POST call from phantomJS doesn't hit server running from grunt

Question

Here is my setup.

• I have a grunt task that does 2 things: 1) start a http server listening on some port 2) triggers another grunt task
• The grunt task triggered above is a testem task that runs tests on test-index.html page in PhantomJS.
• The test-index.html page sends a POST call on the port on which I start a server in the first grunt task.

Issue: The POST call doesn't hit my server.

Note: If I run the same server manually (not from grunt) and then run the test grunt task, the POST call hits the server.

Heres the code:

Grunt task

grunt.registerMultiTask('coverage', 'Generates coverage reports for JS using Istanbul', function () {
 var server = http.createServer(function(req, resp) {
  resp.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
  console.log('Got something');
  req.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('coverage.json'))
  resp.end();
 });
 var port = 7358;
 server.listen(port);

 // This task simply executes a command: `testem.js ci`
 grunt.task.run('testem').then(function() {
  server.close();
 });
});

test-index.html (somewhere in the )

function onTestemLoad() {
 Testem.on('all-test-results', function(results){
  var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
  xhr.open('POST', 'http://localhost:7358/');
  xhr.send(JSON.stringify(window.__coverage__))
 });
}

Can anyone point what might be going wrong here?

Answer 1

you've been misled by grunt.task.run ! This line does NOT run the task, it just puts it on the top of the list of tasks to run once the current task is done ( http://gruntjs.com/api/grunt.task#grunt.task.run ).

A second issue is that when a task completes, it takes down all its running processes with it.

So what happens is:

1. coverage starts, spins on your server, then register testem as next task
2. coverage ends, taking down your server
3. next task (= testem ) runs, but no server is here to answer...

You can fix it by doing the following 2 things:

• inline your test: replace grunt.task.run('testem') with a direct call to testem
• ensure your tests run synchronously - or keep your task alive until your tests are done (using this.async - see http://gruntjs.com/api/inside-tasks#this.async ).