Mocha tests passing on localhost but not when running on TravisCI - node.js

Question

I've written a test suite like so:
this.slow(1000)
this.timeout(6000)
var response, client
before(function(done) {
client = new UsergridClient()
client.GET(_collection, function(err, r) {
response = r
done()
})
})
it('should not fail when a callback function is not passed', function() {
// note: this test will NOT fail gracefully inside the Mocha event chain
client.GET(_collection)
})
it('should return a 200 ok', function() {
// ******** LOGGING ********* //
console.log(response)
// ******** LOGGING ********* //
response.statusCode.should.equal(200)
})
it('response.entities should be an array', function() {
response.entities.should.be.an.Array
})
it('response.first should exist and have a valid uuid', function() {
response.first.should.be.an.Object.with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
})
it('response.entity should exist and have a valid uuid', function() {
response.entity.should.be.an.Object.with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
})
it('response.last should exist and have a valid uuid', function() {
response.last.should.be.an.Object.with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
})
When running this test locally, all tests pass. When running on TravisCI though, the response variables are being reported as undefined even inside the tests. This suggests to me that there's some sort of asynchronous mixup, but using the done() callback on the before() should mitigate that, shouldn't it? I even tried adding done callbacks to every subsequent test, but that still isn't working.
The notable error here is:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
and it looks like that's being thrown from:
response.first.should.be.an.Object.with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
which makes me think Travis' environment doesn't like Object.with or maybe even just .with?
Here's my .travis.yml file:
language: node_js
node_js:
- '5.1.0'
install:
- 'npm install'
- 'npm -g install mocha'
script:
- 'mocha tests'
And here's the run log:
Using worker: worker-linux-docker-7421b08d.prod.travis-ci.org:travis-linux-8
system_info
Build system information
Build language: node_js
Build group: stable
Build dist: precise
Build image provisioning date and time
Thu Feb 5 15:09:33 UTC 2015
Operating System Details
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux Version
3.13.0-29-generic
Cookbooks Version
a68419e https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-cookbooks/tree/a68419e
GCC version
gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3
clang version 3.4 (tags/RELEASE_34/final)
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
Pre-installed Ruby versions
ruby-1.9.3-p551
Pre-installed Node.js versions
v0.10.36
Pre-installed Go versions
1.4.1
Redis version
redis-server 2.8.19
riak version
2.0.2
MongoDB version
MongoDB 2.4.12
CouchDB version
couchdb 1.6.1
Neo4j version
1.9.4
RabbitMQ Version
3.4.3
ElasticSearch version
1.4.0
Installed Sphinx versions
2.0.10
2.1.9
2.2.6
Default Sphinx version
2.2.6
Installed Firefox version
firefox 31.0esr
PhantomJS version
1.9.8
ant -version
Apache Ant(TM) version 1.8.2 compiled on December 3 2011
mvn -version
Apache Maven 3.2.5 (12a6b3acb947671f09b81f49094c53f426d8cea1; 2014-12-14T17:29:23+00:00)
Maven home: /usr/local/maven
Java version: 1.7.0_76, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: ANSI_X3.4-1968
OS name: "linux", version: "3.13.0-29-generic", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"
git.checkout
0.36s$ git clone... cloning
remote: Counting objects: 315, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (153/153), done.
remote: Total 315 (delta 74), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 161
Receiving objects: 100% (315/315), 48.32 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (156/156), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
$ cd path/to/proj
$ git checkout -qf <hash>
This job is running on container-based infrastructure, which does not allow use of 'sudo', setuid and setguid executables.
If you require sudo, add 'sudo: required' to your .travis.yml
See http://docs.travis-ci.com/user/workers/container-based-infrastructure/ for details.
3.13s$ nvm install 5.1.0
######################################################################## 100.0%
Checksums empty
Now using node v5.1.0
$ node --version
v5.1.0
$ npm --version
3.3.12
$ nvm --version
0.23.3
install.1
17.95s$ npm install
npm WARN engine underscore.inflection#1.3.0: wanted: {"node":">=0.10.0 <0.12"} (current: {"node":"5.1.0","npm":"3.3.12"})
npm WARN deprecated lodash#0.9.2: lodash#<3.0.0 is no longer maintained. Upgrade to lodash#^3.0.0.
npm WARN deprecated lodash#2.4.2: lodash#<3.0.0 is no longer maintained. Upgrade to lodash#^3.0.0.
app#2.0.0 /home/travis/build/path/to/app
... list of packages
npm WARN EPACKAGEJSON app#2.0.0 No repository field.
install.2
1.71s$ npm -g install mocha
/home/travis/.nvm/versions/node/v5.1.0/bin/mocha -> /home/travis/.nvm/versions/node/v5.1.0/lib/node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha
/home/travis/.nvm/versions/node/v5.1.0/bin/_mocha -> /home/travis/.nvm/versions/node/v5.1.0/lib/node_modules/mocha/bin/_mocha
/home/travis/.nvm/versions/node/v5.1.0/lib
... list of packages
1.50s$ mocha tests
init() / initSharedInstance()
✓ should be an instance of Client
Client
initialization
✓ should fail to initialize without an orgId and appId
✓ should initialize using properties defined in config.json
✓ should initialize when passing orgId and appId as arguments, taking precedence over config
✓ should initialize when passing an object containing orgId and appId, taking precedence over config
GET()
IncomingMessage {
_readableState:
... omitted
readable: false,
domain: null,
headers:
... omitted
client:
... omitted
req:
... omitted
request:
... omitted
toJSON: [Function: responseToJSON],
caseless:
Caseless {
dict:
{ 'access-control-allow-origin': '*',
'content-type': 'application/json',
date: 'Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:44:54 GMT',
server: 'Apache-Coyote/1.1',
'set-cookie': [Object],
'transfer-encoding': 'chunked',
connection: 'Close' } },
read: [Function],
body:
{ action: 'get',
application: '19748000-24b6-11e3-9877-6d1a3f81ba2f',
params: {},
path: '/tests',
uri: 'https://api.mydomain.com/myorg/sandbox/tests',
entities:
[ [Object],
[Object],
[Object],
[Object],
[Object],
[Object],
[Object] ],
timestamp: 1448837094623,
duration: 65,
organization: 'myorg',
applicationName: 'sandbox',
cursor: 'LTU2ODc0MzQzOkdCcGJDbVpTRWVXVndibnE5RUdORGc',
count: 7 },
entities:
[ ],
first:
{ uuid: 'b3037a1a-4cd6-11e5-8aa2-0b8eb3ce43ee',
type: 'test',
name: '01',
created: 1440692071473,
modified: 1440692071473,
food: 'pizza',
metadata: { path: '/tests/b3037a1a-4cd6-11e5-8aa2-0b8eb3ce43ee' },
value: 1 },
entity:
{ uuid: 'b3037a1a-4cd6-11e5-8aa2-0b8eb3ce43ee',
type: 'test',
name: '01',
created: 1440692071473,
modified: 1440692071473,
food: 'pizza',
metadata: { path: '/tests/b3037a1a-4cd6-11e5-8aa2-0b8eb3ce43ee' },
value: 1 },
last:
{ uuid: '181a5b0a-6652-11e5-95c1-b9eaf4418d0e',
type: 'test',
created: 1443493848240,
modified: 1443493848240,
metadata: { path: '/tests/181a5b0a-6652-11e5-95c1-b9eaf4418d0e' },
title: 'Charlotte\'s Web' } }
✓ should not fail when a callback function is not passed
✓ should return a 200 ok
✓ response.entities should be an array
1) response.first should exist and have a valid uuid
2) response.entity should exist and have a valid uuid
3) response.last should exist and have a valid uuid
POST()
✓ should not fail when a callback function is not passed
✓ should return a 200 ok
4) response.entities should be an array
5) response.entity should exist and have a valid uuid
✓ response.entity.author should equal "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"
PUT()
✓ should not fail when a callback function is not passed
✓ should return a 200 ok
6) response.entities should be an array
7) response.entity should exist and its uuid should the uuid from the previous POST requets
✓ response.entity.narrator should equal "Peter Doyle"
DELETE()
✓ should not fail when a callback function is not passed
✓ should return a 200 ok
✓ response.error.name should equal "service_resource_not_found"
authenticateApp()
✓ should return a 200 ok
✓ should have a valid token
✓ client.appAuth.token should be set to the token returned from
✓ client.appAuth.expiry should be set to a future date
appAuth / setAppAuth()
✓ should initialize by passing a list of arguments
✓ should initialize by passing an object
✓ should initialize by passing an instance of AppAuth
✓ should initialize by setting to an instance of AppAuth
Query
_type
✓ query._type should equal "cats" when passing "type" as a parameter to Query
✓ query._type should equal "cats" when calling .type() builder method
✓ query._type should equal "cats" when calling .collection() builder method
_limit
✓ query._limit should equal 10
_ql
✓ should support complex builder syntax (chained constructor methods)
✓ not operator should precede conditional statement
✓ string values should be contained in single quotes
✓ boolean values should not be contained in single quotes
✓ float values should not be contained in single quotes
✓ integer values should not be contained in single quotes
✓ uuid values should not be contained in single quotes
36 passing (696ms)
7 failing
1) Client GET() response.first should exist and have a valid uuid:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:69:48)
2) Client GET() response.entity should exist and have a valid uuid:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:73:49)
3) Client GET() response.last should exist and have a valid uuid:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:77:47)
4) Client POST() response.entities should be an array:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'a' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:108:50)
5) Client POST() response.entity should exist and have a valid uuid:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:112:49)
6) Client PUT() response.entities should be an array:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'a' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:146:50)
7) Client PUT() response.entity should exist and its uuid should the uuid from the previous POST requets:
TypeError: Cannot read property 'property' of undefined
at Context.<anonymous> (tests/lib/client.test.js:150:49)
The command "mocha tests" exited with 7.
Done. Your build exited with 1.

Answer 1

Somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, this syntax was working fine using whatever version of should.js I had installed locally. When deploying to TravisCI, it must have installed a newer version which caused any type-checking assertion to fail.
Where this previously worked (according to this):
response.first.should.be.an.Object.with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
It actually needed to be called with parentheses:
response.first.should.be.an.Object().with.property('uuid').with.a.lengthOf(36)
// ^^
... as indicated in the official docs.