Very simple way to get Autotesting in Node.js.

What is Autotesting? Simply put, it runs your unit tests automatically whenever you save a relevant file within your project.

• First, install GROWL and GROWLNotify for Mac (http://growl.info/)
• Next we want to install the ‘watchr’ gem…

  gem install watchr
  

• Next create a file called autotest.watchr in the root of your Node.js project with the following ruby script…

  def run_all_tests
    print 'clear'
    puts "Tests run #{Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')}"
    result_text = `nodeunit [TESTFOLDER]`
    result = result_text.include? 'failed'
    if result
  	`growlnotify -m 'Unit Tests Failed' Node Unit`
    else
  	`growlnotify -m 'All Unit Tests Passed' Node Unit`
    end
  end
  
  run_all_tests
  watch("(test|lib)(/.*)+.js") { |m| run_all_tests }
  
  @interrupted = false
  
  # Ctrl-C
  Signal.trap "INT" do
    if @interrupted
      abort("\n")
    else
      puts "Interrupt a second time to quit"
      @interrupted = true
      Kernel.sleep 1.5
  
      run_all_tests
      @interrupted = false
    end
  end
  

  Do not change the ` chars. This actually tells Ruby to output the text directly to the console (for those that didn’t know)

• Replace [TESTFOLDER] in file above with your test folder
• Run watchr..

  watchr autotest.watchr
  

Thats it! Now simply edit a .js file in your solution and the tests will run automatically and inform you of failures.

Feel free to add your favourite icons for failures and passes to GROWL. If you do, please send us an updated script