nanoid VS jest

nanoid – A library for generating short, unique IDs (like NxWDZ-j95C).

The demo application we’re going to build in the following sections is a to-do app with a REST API backend that allows multiple users to log in. It also allows those users to create, check, and delete their to-dos. Apart from the Node.js runtime, this project will use Express.js for the server, bcrypt to hash passwords, and nanoid to generate random IDs.

CURRENT_CLIENT_ID is the random unique string Id generated by nanoid that gets generated whenever the client is opened on the brower’s tab.

Last thing left is to use our new upload function in our server action. Since I like to upload images in single format and have some more control over them, I will additionally use sharp library. For file name, I'll generate some random string using nanoid:

Our API is in node. And God, how I suffered to import nanoid in an esmodule project. I had to vendor it, since using a previous version was not ideal. With bun, we can no longer worry about that. Just import what you need and done.

No thread about UUID is complete without a plug for NanoID! https://github.com/ai/nanoid/blob/main/README.md

Generate a unique file name using the nanoid library.

The syntax should read similar to SQL itself. We’re using a Python port of nanoid to generate our IDs. There’s only one thing missing… how do we actually create the table?

Since version 20, the Node test runner is available as a stable module. This means you can safely use it for testing. The syntax that Node provides is pretty similar to Jest. You check your function results with assert, and test suites are organized with describe, test, beforeEach... aliases, just like in Jest. Here’s a sample test for bitcoinService.ts:

Popular frameworks like Jest, Mocha, or JUnit provide everything you need for effective webhook unit testing, with mocking capabilities that let you simulate external dependencies.

Proactive testing is critical for catching bugs before they reach production. Comprehensive test suites—covering unit, integration, and UI scenarios—detect issues early in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Roman Surikov, Founder of Ronas IT, advises, “Ensure that [automated testing] covers various scenarios including unit, integration, and user interface testing to catch bugs early.” A 2024 Sauce Labs report found that teams with automated testing pipelines reduce bug-related costs by 25%. Tools like Jest for JavaScript unit tests, Selenium for UI testing, and TestRail for test management streamline this process.

To maximize learning, I could choose something new. Normally, I consider that a valid reason. But given my limited time, that wasn't a priority for me. Another criterion could be long-term viability: Is there a large core team and an active community? Well, who still remembers AngularJS? From Google? And didn’t Facebook/Meta start Jest? I wouldn’t rely too much on that.

Additionally, I wrote Jest and Enzyme unit tests to demonstrate how to go about unit testing the components, as test driven development (TDD) is another methodology my organization subscribes to. Jest is a unit testing framework that actually shipped with React if you use the Create React App CLI to make a new React project. And at the time, Enzyme was created by Airbnb and added additional functionality to Jest for even more robust testing. Before React Hooks (at the time we began the migration), this was the defacto unit testing combination. Later on, we used Jest and React Testing Library when Hooks were introduced to the project. Finally, I used Cypress.io for the end-to-end tests, as it was quick and easy to set up.

Jest is a comprehensive testing framework developed by Facebook and is the default choice for testing React applications. It includes built-in capabilities for mocking, spying, and snapshot testing, ensuring minimal setup for testing even the most complex applications. Jest’s extensive support for parallel test execution and interactive features like coverage reporting and watch mode makes it highly efficient.

After converting your components, take some time to test your application. Make sure everything is working as expected. React’s development server automatically reloads your application whenever you save changes, which makes testing a lot easier. Tools like Jest and React Testing Library are also available to help you write tests for your components.

There are several tools available for unit testing in React JS. Two of the most popular are Jest and React Testing Library.

JavaScript: Jest