The usage of $controller is correct, that's the way to instantiate a controller for a unit test. You can mock the UserService instance it gets directly in the $controller invocation. You should be using its return value - this is the instance of your controller you're going to test.
You're trying to read stuff from controllers but its not defined anywhere in the test, I guess you're referring to the module.
This is how I would go about it + fiddle
//--- CODE --------------------------
angular.module('controllers', []).controller('profileCtrl', ["$scope", "UserService",
function ($scope, UserService) {
$scope.current_user = UserService.details(0);
}]);
// --- SPECS -------------------------
describe('profileCtrl', function () {
var scope, ctrl, userServiceMock;
beforeEach(function () {
userServiceMock = jasmine.createSpyObj('UserService', ['details']);
userServiceMock.details.andReturn('sdfsdf');
angular.mock.module('controllers');
angular.mock.inject(function ($rootScope, $controller) {
scope = $rootScope.$new();
ctrl = $controller('profileCtrl', {
$scope: scope,
UserService: userServiceMock
});
});
});
it('should have a LoginCtrl controller', function () {
expect(ctrl).toBeDefined();
});
it('should fetch list of users', function () {
expect(scope.current_user).toBe('sdfsdf');
});
});
You're welcome to change the fiddle online to see how it affects testing results.