Watch mode test pattern is global but it isn't quite obvious

[gaearon]

I run p to choose a file:

Then I wanted to filter to a single test with t:

From this screen, it seems like it would only run this test. But nope, it seemingly runs the match on all files:

I'm not sure if this is intentional behavior or not, but it makes test pattern mode much less useful to me because I can never guess how many tests in other files may happen to share the same substring in their name. It's also never useful to me to filter all tests in the codebase by a word. I'd rather have take the exact match I chose with arrows than using the pattern I entered.

[rogeliog]

Currently, it only shows the name of the tests that are already cached. I agree that it makes the "t" pattern mode unpredictable... I wonder if we could add some messaging around it to make it less ambiguous 😄

[gaearon]

Is it ever useful to run all tests matching a name globally?

I understand why it's convenient to search tests globally by their descriptions, but once I've found the one I need, I just want to select that test alone and focus on it. (As an alternative to writing fit.)

Fuzzy search for files make sense (e.g. if you use common prefixes or want to run all tests in a directory). But test descriptions are usually human readable so patterns don't work that well on them. Why not just treat Enter as selecting a test rather than running all tests that match entered pattern?

[cpojer]

I agree with @gaearon but I preferred to get this feature out so we can collect ideas on how to optimize it in future releases. There are two questions we need to answer here:

• When a pattern is entered to match files, should it stay applied when filtering for files and should we only show tests that match those files? How should we show this in the UI and should there be an escape hatch? (Like "press to clear the pattern"?).
• Fuzzy search for tests instead of regex: we lose the consistency of the two typeaheads (both expect a regex) but it may still result in a much better user experience. At least we should make it work so that when you type a space, it converts it into \s behind the scenes.

cc @zouxuoz

[zouxuoz]

I agree with @gaearon. @cpojer we missed really useful UX case and should resolve it. I think we can resolve it something like this:

• not reset testFilePattern when user set testNamePattern;
• reset testNamePattern when user set testFilePattern or run all test or run test for only changed files;
• think about new feature with using the arrows for choosing current test;

I can send PR for resolve first and second points.

[rogeliog]

I like that idea, it sounds really interesting

[rogeliog]

I agree that the testNamePattern still needs more exploration to find the best UX

[gaearon]

Is there a way to disable this feature until it is more solid? We'd like to ship Jest 19 in the next react-scripts update but IMO this will be confusing and users will just remember not to use it, so it will be harder to get them to discover it again when it's fixed.

[gaearon]

(Another reason I'd like to disable it is because it can crash randomly: #2979)

[gaearon]

The reason I'm being a little bit obnoxious here is because I care deeply about the quality of Jest integration. Jest has had very weird issues in the past, and it took a lot of effort from @cpojer and @DmitriiAbramov to get it to the point where it’s good enough to be bundled by default in CRA. I’d like to make sure that we don’t drop that quality bar over time now that Jest is bundled. Unfortunately I don’t have time to work on this myself. 😞

[thymikee]

What about hiding it form Watch Usage prompt until we make it work flawlessly? It would still be there but just hidden, because it's like still experimental feature?

[gaearon]

Yes, that would be perfect for us!

[gaearon]

(I guess you could still trigger it accidentally but I'm fine with that)