Mongoose Insert never returns in unit test - node.js

Question

I'm creating a unit test to test Passport, and the first step is to create a user. Creating the user times out and the test is unable to progress.
Test (login.js):
'use strict';
var app = require('../index'),
kraken = require('kraken-js'),
mongoose = require('mongoose'),
User = mongoose.model('User'),
should = require('chai').should(),
Q = require('q'),
agent = require('supertest'),
cookie,
pUser = {
firstName: 'pasport-test',
lastName: 'user',
userName: 'passport-user',
email: 'passport-user#here.com',
password: 'h#rdP#ssw0rd'
}
describe('#create user and log them in with passport', function () {
this.timeout(10000);
var mock;
beforeEach(function (done) {
kraken.create(app).listen(function (err, server) {
mock = server;
done(err);
});
});
afterEach(function (done) {
mock.close(done);
});
describe('#login the user', function () {
it('should create a user', function (done) {
var user = new User({
firstName: pUser.firstName,
lastName: pUser.lastName,
userName: pUser.userName,
email: pUser.email,
password: pUser.password
});
user.save(function(err, data) {
if(err) {
done(err);
} else {
done();
}
});
//it should then login that user with passport
});
});
If I connect o to mongoose directly:
mongoose.connect("mongodb://localhost/testing");
and require User this way:
User = require('../models/user');
It works.
I'd like to use the server and connection that the beforeEach sets up with kraken, so that inserts happen in the configured database...
Question is why does the mongoose insert never come back in the test?

Answer 1

You need to call mongoose.connect in your test code. mongoose queues all pending operations until a first db connection is made, which is why your save callback never gets called.

Answer 2

As noted by #Peter Lyons, I needed to perform the connect to the database.
I wrote a small helper to do this (that I can use across my test files).
db.js:
'use strict';
var nconf = require('nconf'),
mongoose = require('mongoose'),
env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'testing';
//get the db config stuff for mongoose from the application config file
nconf.use('file', {
file: process.cwd() + '/config/app.json',
format: nconf.formats.json
});
var dbConf = nconf.get('databaseConfig')[env];
var db = function() {
return {
connect: function() {
if(!mongoose.connection.db) {
mongoose.connect("mongodb://" + dbConf.host + '/' + dbConf.database);
}
}
};
};
module.exports = db();
Then in my tests:
var db = require('./db');
db.connect();
And the model classes perform as expected.