A new version of QUnit, the JavaScript unit testing framework, has been released by the jQuery Foundation. QUnit 1.11 adds a runtime display for individual tests. 

QUnit has grown from a tool developed for internal use within the jQuery Foundation to a standalone tool with its own GitHub repository and the ability to test not only jQuery libraries but external projects.

The addition of the display for individual tests means that you can now show times for each test rather than for the entire test suite. According to a post by Jörn Zaefferer on the jQuery blog, this makes it easy to spot slow tests in your test suite, and enables you to tune tests so they finish more quickly.

Other changes are mostly bug fixes to built-in features, and various improvements to add-ons. There’s a new theme and an overhaul of the PhantomJS add-on to use its callback system.

QUnit is increasing in popularity, as Zaefferer explains:

“Today QUnit is used not only to test jQuery Core, jQuery UI and jQuery Mobile, but many other other projects as well. One notable example is Ember.js. Those guys don’t get tired of telling me how great QUnit is, putting emphasis on the reliability.”

He goes on to ask for input to a QUnit Survey  and, on the basis of  the answers received so far, Zaefferer says that people use QUnit because it’s easy to get started with it. He says it’s also clear that a lot of people are looking for tools and guides on integrating QUnit in CI tools like Jenkins, which is also something the team is planning to work on.