Import nor require are working inside my jest test files in my node.js app

Question

I just installed jest into my node.js app. I can run npm test just fine, until I attempt to import something from another file.

I have a file called channel.test.js and I've tried the following:

import { emptyChannelSortingQueue } from './channels.js'
import * as channel from './channels.js'
var channel = require('./channels.js')

Inside my package.json, I already have "type": "module".

I'm still getting this error:

Jest encountered an unexpected token

Jest failed to parse a file. This happens e.g. when your code or its dependencies use non-standard JavaScript syntax, or when Jest is not configured to support such syntax.

Out of the box Jest supports Babel, which will be used to transform your files into valid JS based on your Babel configuration.

By default "node_modules" folder is ignored by transformers.

Here's what you can do:

• If you are trying to use ECMAScript Modules, see https://jestjs.io/docs/ecmascript-modules for how to enable it.
• If you are trying to use TypeScript, see https://jestjs.io/docs/getting-started#using-typescript
• To have some of your "node_modules" files transformed, you can specify a custom "transformIgnorePatterns" in your config.
• If you need a custom transformation specify a "transform" option in your config.
• If you simply want to mock your non-JS modules (e.g. binary assets) you can stub them out with the "moduleNameMapper" config option.

You'll find more details and examples of these config options in the docs:
https://jestjs.io/docs/configuration
For information about custom transformations, see:
https://jestjs.io/docs/code-transformation

Details:

/Users/alishahome/Documents/Software_Engineering/megara/bot/src/utils/channels.js:1
({"Object.":function(module,exports,require,__dirname,__filename,jest){import {
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

I tried changing out this line in my dockerfile

RUN npm install --quiet

to:

RUN npm install --quiet --experimental-vm-modules

I also tried adding this to my package.json:

"jest": {
    "testEnvironment": "node",
    "moduleFileExtensions": ["js", "mjs"],
    "transform": {},
    "moduleNameMapper": {}
  }

I also tried installing babel/jest and putting this in a babel.config.js file:

module.exports = {
  presets: [
    [
      "@babel/preset-env",
      {
        targets: {
          node: "current"
        }
      }
    ]
  ]
};

Answer 1

I ended up needing to add this to my package.json

"test": "NODE_OPTIONS=--experimental-vm-modules npm exec jest"
"type": "module"