Angular Error – No directive with exportAs set to ngForm

While running unit tests for the Angular app (Angular 2/Angular 4), I came across the error such as following:

Failed: Template parse error:
There is no directive with “exportAs” set to “ngForm”

Here is the screenshot of the error. Note that the form referenced in this blog is a template-driven form.

This blog represents the resolution of above error.

Template and Unit Test Code Before the Fix

The template code defined the template reference variable, #signupForm, for form element as shown in the following code.

<form (ngSubmit)="onSubmit()" #signupForm="ngForm">
</form>

Following was the unit test code prior fix/resolution:

import { TestBed, async } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { SignupComponent } from './signup.component';
import {FormsModule} from '@angular/forms';

describe('SignupComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      <strong>declarations: [
        SignupComponent
      ],</strong>
    }).compileComponents();
  }));

  it('should create the app', async(() => {
    const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(SignupComponent);
    const app = fixture.debugElement.componentInstance;
    expect(app).toBeTruthy();
  }));

});

Unit Test Code after the Fix/Resolution

Pay attention to the inclusion of FormsModule in imports array.

import { TestBed, async } from '@angular/core/testing';

import { SignupComponent } from './signup.component';
import {FormsModule} from '@angular/forms';

describe('SignupComponent', () => {
  beforeEach(async(() => {
    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
      <strong>declarations: [
        SignupComponent
      ],
      imports: [
        FormsModule,
      ],</strong>
    }).compileComponents();
  }));

  it('should create the app', async(() => {
    const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(SignupComponent);
    const app = fixture.debugElement.componentInstance;
    expect(app).toBeTruthy();
  }));

});

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