/jest-import

Documentation/Example for how to properly set up a project to use jest with esm import statements

Primary LanguageJavaScript

jest-import

The purpose of this repo is to document how to properly use jest with esm import statements

  1. Download repo
  2. yarn install (or npm install)
  3. yarn jest (or npm jest)

package.json

At the minimum, you will need to have the following devDependencies:

  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.16.11",
    "babel-jest": "^27.5.1",
    "jest": "^27.5.1"
  },

Specifying a minimum node in engines is optional, but a good signal to use:

  "engines": {
    "node": ">=12"
  }

type: "module"

If you plan to use type: "module" in your package.json, you will have to either use babel.config.json and/or jest.config.json instead of babel.config.js and/or jest.config.js, or rename them to have a .cjs extension instead of a .js extension. If you try and use .js files, you will get the following error:

ReferenceError: module is not defined in ES module scope
This file is being treated as an ES module because it has a '.js' file extension and '/.../package.json' contains "type": "module". To treat it as a CommonJS script, rename it to use the '.cjs' file extension.

I have babel.config.cjs and jest.config.json in this project to show an example of each. I just as easily could have reversed it and done babel.config.json and jest.config.cjs. The point is that module.exports= doesn't work in esm modules, and just using an export statement instead also doesn't work (I didn't bother to figure out how to do the whole thing with just an export statement since cjs and/or json was a perfectly adequate solution. Feel free to open a PR though!)

babel.config.json

At minimum, you will need to specify the following in your babel.config.json:

{
    "presets": [
        [
            "@babel/preset-env"
        ]
    ]
}

with typescript and/or react

If your project includes typescript/react, you will need to add the @babel/preset-typescript and/or '@babel/preset-react' preset (and, of course, run yarn add --dev @babel/preset-typescript and/or yarn add --dev @babel/preset-react):

{
    presets: [
        [
            "@babel/preset-env",
            {
                targets: {node: 'current'}
            }
        ],
        '@babel/preset-typescript',
        '@babel/preset-react'
    ]
}

jest.config.json

At minimum, you will need to specify the following in your jest.config.json:

{
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
        "node_modules/(?!(npm-package|names|go-here)/)"
    ]
}

NOTE: Not only will packages that you depend on that use import statements need to be specified here, but any packages that those packages depend on that use import will need to be specified here.

troubleshooting errors:

Environment

If you get the error "The error below may be caused by using the wrong test environment", just add jsdom as your test environment in your jest.config.js file.

  testEnvironment: "jsdom",

Jest encountered an unexpected token

The two main reasons I've encountered for getting this error are either you are trying to use ts-jest, or your are ignoring all node_modules.

Due to attempting to use ts-jest

If you get the following error:

    Jest encountered an unexpected token

    Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

    Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

    By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

    Here's what you can do:
     • If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
     • If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
     • To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
     • If you need a custom transformation specify a "transform" option in your config.
     • If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

    You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
    For information about custom transformations, see:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

    Details:

    jest-import/__tests__/utils.test.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){import { unmountComponentAtNode } from "react-dom";
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

    SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

      at Runtime.createScriptFromCode (node_modules/jest-runtime/build/index.js:1728:14)

It is probably because you have preset: 'ts-jest', in your jest.config.js file. Comment that out and you should be good to go.

Due to node_modules Ignore Patterns

As the error suggests, by default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers. This is a problem (and is the problem this repo actually exists to demonstrate the solution for). It is easily fixed though by correctly defining your transformIgnorePatterns:

{
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
        "node_modules/(?!(npm-package|names|go-here)/)"
    ]
}

If you remove the ignorePatterns from this project, you will get the following error when you run yarn jest:

Jest encountered an unexpected token

    Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

    Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

    By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

    Here's what you can do:
     • If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
     • If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
     • To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
     • If you need a custom transformation specify a "transform" option in your config.
     • If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

    You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
    For information about custom transformations, see:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

    Details:

    jest-import/node_modules/string-width/index.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){import stripAnsi from 'strip-ansi';
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

    SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

      1 | // Note that this imports an npm package that also uses import statements. Therefore, you will have to add 'string-width' to jest.config.json in the transformIgnorePatterns array.
    > 2 | import stringWidth from 'string-width';
        | ^
      3 |
      4 | const findwidth = (a) => {
      5 | 	return stringWidth(a);

      at Runtime.createScriptFromCode (node_modules/jest-runtime/build/index.js:1728:14)
      at Object.<anonymous> (index.js:2:1)

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests:       0 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        0.766 s, estimated 1 s
Ran all test suites.

So, here it is indicating that jest is failing on the import statement for string-width. Adding string-width to the ignore pattern, to make it look this this:

{
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
        "node_modules/(?!(string-width)/)"
    ]
}

and running yarn jest again will now result in the following error:

 FAIL  __tests__/index.test.js
  ● Test suite failed to run

    Jest encountered an unexpected token

    Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

    Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

    By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

    Here's what you can do:
     • If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
     • If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
     • To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
     • If you need a custom transformation specify a "transform" option in your config.
     • If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

    You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
    For information about custom transformations, see:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

    Details:

    /jest-import/node_modules/string-width/node_modules/strip-ansi/index.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){import ansiRegex from 'ansi-regex';
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

    SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

      at Runtime.createScriptFromCode (node_modules/jest-runtime/build/index.js:1728:14)

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests:       0 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        0.732 s
Ran all test suites.

The key here is this bit:

    /jest-import/node_modules/string-width/node_modules/strip-ansi/index.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){import ansiRegex from 'ansi-regex';
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

It is telling you that strip-ansi/index.js line 1 is trying to use import for ansi-regex. So you will need to add that to the ignore pattern as well, like this:

{
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
        "node_modules/(?!(string-width|strip-ansi)/)"
    ]
}

Running yarn jest will result in yet another error, this one slightly different:

 FAIL  __tests__/index.test.js
  ● Test suite failed to run

    Jest encountered an unexpected token

    Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

    Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

    By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

    Here's what you can do:
     • If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
     • If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
     • To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
     • If you need a custom transformation specify a "transform" option in your config.
     • If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

    You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
    For information about custom transformations, see:
    https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

    Details:

    /jest-import/node_modules/string-width/node_modules/ansi-regex/index.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){export default function ansiRegex({onlyFirst = false} = {}) {
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

    SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

      at Runtime.createScriptFromCode (node_modules/jest-runtime/build/index.js:1728:14)

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests:       0 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        0.733 s
Ran all test suites.

Again, the key here being this chunk:

    /jest-import/node_modules/string-width/node_modules/ansi-regex/index.js:1
    ({"Object.<anonymous>":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){export default function ansiRegex({onlyFirst = false} = {}) {
                                                                                      ^^^^^^

It is indicating that ansi-regex is attempting to use export. So, add ansi-regex to your ignore pattern, which will now look like this:

{
    "transformIgnorePatterns": [
        "node_modules/(?!(string-width|strip-ansi|ansi-regex)/)"
    ]
}

and run yarn jest and now everything works!

jest.config.json Projects Setting

warning! If you attempt to use the projects field in your jest config, it will ignore your transformIgnorePatterns property outside of the project. You will have to set this on a project-by-project basis, like this:

	"projects": [
		{
			"displayName": "jest-import",
			"testMatch": [
				"<rootDir>/**/__tests__/*.[jt]s?(x)"
			],
			"transformIgnorePatterns": [
				"node_modules/(?!(string-width|strip-ansi|ansi-regex)/)"
			]
		}
	],