diff --git a/js/common/test-data/modules/coffee-test.coffee b/js/common/test-data/modules/coffee-test.coffee
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9cce0c0f7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/js/common/test-data/modules/coffee-test.coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# a CoffeeScript test file
+
+exports.coffeeSquare = (x) -> x * x
+
+exports.coffeeValue = "test"
diff --git a/js/common/test-data/modules/test-data.json b/js/common/test-data/modules/test-data.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7b26805064
--- /dev/null
+++ b/js/common/test-data/modules/test-data.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "tags" : [ "foo", "bar", "baz" ],
+  "author" : {
+    "first" : "foo",
+    "last" : "bar" 
+  },
+  "number" : 42,
+  "sensible" : false,
+  "nullValue" : null
+}
diff --git a/js/common/tests/shell-require.js b/js/common/tests/shell-require.js
index 14171771af..048f2c8223 100644
--- a/js/common/tests/shell-require.js
+++ b/js/common/tests/shell-require.js
@@ -63,6 +63,49 @@ function RequireTestSuite () {
       module.root.unloadAll();
     },
 
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+/// @brief test requiring JSON
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+    testRequireJson : function () {
+      var test = createTestPackage();
+      var data = test.require("test-data");
+
+      assertTrue(data.hasOwnProperty("tags"));
+      assertEqual([ "foo", "bar", "baz" ], data.tags);
+      
+      assertTrue(data.hasOwnProperty("author"));
+      assertEqual({ "first" : "foo", "last" : "bar" }, data.author);
+      
+      assertTrue(data.hasOwnProperty("number"));
+      assertEqual(42, data.number);
+      
+      assertTrue(data.hasOwnProperty("sensible"));
+      assertFalse(data.sensible);
+      
+      assertTrue(data.hasOwnProperty("nullValue"));
+      assertNull(data.nullValue);
+      
+      assertFalse(data.hasOwnProperty("schabernack"));
+    },
+
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+/// @brief test coffee script execution
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+    testRequireCoffeeScript : function () {
+      var test = createTestPackage();
+      var script = test.require("coffee-test");
+
+      assertTrue(script.hasOwnProperty("coffeeSquare"));
+      assertEqual("function", typeof script.coffeeSquare);
+      assertEqual(49, script.coffeeSquare(7));
+
+      assertTrue(script.hasOwnProperty("coffeeValue"));
+      assertEqual("string", typeof script.coffeeValue);
+      assertEqual("test", script.coffeeValue);
+    },
+
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 /// @brief test package loading
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////