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.
Install fishery with:
npm install --save-dev fishery
or
yarn add --dev fishery
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:
// factories/user.ts
import { Factory } from 'fishery';
import { User } from '../my-types';
import postFactory from './post';
const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(({ sequence }) => ({
id: sequence,
name: 'Rosa',
address: { city: 'Austin', state: 'TX', country: 'USA' },
posts: postFactory.buildList(2),
}));
const user = userFactory.build({
name: 'Susan',
address: { city: 'El Paso' },
});
user.name; // Susan
user.address.city; // El Paso
user.address.state; // TX (from factory)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. First, define an onCreate for your factory that specifies the behavior of create, then create objects with create in the same way you do with build:
const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(({ onCreate }) => {
onCreate(user => User.create(user));
return {
...
};
});
const user = await userFactory.create({ name: 'Maria' });
user.name; // Mariacreate returns a promise instead of the object itself but otherwise has the same API as build. The action that occurs when calling create is specified by defining an onCreate method on your factory as described below.
create can also return a different type from build. This type can be specified when defining your factory:
Factory.define<ReturnTypeOfBuild, TransientParamsType, ReturnTypeOfCreate>
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 = userFactory.build();
user.foo; // type error! Property 'foo' does not exist on type 'User'const user = userFactory.build({ foo: 'bar' }); // type error! Argument of type '{ foo: string; }' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Partial<User>'.const userFactory = 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-${sequence}`,
name: 'Bob',
post: null,
};
},
);build supports a second argument with the following keys:
transient: data for use in your factory that doesn't get overlaid onto your result object. More on this in the Transient Params sectionassociations: often not required but can be useful in order to short-circuit creating associations. More on this in the Associations section
The parameters passed in to build are automatically overlaid on top of the
default properties defined by your factory, so it is often not necessary to
explicitly access the params in your factory. This can, however, be useful,
for example, if your factory uses the params to compute other properties:
const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(({ params }) => {
const { name = 'Bob Smith' } = params;
const email = params.email || `${kebabCase(name)}@example.com`;
return {
name,
email,
posts: [],
};
});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:
type User = {
name: string;
posts: Post[];
memberId: string | null;
permissions: { canPost: boolean };
};
type 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 = userFactory.build(
{ memberId: '1' },
{ transient: { registered: true } },
);
user.memberId; // '1'
user.permissions.canPost; // truePassing 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.
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:
const userFactory = 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: [],
};
});Similar to onCreate, afterCreates can also be defined. These are executed after the onCreate, and multiple can be defined for a given factory.
const userFactory = Factory.define<User, {}, SavedUser>(
({ sequence, onCreate, afterCreate }) => {
onCreate(user => apiService.create(user));
afterCreate(savedUser => doMoreStuff(savedUser));
return {
id: sequence,
name: 'Bob',
posts: [],
};
},
);
// can define additional afterCreates
const savedUser = userFactory
.afterCreate(async savedUser => savedUser)
.create();Factories can be extended using the extension methods: params, transient,
associations, afterBuild, afterCreate and onCreate. These set default
attributes that get passed to the factory on build. They return a new factory
and do not modify the factory they are called on :
const userFactory = Factory.define<User>(() => ({
admin: false,
}));
const adminFactory = userFactory.params({ admin: true });
adminFactory.build().admin; // true
userFactory.build().admin; // falseparams, associations, and transient behave in the same way as the arguments to build. The following are equivalent:
const user = userFactory
.params({ admin: true })
.associations({ post: postFactory.build() })
.transient({ name: 'Jared' })
.build();
const user2 = userFactory.build(
{ admin: true },
{
associations: { post: postFactory.build() },
transient: { name: 'Jared' },
},
);Additionally, the following extension methods are available:
afterBuild- executed after an object is built. Multiple can be definedonCreate- defines or replaces the behavior ofcreate(). Must be defined prior to callingcreate(). Only one can be defined.afterCreate- called afteronCreate()before the object is returned fromcreate(). Multiple can be defined
These extension methods can be called multiple times to continue extending factories:
const sallyFactory = userFactory
.params({ admin: true })
.params({ name: 'Sally' })
.afterBuild(user => console.log('hello'))
.afterBuild(user => console.log('there'));
const user = sallyFactory.build();
// log: hello
// log: there
user.name; // Sally
user.admin; // true
const user2 = sallyFactory.build({ admin: false });
user.name; // Sally
user2.admin; // falseIf 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 can be achieved by 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, afterBuild, onCreate, and afterCreate, see Extending factories, above.
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;A factory's sequence can be rewound with rewindSequence().
This sets the sequence back to its original starting value.
See the CONTRIBUTING document. Thank you, contributors!
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.
Fishery is Copyright © 2021 Stephen Hanson and thoughtbot. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file.
This repo is maintained and funded by thoughtbot, inc. The names and logos for thoughtbot are trademarks of thoughtbot, inc.
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