Last updated: Oct 28, 2022
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The error 'Consider using the "jsdom" test environment' occurs when we forget
to set the testEnvironment property to jsdom when testing a client-side
application with Jest.
To solve the error, set the testEnvironment property to jsdom in your
jest.config.js file.
The error below may be caused by using the wrong test environment, see https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration#testenvironment-string. Consider using the "jsdom" test environment. ReferenceError: document is not defined
testEnvironment property is set to jsdom in your package.json or jest.config.js or jest.config.ts file."jest": { "testEnvironment": "jsdom" }
And do the same if you use a jest.config.js file.
module.exports = { "testEnvironment": "jsdom" }
Setting the
testEnvironment
property to jsdom allows us to test in the browser. Note that jsdom is the
default testEnvironment in recent versions of Jest.
When building a node service, set the testEnvironment property to node.
You can also set the test environment on a per-file basis with a docstring.
/** * @jest-environment jsdom */ test('use jsdom in this test file', () => { const element = document.createElement('div'); expect(element).not.toBeNull(); });
Starting with Jest version 28, the jest-environment-jsdom package is no
longer shipped with jest, so make sure you have it installed.
Open your terminal in your project's root directory and run the following
command to install jest-environment-jsdom.
# ๐๏ธ with NPM npm install jest-environment-jsdom --save-dev # ๐๏ธ with YARN yarn add jest-environment-jsdom --dev
If the error persists, install jest and make sure that your jest and
jest-environment-jsdom versions match.
# ๐๏ธ with NPM npm install jest --save-dev npm install jest-environment-jsdom --save-dev # ๐๏ธ with YARN yarn add jest --dev yarn add jest-environment-jsdom --dev
jest and jest-environment-jsdom don't match, install a matching version of the packages.You can check your versions of jest and jest-environment-jsdom in the
devDependencies section of your package.json file.
Here is an example of installing version 29.3.1 of jest and
jest-environment-jsdom.
# ๐๏ธ with NPM npm install jest@29.3.1 --save-dev npm install jest-environment-jsdom@29.3.1 --save-dev # ๐๏ธ with YARN yarn add jest@29.3.1 --dev yarn add jest-environment-jsdom@29.3.1 --dev
If the error is not resolved, try to delete your node_modules and
package-lock.json (not
package.json) files, re-run npm install and restart your test server.
# ๐๏ธ Windows - delete node_modules and package-lock.json rd /s /q "node_modules" del package-lock.json # ๐๏ธ macOS/Linux - delete node_modules and package-lock.json rm -rf node_modules rm -f package-lock.json # ๐๏ธ clean npm cache npm cache clean --force # ๐๏ธ install packages npm install
Make sure to restart your IDE and test server if the error persists. VSCode often glitches and needs a reboot.
You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:
process function