Restart node and run tests - gruntjs

Question

Does anyone know the best solution for automatically restarting node and running tests after the restart every time a file changes?
I am currently using grunt-contrib-watch with grunt-develop. I am getting an ECONNREFUSED error on the some restarts. I think it is because my tests are running before the server is fully online.
Any ideas on how best to achieve what I want?
What I want: Restart node and then run all integration tests after each file change.

Answer 1

I am taking a BDD approach to testing (as opposed to regular unit tests) with cucumber.js. I wanted to make sure that each test run against the API I was building started on a fresh boot-up of the application.
I figured it out. Here is what I used:
grunt-contrib-watch to monitor for file changes.
It in turn calls
grunt-develop to restart the application
grunt-cucumberjs to run the cucumber tests
I then modified my index.js (starts the app) so that it doesn't start the app if the NODE_ENV is set to test. That way the cucumber tests actually start the server and can wait till the start process has finished before running the tests.
Here is the GruntFile and Index file:
Gruntfile.js
/*jslint node: true */
"use strict";
module.exports = function(grunt) {
// Project configuration.
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
env: {
dev: {
APP_DIR_FOR_CODE_COVERAGE: 'coverage/instrument/',
NODE_ENV: 'dev',
PORT: 8080
},
test: {
APP_DIR_FOR_CODE_COVERAGE: 'coverage/instrument/',
NODE_ENV: 'test',
PORT: 8081
},
coverage: {
APP_DIR_FOR_CODE_COVERAGE: 'coverage/instrument/',
NODE_ENV: 'test',
PORT: 8081
}
},
watch: {
js: {
files: [
'index.js',
'features/**/*.js',
'server/**/*.js'
],
tasks: ['develop', 'cucumberjs', 'jshint'],
options: {
nospawn: true
}
}
},
jshint: {
all: ['Gruntfile.js', 'index.js', 'server/**/*.js', 'features/**/*.js']
},
nodemon: {
dev: {
script: 'index.js'
}
},
cucumberjs: {
src: './features',
},
develop: {
server: {
file: 'index.js'
}
},
instrument: {
files: ['index.js', 'server/**/*.*'],
options: {
lazy: true,
basePath: 'coverage/instrument/'
}
},
storeCoverage: {
options: {
dir: 'coverage'
}
},
makeReport: {
src: 'coverage/coverage.json',
options: {
type: 'lcov',
dir: 'coverage/reports',
print: 'detail'
}
},
coverage: {
options: {
thresholds: {
'statements': 90,
'branches': 90,
'lines': 90,
'functions': 90
},
dir: 'coverage',
root: ''
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-env');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-develop');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-cucumber');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-istanbul');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-istanbul-coverage');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-nodemon');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['env:dev', 'nodemon']);
grunt.registerTask('test', ['env:test', 'watch']);
grunt.registerTask('testcoverage', ['env:test', 'jshint', 'instrument', 'cucumberjs', 'storeCoverage', 'makeReport', 'coverage']);
};
Index.js
/*jslint node: true */
"use strict";
var Hapi = require('hapi');
var Good = require('good');
var server = {};
exports.server = {
start: function(callback) {
/* istanbul ignore next */
var port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
server = new Hapi.Server(port);
var routes = require('./server/routes');
routes.register(server);
var exceptionHandling = require('./server/exceptionHandling');
exceptionHandling.register(server);
server.pack.register(Good, function(err) {
/* istanbul ignore if */
if (err) {
throw err; // something bad happened loading the plugin
}
/* istanbul ignore next */
server.log('info', 'Server starting at ' + server.info.uri);
server.start(callback);
});
},
stop: function(callback) {
server.log('info', 'Server stopping.');
server.stop(null, callback);
},
rootUrl: function() { return server.info.uri; }
};
/* istanbul ignore if */
if (process.env.NODE_ENV != 'test') {
exports.server.start(function() {});
}