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  3. Node.js — Why You Should Add “node” in Your Travis Config

Node.js — Why You Should Add “node” in Your Travis Config

Travis CI is a sophisticated continuous integration and deployment service. It integrates with GitHub and runs tests on events like commits or pull requests.

Node.js Series Overview

  1. String Replace All Appearances
  2. Remove All Whitespace From a String in JavaScript
  3. Generate a Random String in Node.js or JavaScript
  1. Filter Data in Streams
  1. Get Number of Seconds Since Epoch in JavaScript
  2. Get Tomorrow’s Date in JavaScript
  3. Increase a Date in JavaScript by One Week
  1. How to Run an Asynchronous Function in Array.map()
  2. How to Reset and Empty an Array
  3. for…of vs. for…in Loops
  4. Clone/Copy an Array in JavaScript and Node.js
  5. Get an Array With Unique Values (Delete Duplicates)

At this point, we published two hapi plugins. Testing both plugins is an essential part of our development flow to know they are mature and solid.

We run all tests for both plugins on Travis CI. Our .travis.yml file looks like this:

language: node_js

node_js:  
  - 9
  - 8
  - node   # <-- add this to your .travis.yml for Node.js projects

The language defines the required environment to integrate your project on Travis CI. Before the test execution, Travis prepares the test setup by installing Node.js with NPM and NVM following the defined versions.

hapi-dev-errors testing overview on Travis CI

The configuration above tells Travis to run three integrations with different Node.js versions:

Why Adding “node”?

In short: To fail early for new Node.js releases.

At the time of writing this tutorial, the latest Node.js version is 9.x. That means Travis runs tests with the same environment for the configured versions 9 and node. Both run Node.js v9.

In some months, there will be a Node.js v10 release. At that point, the node config points to version 10 instead of 9.

While updating a project you’ll see at an early stage whether it's compatible with the new Node.js major release.

There’s no additional configuration required to test against the next Node.js release. It’s an early heads up for required maintenance.

Eventually you should add the related Node.js version represented by node to your .travis.yml. For an early heads up, it’s a great way to recognize failing tests.

Should You Worry About the Testing Overhead?

As mentioned above, most of the time you’re running tests against the same versions when using a dedicated version number (like 9) and node. This will test your project twice against the same environment.

Well, for us it’s worth testing a repository against the same Node.js twice for most of the time, because testing is cheap.

Be proactive in testing rather than running behind compatibility and needing manual work to test against the latest stable release.

Summary

Testing Node.js projects on Travis CI is convenient and the GitHub integration is great. To always test against the latest Node.js stable release, you should add node to the list of Node.js versions.

Are you testing your Node.js projects with node in your Travis config as well? Share your thoughts in the comments below or send a tweet: @futurestud_io.

Mentioned Resources

Marcus Pöhls

Marcus is a fullstack JS developer. He’s passionate about the hapi framework for Node.js and loves to build web apps and APIs. Creator of Futureflix and the “learn hapi” learning path.

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