I am using jasmine to unit test an angularjs controller that sets a variable on the scope to the result of calling a service method that returns a promise object:

var MyController = function($scope, service) {

    $scope.myVar = service.getStuff();

}

inside the service:

function getStuff() {

    return $http.get( 'api/stuff' ).then( function ( httpResult ) {

        return httpResult.data;

    } );

}

This works fine in the context of my angularjs application, but does not work in the jasmine unit test. I have confirmed that the then callback is executing in the unit test, but the $scope.myVar promise never gets set to the return value of the callback.

My unit test:

describe( 'My Controller', function () {

  var scope;

  var serviceMock;

  var controller;

  var httpBackend;



  beforeEach( inject( function ( $rootScope, $controller, $httpBackend, $http ) {

    scope = $rootScope.$new();

    httpBackend = $httpBackend;

    serviceMock = {

      stuffArray: [{

        FirstName: Robby

      }],



      getStuff: function () {

        return $http.get( 'api/stuff' ).then( function ( httpResult ) {

          return httpResult.data;

        } );

      }

    };

    $httpBackend.whenGET( 'api/stuff' ).respond( serviceMock.stuffArray );

    controller = $controller( MyController, {

      $scope: scope,

      service: serviceMock

    } );

  } ) );



  it( 'should set myVar to the resolved promise value',

    function () {

      httpBackend.flush();

      scope.$root.$digest();

      expect( scope.myVar[0].FirstName ).toEqual( Robby );

    } );

} );

Also, if I change the controller to the following the unit test passes:

var MyController = function($scope, service) {

    service.getStuff().then(function(result) {

        $scope.myVar = result;

    });

}

Why is the promise callback result value not being propagated to $scope.myVar in the unit test? See the following jsfiddle for full working code http://jsfiddle.net/s7PGg/5/