Mocking refs in React function component

Question

I have React function component that has a ref on one of its children. The ref is created via useRef.

I want to test the component with the shallow ren

Answer 1

The solution from slideshowp2 didn't work for me, so ended up using a different approach:

Worked around it by

1. Introduce a useRef optional prop and by default use react's one

import React, { useRef as defaultUseRef } from 'react'
const component = ({ useRef = defaultUseRef }) => {
  const ref = useRef(null)
  return <RefComponent ref={ref} />
}

2. in test mock useRef

const mockUseRef = (obj: any) => () => Object.defineProperty({}, 'current', {
  get: () => obj,
  set: () => {}
})

// in your test
...
    const useRef = mockUseRef({ refFunction: jest.fn() })
    render(
      <ScanBarcodeView onScan={handleScan} useRef={useRef} />,
    )
...

Answer 2

Here is my unit test strategy, use jest.spyOn method spy on the useRef hook.

index.tsx:

import React from 'react';

export const Comp = ({ onHandle }: any) => {
  const ref = React.useRef(null);

  const handleClick = () => {
    if (!ref.current) return;

    onHandle();
  };

  return (
    <button ref={ref} onClick={handleClick}>
      test
    </button>
  );
};

index.spec.tsx:

import React from 'react';
import { shallow } from 'enzyme';
import { Comp } from './';

describe('Comp', () => {
  afterEach(() => {
    jest.restoreAllMocks();
  });
  it('should do nothing if ref does not exist', () => {
    const useRefSpy = jest.spyOn(React, 'useRef').mockReturnValueOnce({ current: null });
    const component = shallow(<Comp></Comp>);
    component.find('button').simulate('click');
    expect(useRefSpy).toBeCalledWith(null);
  });

  it('should handle click', () => {
    const useRefSpy = jest.spyOn(React, 'useRef').mockReturnValueOnce({ current: document.createElement('button') });
    const mock = jest.fn();
    const component = shallow(<Comp onHandle={mock}></Comp>);
    component.find('button').simulate('click');
    expect(useRefSpy).toBeCalledWith(null);
    expect(mock).toBeCalledTimes(1);
  });
});

Unit test result with 100% coverage:

 PASS  src/stackoverflow/57805917/index.spec.tsx
  Comp
    ✓ should do nothing if ref does not exist (16ms)
    ✓ should handle click (3ms)

-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|-------------------|
File       |  % Stmts | % Branch |  % Funcs |  % Lines | Uncovered Line #s |
-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|-------------------|
All files  |      100 |      100 |      100 |      100 |                   |
 index.tsx |      100 |      100 |      100 |      100 |                   |
-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|-------------------|
Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       2 passed, 2 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        4.787s, estimated 11s

Source code: https://github.com/mrdulin/jest-codelab/tree/master/src/stackoverflow/57805917