[node.js] ReferenceError: describe is not defined NodeJs

I am trying to define some endpoints and do a test using nodejs. In server.js I have:

var express = require('express');
var func1 = require('./func1.js');
var port = 8080;
var server = express();

server.configure(function(){
  server.use(express.bodyParser());
});

server.post('/testend/', func1.testend);

and in func1.js:

    var testend = function(req, res) {
           serialPort.write("1", function(err, results) {
           serialPort.write("2" + "\n", function(err, results) {
           });
      });
   });
    exports.testend = testend;

Now in test.js I am trying to use this endpoint:

var should = require('should');
var assert = require('assert');
var request = require('supertest');
var http = require('http');
var app = require('./../server.js');
var port = 8080;

describe('Account', function() {
        var url = "http://localhost:" + port.toString();
        it('test starts', function(done) {
                request(url).post('/testend/')
                // end handles the response
                .end(function(err, res) {
                        if (err) {
                                throw err;
                        }
                        res.body.error.should.type('string');
                        done();
                });
        });
});

But when I run node test.js I am getting this error:

describe('Account', function() {
^

ReferenceError: describe is not defined
    at Object. (/test/test.js:9:1)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
    at startup (node.js:119:16)
    at node.js:906:3

How can I fix the issue?

You can also do like this:

  var mocha = require('mocha')
  var describe = mocha.describe
  var it = mocha.it
  var assert = require('chai').assert

  describe('#indexOf()', function() {
    it('should return -1 when not present', function() {
      assert.equal([1,2,3].indexOf(4), -1)
    })
  })

Reference: http://mochajs.org/#require

OP asked about running from node not from mocha. This is a very common use case, see Using Mocha Programatically

This is what injected describe and it into my tests.

mocha.ui('bdd').run(function (failures) {
    process.on('exit', function () {
      process.exit(failures);
    });
  });

I tried tdd like in the docs, but that didn't work, bdd worked though.

i have this error when using "--ui tdd". remove this or using "--ui bdd" fix problem.

if you are using vscode, want to debug your files

I used tdd before, it throw ReferenceError: describe is not defined

But, when I use bdd, it works!

waste half day to solve it....

    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Mocha Tests",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/mocha/bin/_mocha",
      "args": [
        "-u",
        "bdd",// set to bdd, not tdd
        "--timeout",
        "999999",
        "--colors",
        "${workspaceFolder}/test/**/*.js"
      ],
      "internalConsoleOptions": "openOnSessionStart"
},

To run tests with node/npm without installing Mocha globally, you can do this:

• Install Mocha locally to your project (npm install mocha --save-dev)

• Optionally install an assertion library (npm install chai --save-dev)

• In your package.json, add a section for scripts and target the mocha binary

"scripts": {
  "test": "node ./node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha"
}

• Put your spec files in a directory named /test in your root directory

• In your spec files, import the assertion library

var expect = require('chai').expect;

• You don't need to import mocha, run mocha.setup, or call mocha.run()

• Then run the script from your project root:

npm test