Getting a UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning when testing using mocha/chai

Solution 1:

The issue is caused by this:

.catch((error) => {
  assert.isNotOk(error,'Promise error');
  done();
});

If the assertion fails, it will throw an error. This error will cause done() never to get called, because the code errored out before it. That's what causes the timeout.

The "Unhandled promise rejection" is also caused by the failed assertion, because if an error is thrown in a catch() handler, and there isn't a subsequent catch() handler, the error will get swallowed (as explained in this article). The UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning warning is alerting you to this fact.

In general, if you want to test promise-based code in Mocha, you should rely on the fact that Mocha itself can handle promises already. You shouldn't use done(), but instead, return a promise from your test. Mocha will then catch any errors itself.

Like this:

it('should transition with the correct event', () => {
  ...
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    ...
  }).then((state) => {
    assert(state.action === 'DONE', 'should change state');
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    assert.isNotOk(error,'Promise error');
  });
});

Solution 2:

For those who are looking for the error/warning UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning outside of a testing environment, It could be probably because nobody in the code is taking care of the eventual error in a promise:

For instance, this code will show the warning reported in this question:

new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  return reject('Error reason!');
});

(node:XXXX) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection (rejection id: 1): Error: Error reason!

and adding the .catch() or handling the error should solve the warning/error

new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  return reject('Error reason!');
}).catch(() => { /* do whatever you want here */ });

Or using the second parameter in the then function

new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  return reject('Error reason!');
}).then(null, () => { /* do whatever you want here */ });