Skip to main content

​
Introduction

In this guide, you’ll learn how to archive Mocha unit test reports (JUnit XML) using GitHub Actions’ upload-artifact action. By the end, you’ll be able to:
  • Generate a JUnit-style test-results.xml locally with Mocha.
  • Configure a reusable GitHub Actions workflow.
  • Access archived test results directly from the GitHub UI.

​
Prerequisites

  • A GitHub repository with Node.js and Mocha tests.
  • mocha-junit-reporter installed in your project.
  • A basic GitHub Actions workflow triggering on your desired event (e.g., push or pull_request).

​
1. Generate JUnit Report Locally

Run your tests with Mocha’s JUnit reporter to produce test-results.xml in the repository root: 
npm test

> Solar [email protected] test
> mocha app-test.js --timeout 10000 --reporter mocha-junit-reporter --exit
server successfully running on port - 3000

​
Sample test-results.xml

<testsuite name="Testing Other Endpoints it should fetch Live Status it checks Liveness endpoint" time="0.003">
  <testcase name="it should fetch Ready Status" timestamp="2023-10-12T10:34:16" tests="1" file="F:\Kodekloud-Wo">
    <testcase name="Testing Other Endpoints it should fetch Ready Status it checks Readiness endpoint" time="0.0"/>
  </testcase>
</testsuite>

​
2. Archive the JUnit XML in GitHub Actions

Add an Archive Test Result step to your workflow using actions/upload-artifact@v3. Below is a sample workflow named archive-unit-tests.yml: 
name: Archive Unit Test Reports

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:

jobs:
  unit-testing:
    name: Run & Archive Mocha Tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '18'

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Run Unit Tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Archive Test Result
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: Mocha-Test-Result
          path: test-results.xml

​
Workflow Steps Breakdown

StepAction
Checkout Repositoryactions/checkout@v4
Setup Node.jsactions/setup-node@v3 with node-version: 18
Install Dependenciesnpm install
Run Unit Testsnpm test
Archive Test Resultactions/upload-artifact@v3
The name field under with: serves as the artifact identifier. The path field should point to your generated test-results.xml.

​
3. View Artifacts in GitHub Actions

After pushing your workflow, open the Actions tab in your repository. You’ll see your workflow run listed with its status:
The image shows a GitHub Actions page for a repository named "solar-system," displaying a list of workflow runs with their statuses and details.
Click into the run to explore individual steps, including the Archive Test Result:
The image shows a GitHub Actions interface with a successful unit testing workflow, including steps like checking out the repository, setting up Node.js, and archiving test results.

​
4. Upload Logs

During execution, you’ll observe logs similar to: 
Run actions/upload-artifact@v3
With the provided path, there will be 1 file uploaded
Starting artifact upload
Artifact name is valid!
Container for artifact "Mocha-Test-Result" successfully created. Starting upload of file(s)
Total size of all the files uploaded is 523 bytes
File upload process has finished. Finalizing the artifact upload
Artifact has been finalized. All files have been successfully uploaded!
The raw size of all the files that were specified for upload is 3347 bytes
The size of all the files that were uploaded is 523 bytes. This takes into account any gzip compression used to reduce the upload size, time and storage.
Note: The size of downloaded zips can differ significantly from the reported size. For more information see: https://github.com/actions/upload-artifact#zipped-artifact-downloads
Artifact Mocha-Test-Result has been successfully uploaded!

​
5. Retention & Download

Artifacts are retained for 90 days by default. You can download or delete them via the workflow summary under your repository’s Actions tab.

​
References

Watch Video