save. You can access all WallabyJS's commands with hotkeys or from the Visual Studio Code command palette.

WallabyJS Commands in VS Code

It's great to see a powerful tool like this working in Visual Studio Code. Remember you can get VSCode (now open source!) for any platform here code.visualstudio.com and you can get WallabyJS at their main site.


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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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January 13, 2016 11:31
Very nice. Now that I've seen it running, makes me think how clunky all our "traditional" test runner UIs are. Seems obvious in hindsight. Thanks for sharing.
January 13, 2016 13:42
I've been using Wallaby.js actively for a few weeks now and it really turns execution of JavaScript tests on its head. No more tabbing to try and find the correct chrome window with the Jasmine test runner in for example. Instead you know the instant you break something. I'm sold on it already, and not sure I'd want to live without it now.
January 13, 2016 13:54
Nice article,

Any idea on how I can download VS Code extensions from the Marketplace to use on an isolated network / computers?
January 13, 2016 14:41
Very nice. I was sold on this style of TDD when I first used NCrunch for Visual Studio. I firmly believe that all languages need this sort of real time feedback within the IDE. Its nice to now have a similar workflow for C# & Javascript.
January 13, 2016 16:51
Links to this, vs suggests rad tools.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2016/01/12/visual-studio-keeps-showing-suggested-extensions.aspx

Awesome man....
January 14, 2016 2:32
Nice, it reminds me of NCrunch
January 14, 2016 19:14
I don't understand the licensing, is it free with a paid option for support? It looks like it's paid only license per dev platform. The main page http://wallabyjs.com/ doesn't mention anything and then the Pricing page doesn't say anything about a free license.
January 14, 2016 20:24
Scott, talking of vs code, what are your thoughts on how VS Code is written , I mean the its architecture / platform. I looked at the source, I expected to see mono - but no, chrome browser UI talking to node backend. Very surprising
pm
January 15, 2016 8:50
I really tried but damn it's not easy to get working. It seems like you have to conform to their way of structuring a project. Yet other test runners just work.

I got the sample project working but couldn't get it to work in any other project. It just sits there with ... running in the status bar.

Also unsure how the pricing works. I assume that once the VS Code version is out of preview it will be a paid plugin.
January 15, 2016 10:19
@Fred @Phillip Haydon

I assume that once the VS Code version is out of preview it will be a paid plugin.


Correct.


It seems like you have to conform to their way of structuring a project. Yet other test runners just work.


Please share your wallaby config file in our repo issues, happy to have a look and help.



It just sits there with ... running in the status bar.



Check what's in the Wallaby Console, it's helpful for troubleshooting.
January 15, 2016 19:12
Kindly change the blog entry title or put in the first 2 sentences that it is commercial and apparently has 4 contributors to its github issue repo.

To get a PO for this for our 4 developer team would need more information on to the licensing and support quality/turnaround.
Bob
January 16, 2016 7:01
@Bob, please send me an email, happy to answer your questions regarding the licensing and support quality/turnaround.
January 19, 2016 13:06
Wallaby.js actively for a few weeks now and it really turns execution of JavaScript tests on its head, also visit my blog download imo here thanks again
January 19, 2016 17:16
Have been hearing about wallaby.js quite a bit recently. Might have to see if I can hook it up with my WebStorm :3
January 22, 2016 8:54
"It supports supports TypeScript, ..." -> "It supports TypeScript, ..."

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.