You might want to use forEach instead of map.
Also, "Passing arrow functions (aka "lambdas") to Mocha is discouraged" so you will probably want to change those to normal functions.
Having said that, it works fine if links is defined as mocha initially runs the test file and collects the individual it tests:
const expect = require('chai').expect;
describe('links', function() {
let links = [
{
url: 'some url 1',
status: 200
},
{
url: 'some url 2',
status: 200
}
]
links.forEach(function(property) {
it('link array to contain url string', function() {
expect(property).to.have.property('url').to.be.a('string');
});
it('link array to contain status number', function() {
expect(property).to.have.property('status').to.be.a('number');
});
});
});
..results in:
> mocha
links
√ link array to contain url string
√ link array to contain status number
√ link array to contain url string
√ link array to contain status number
4 passing (14ms)
Update
As you have found, it only works at the top level or with a describe:
before(function() {
it('will NOT work here', function() { });
});
it('will work here', function() {
it('will NOT work here', function() { });
});
Also, links must be available while the test is first running and the it tests are being collected by mocha so this doesn't work either:
describe('links', function() {
let links = [];
before(function() {
links = [
{
url: 'some url 1',
status: 200
},
{
url: 'some url 2',
status: 200
}
];
});
// This won't work...
links.forEach(function(property) {
// .. since links is still an empty array when this runs
it('should...', function() { /* ... */ });
});
});
From your question update it looks like your code retrieves links from an async function call in before. Because of this, there is no way to have links populated at the time the test is first running and the it tests are collected.
So it looks like you won't be able to map across the items in links to create your it tests, and will instead need to take the approach you described by mapping across the items in links within a single test.
