Tutorial: Automated Tests for Node.js

The company that I'm currently consulting for has a codebase with a large, complex front-end written in React. Not only does this codebase actually have automated tests, but their test coverage is pretty good, and every new feature needs to include automated tests before it can be merged. This is incredible, and every software company should work like this -- sadly, very few of them do. This means that in order to do my job, I need to know how to write and debug automated tests for Node. I've been learning how to do this very quickly, and there have been a few stumbles and hurdles on the way.

I decided to take all the knowledge I've learned about automated testing in a modern JavaScript codebase, and pull it together into one tutorial. It is by no means exhaustive, and the JavaScript community is moving so fast these days that most of what's in this tutorial will probably be out of date in six months or so. But I've already found myself wishing that I had written more notes to myself about JavaScript testing in the past, so hopefully this blog post will help me out in the future. If you find it useful as well, let me know!