Running multiple test files with Sails/Mocha - sails.js

Question

I am using Mocha to test a Sails application. I have 2 test files. Both test files do the standard Before/After Sails.lift and Sails.lower.
When I run mocha test/TestDataEntry.js and mocha test/TestEventEntry separately, they execute properly. If I run just mocha, test/TestDataEntry executes properly but test/TestEventEntry fails. It seems as if the Sails server is not cycling down and up properly. Any suggestions for handling this issue would be appreciated. The terminal output is as follows:
larry#larry-Aspire-M3985 ~/Projects/web-backend $ mocha
Data Entry testing:
sails lifted
✓ bad url
✓ bad device (91ms)
✓ expired token (61ms)
✓ bad packet: missing Data field (59ms)
✓ bad packet: Data is not an array (62ms)
✓ bad packet: Data is empty (60ms)
✓ bad packet: missing data field D2 (60ms)
✓ bad packet: missing data field D1 (62ms)
✓ bad packet: missing data field TS (61ms)
✓ bad packet: bad timestamp field (64ms)
✓ good packet (60ms)
sails down
Event Entry testing:
sails lifted
✓ bad url
1) bad device
double callback!
2) expired token
double callback!
3) bad packet: missing Data field
double callback!
4) bad packet: Data is not an array
double callback!
5) bad packet: Data is empty
double callback!
6) bad packet: missing data field ED
double callback!
7) bad packet: missing data field ET
double callback!
8) bad packet: missing data field TS
double callback!
9) bad packet: bad timestamp field
double callback!
10) good packet
double callback!
sails down
12 passing (2s)
10 failing
1) Event Entry testing: bad device:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
2) Event Entry testing: expired token:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
3) Event Entry testing: bad packet: missing Data field:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
4) Event Entry testing: bad packet: Data is not an array:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
5) Event Entry testing: bad packet: Data is empty:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
6) Event Entry testing: bad packet: missing data field ED:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
7) Event Entry testing: bad packet: missing data field ET:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
8) Event Entry testing: bad packet: missing data field TS:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
9) Event Entry testing: bad packet: bad timestamp field:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
10) Event Entry testing: good packet:
Uncaught AssertionError: expected [Error: connect ECONNREFUSED] to be null
The following is the Before/After code:
before(function (done) {
// Lift Sails and start the server
Sails.lift({
log: {
level: 'error'
}
}, function (err, sails) {
console.log("sails lifted");
done();
});
});
after(function (done) {
console.log('sails down');
Sails.lower(done);
});

Answer 1

OK, it turns out that there is an anonymous parent describe block that is the parent of all of the test file describe blocks. So if a before/after hook is introduced at the anonymous parent level, then it covers all of the test files as a group.
Mocha executes the test files in alphabetical order by default. So I have constructed a test file 'aaaa.js' that only contains the before/after lifting and lowering of Sails. This introduces the before/after hooks at the parent level.
Now, 'mocha' executes all of the test files in test/* without a problem. The only drawback to this approach is that I no longer have the before/after hooks in the individual test files and therefore must use: 'mocha test/aaaa.js test/TestDataEntry.js' to ensure that Sails is lifted and lowered properly.

Answer 2

An approach to run multiple mocha tests with sails is to spawn a new sails instance for each mocha test
var SailsApp = require('sails').Sails;
describe('MochaTest',function() {
var sails = new SailsApp();
before(function(done) {
sails.lift({},
function(err,server) {
if(err) {
done(err);
} else {
done(err,sails);
}
});
});
after(function(done) {
sails.lower(done);
});
});