Node Express Unit Test JSON Response - node.js

Question

Just created a new open source middleware project for express. I want to be able to unit test the json response from the routes it generates... Is there anyway I can do this without actually firing up a grunt serve and checking the url?
So goal would be for someway to run the route but instead of sending json to the browser I can store it in a variable / etc...
What the middleware does is generates routes based on annotations in javascript files.
https://github.com/kmgilbert100/annotation-route-loader
I would like to make my unit test include testing the JSON responses you can see in the above url under tests/routes/**/*
Note app.use(loader) would load all the routes
Below is the current mocha test
// npm modules
const chai = require('chai');
const _ = require('lodash');
const express = require('express');
// local modules
var routeLoader = require('../src/index');
// testing module methods
const assert = chai.assert;
describe('annotation-route-loader', () => {
// store collection of routes
var routePaths = [];
before("Create collection to check from", () => {
var loader = routeLoader({
baseUrl: '/',
path: './routes',
pattern: '**/*.js',
params: {
sports: [
'footbal',
'baseball',
'motocross',
'hockey'
]
}
});
loader['stack'].forEach( stack => {
routePaths.push({
path: stack.route.path,
methods: stack.route.methods
})
})
});
it('Should make sure the default path is valid', (done) => {
// Try And Find Path
var defaultPath = _.find(routePaths, {path: '/'});
assert.isObject(defaultPath);
assert.isTrue(defaultPath.methods.get);
// Make Callback
done()
});
it('Should make sure the sports path is valid', (done) => {
// Try And Find Path
var defaultPath = _.find(routePaths, {path: '/sports'});
assert.isObject(defaultPath);
assert.isTrue(defaultPath.methods.get);
// Make Callback
done()
});
it('Should make sure the sports list path is valid', (done) => {
// Try And Find Path
var defaultPath = _.find(routePaths, {path: '/sports/list'});
assert.isObject(defaultPath);
assert.isTrue(defaultPath.methods.get);
// Make Callback
done()
});
})

Answer 1

Thanks for the comments!
https://github.com/visionmedia/supertest
Ended up using supertest to get the job done!
See below snippet...
var request = require('supertest');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.get('/user', function(req, res) {
res.status(200).json({ name: 'tobi' });
});
request(app)
.get('/user')
.expect('Content-Type', /json/)
.expect('Content-Length', '15')
.expect(200)
.end(function(err, res) {
if (err) throw err;
});