sinonjs/sinon

Document how to stub out the network layer

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#1459 opened on Jun 15, 2017

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Description

If one tracks the sinon tag on Stack Overflow one can see that a lot of the questions involve stubbing out the network layer. A lot of people try using the networking utilities in Sinon when doing testing in Node - ultimately failing as they fail to see that XHR is not supported in Node. Example question.

We should create a how-to on stubbing out network requests in Node and the browser (perhaps even for the same module).

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
documentationtesting
Issue type
documentation
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Sinon basicsNode.js testingBrowser testingAsynchronous stubs
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75
Research direction
Review the existing Sinon documentation on stubs and fakes, and examine the linked Stack Overflow question to understand common pitfalls. Then create a how to guide in the Sinon docs repository (likely in docs/) covering stubbing network requests in Node (using nock or similar) and in browser (using sinon's fake XMLHttpRequest). Include code examples and explain the differences between environments.