Unit testing Angular JS controllers that use "Controller as" syntax

Most of the Angular unit testing examples are based around using $scope in the controller, but using the "Controller as" syntax is also becoming popular. In this case a slight modification is needed in the test setup.

Given a controller setup such as:

    <div ng-controller="ProjectsCtrl as projects">
    {{ projects.total }}
    </div>

The test setup needs to be something like this:

    describe('ProjectCtrl', function() {

        beforeEach(angular.mock.module('app'));
        beforeEach(function() {
            inject(function($controller, $rootScope) {
                scope = $rootScope.$new(); 
              
                //here is where we add in "Controller as" detail

                ProjectsCtrl = $controller('ProjectsCtrl as projects', {
                    $scope: scope
                });
            });
        });

        it('should have project total defined ', function() {
           
           expect(scope.projects.total).toBeDefined();
      
        });

    });

Seems to work ok for me - let me know if there is a better way!