Question

I am trying to learn node and Express 3 with CoffeeScript.
I am using Mocha for tests and am trying to reference the port number:

describe "authentication", ->
  describe "GET /login", ->
    body = null
    before (done) ->
      options =
        uri: "http://localhost:#{app.get('port')}/login"
      request options, (err, response, _body) ->
        body = _body
        done()
    it "has title", ->
      assert.hasTag body, '//head/title', 'Demo app - Login'

I’m using that because it’s also what is used in the app.js file:

require('coffee-script');

var express = require('express')
  , http = require('http')
  , path = require('path');

var app = express();

app.configure(function(){
  app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
  app.set('view engine', 'jade');
  app.set('view options',{layout:false});
  app.use(express.favicon());
  app.use(express.logger('dev'));
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
});

app.configure('development', function(){
  app.use(express.errorHandler());
  app.locals.pretty = true;
});

app.configure('test', function(){
  app.set('port', 3001);
});

require('./apps/authentication/routes')(app)

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + app.get('port'));
});

However, when I run this test, I get the error:

TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method 'get'

Could someone please explain why it won’t work in the test and what I could do as an alternative?

Answer 1

You are getting confused because you have an app.js file and a variable within that module also called app, but you haven’t actually set things up to expose the app variable as a module export. You could do this:

var app = exports.app = express();

And then in your test you can have require('../app').app.get('port') (assuming your tests are in a subdirectory. Adjust the relative path as needed). You might want to rename app.js to server.js to be a bit less confusing there.

However, I suggest a dedicated config.js module that holds this type of configuration data.