This post is part of my Django series. You can see an overview of the series along with instruction on how to get all the source code here.
This article assumes you are comfortable creating a Django project, can create apps and register them into the INSTALLED_APPS list of the settings file. If not please read my Django HelloWorld article.
Django uses the Python package unittest. This article assumes that you have a basic knowledge of creating unittests with this package. If this is not the case please see my blog post on unittest.
This article assumes you have a project called DjangoSandBox in an application called testintroduction.
This article tests the various parts we have built up over the series; please see here for any explanations of the code we are testing.
- Testing Models
- Testing Views
- Testing Errors
- Testing URLs
- Testing Forms
- Testing An Authorised View
- Testing Cookies
- Testing Session Data
- Additional Assertions
Testing Models
Models are pretty easy to test; our first example is using the HelloWorld class we have created previously. Nothing special, a name and date field, a __str()__ function and a Django get_absolute_url function.
#helloworld/models.py
from django.db import models
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
class HelloWorld(models.Model):
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
now = models.DateTimeField()
def __str__(self):
return "{0} {1}".format(self.first_name, self.now)
@staticmethod
def get_absolute_url():
return reverse('helloworld:model')
Testing these functions is nothing more than creating an instance of the class, calling the require function or property and asserting that our result is as required.
#test_models.py
from datetime import date
from django.test import TestCase
from helloworld.models import HelloWorld
class TestHelloWorld(TestCase):
def setUp(self):
self.first_name = "Luke"
self.now = date.today()
self.a_helloworld = HelloWorld(first_name=self.first_name, now=self.now)
def test_str(self):
self.assertEqual("{0} {1}".format(self.first_name, self.now), str(self.a_helloworld))
def test_get_absolute_url(self):
self.assertEqual("/helloworld/model/", self.a_helloworld.get_absolute_url())
Our model could contain validation. We can test validation by creating an instance of the model in an invalid state and calling full_clean. If the model is invalid an exception is raised with all the errors contained within a dictionary upon the message_dict property.
# test_models.py
from datetime import date
from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
from django.test import TestCase
from modelsadvanced.models import ContactDetails, ProxyChild
class TestModelValidation(TestCase):
def test_model_validation(self):
try:
a_contact = ContactDetails(name="Luke", age=101, contactDate=date(year=2015, month=7, day=2))
a_contact.full_clean()
except ValidationError as e:
self.assertEqual({'name': ['Ensure this value has at least 10 characters (it has 4).', 'Luke is barred'],
'age': ['Ensure this value is less than or equal to 100.'],
'contactDate': ['2015-07-02 is not a future date.']}, e.message_dict)
If we want to test class meta data we can access this via the _meta property:
#test_models.py
class TestModelMeta(TestCase):
def test_model_meta(self):
self.assertEqual(True, ProxyChild()._meta.proxy)
We can use list and map to get a list of all field names contained within the fields property of the meta class.:
#test_models.py
class TestModelFields(TestCase):
def test_model_meta(self):
field_names = list(map((lambda x: x.name), ContactDetails._meta.fields))
self.assertEqual(4, len(ContactDetails._meta.fields))
self.assertEqual(['id', 'age', 'name', 'contactDate'], field_names)
Testing Views
When we test views we can use the test client; it acts as a dummy Web browser. We access it via the client property of our unit test class.
We call get upon the test client along with the URL.
response = self.client.get("/index")
We can use reverse to access the URL via our routing config. Don’t worry we will explicitly test the routing config later/
response = self.client.get(reverse("home:home"))
The response.status_code can be used to assure our response code is as expected.
The response.resolver_match can be use to ensure that the view function used was as expected.
The function self.assertTemplateUsed can be used to assure that the correct template was used.
We can assert that the html is as expected by calling self.assertContains along with sections of html or strings which should be contained within the rendered HTML.
#test_views.py
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
from home import views as home_views
class TestFunctionView(TestCase):
def test_function_view(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("home:home"))
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertEqual(home_views.home, response.resolver_match.func)
self.assertTemplateUsed(response, template_name='home/home.html')
self.assertContains(response, '<a href="/helloworld/index/">Hello World</a>')
self.assertContains(response, '<a href="/templatesintroduction/index">Templates</a>')
self.assertContains(response, '<a href="/formsintroduction/basic/">Forms</a>')
self.assertContains(response, '<a href="/viewsintroduction/contact/list">Views</a>')
We can access the context data which was passed to the view via the context property of the response.
#test_views.py
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
from helloworld import views as helloworld_views
class TestContextData(TestCase):
def test_context_data(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("helloworld:template"))
self.assertEqual('Obelix', response.context["who"])
self.assertEqual(False, response.context["islong"])
Testing Class Based Views
In the example two up we used the following code to ensure the correct view function was used:
self.assertEqual(home_views.home, response.resolver_match.func)
If we want to assure that the correct class view was used we need to compare the name of the class against that which was used:
self.assertEqual(PhoneAddressListView.as_view().__name__, response.resolver_match.func.__name__)
Where a base template is used we can simply call the function assertTemplateUsed with the base template name.
In the example below we test the list view with and without records to ensure our “no records here” message is displayed to the user.
When records are returned to our template we have a few ways we can test the results along with the assertContains function we have seen in the previous examples.
- Check the record count of the object list in the contect view
- Compare elements
- Compare the query set. To do this we need to convert the expected query set to a list of strings from the repr function as this is what is contained in the response.
#test_views.py
class TestClassView(TestCase):
def test_with_no_records(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("viewsintroduction:address_list"))
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertEqual(PhoneAddressListView.as_view().__name__, response.resolver_match.func.__name__)
self.assertTemplateUsed(response, template_name='viewsintroduction/base.html')
self.assertTemplateUsed(response, template_name='viewsintroduction/phoneaddresslist.html')
self.assertEqual(0, len(response.context["phoneaddress_list"]))
self.assertContains(response, '<tr><td colspan="6">There are no addresses</td></tr>')
def test_with_one_record(self):
an_address = PhoneAddress(number=1, street_name="A", city="A City")
an_address.save()
response = self.client.get(reverse("viewsintroduction:address_list"))
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertEqual(PhoneAddressListView.as_view().__name__, response.resolver_match.func.__name__)
self.assertTemplateUsed(response, template_name='viewsintroduction/base.html')
self.assertTemplateUsed(response, template_name='viewsintroduction/phoneaddresslist.html')
context_addresses = response.context['phoneaddress_list']
expected_addresses = [repr(r) for r in PhoneAddress.objects.all()]
self.assertEqual(1, len(context_addresses))
self.assertEqual(an_address, context_addresses.first())
self.assertQuerysetEqual(context_addresses, expected_addresses, ordered=False)
self.assertContains(response, an_address.city)
self.assertContains(response, an_address.number)
self.assertContains(response, an_address.street_name)
self.assertNotContains(response, '<tr><td colspan="6">There are no addresses</td></tr>')
Testing Errors
We now move on to test some of our error views; by comparing the status code.
#test_views.py
class Test404Error(TestCase):
def test_404_error_is_raised(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("helloworld:error_as_404"))
self.assertEqual(404, response.status_code)
class TestNotAllowed(TestCase):
def test_not_allowed(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("helloworld:not_allowed"))
self.assertEqual(405, response.status_code)
class TestOnlyPost(TestCase):
def test_raises_error_on_get(self):
response = self.client.get(reverse("helloworld:error_if_not_post"))
self.assertEqual(405, response.status_code)
def test_all_ok_on_post(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("helloworld:error_if_not_post"), {'name': 'Jim'})
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertContains(response, "{0}, this can only be called with a post".format("Jim"))
When we expect a redirect is made we can use the assertRedirects function to validate this. The function takes the status codes of our page load and also the page we direct to. 301 indicates that this is a page which has moved permanently.
#test_views.py
class TestRedirect(TestCase):
def test_redirect(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("viewsintroduction:redirect_view"))
self.assertTrue(301, response.status_code)
self.assertRedirects(response, "http://djangoproject.com", 301, 200) # Status codes Us/Them
Test URLS
When we test URLs we should test two things;
- The reverse function returns the correct URL string
- The resolve function returns the correct view function. This does not only include the function and URL name but the app name of the view, the URL namespace and any arguments which will be passed into the view function.
#test_urls.py
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse, resolve
from django.test import TestCase
from home import views
class TestHomeUrls(TestCase):
urls = 'home.urls'
def test_reverse(self):
self.assertEqual('/', reverse('home'))
def test_resolve(self):
resolver = resolve(reverse('home'))
self.assertEqual(views.home, resolver.func)
self.assertEqual('home', resolver.url_name)
self.assertEqual((), resolver.args)
self.assertEqual({}, resolver.kwargs)
self.assertEqual(None, resolver.app_name)
self.assertEqual('', resolver.namespace)
Note: Setting urls = ‘home.urls’ upon the test class above defines the URL routing config we are using. Here we test only an apps config which explains why we reference the URL by their name only without the namespace which we set in the project’s urls.py
When our URL config contains get query parameters we can pass them into the reverse function with the kwargs parameter which is a dictionary.
#test_urls.py
class TestViewsIntroductionUrls(TestCase):
urls = 'viewsintroduction.urls'
def test_reverse(self):
self.assertEqual('/address/1/update/', reverse('address_update', kwargs={'pk': 1}))
Testing Forms
When testing forms we pass the input data as a dictionary into the constructor.
We can access the form fields via the fields property; below we ensure that we have the correct fields and that they contain the right configuration.
We can assert that the form validates as expected with form.is_valid(). Any errors raised will be found within the property errors on the form which is a dictionary of errors. Field errors will be found under a key named after the field name; it returns a list of errors.
#test_forms.py
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.forms import DecimalField
from django.test import TestCase
from formsintroduction.forms.bastic_form_example import BasicFormExample
from formsintroduction.forms.class_form_example import ClassBasedForm
from viewsintroduction.models import PhoneAddress
class TestBasicForm(TestCase):
def test_fields(self):
form = BasicFormExample({})
self.assertEqual(2, len(form.fields))
self.assertTrue("height" in form.fields.keys())
self.assertTrue("name" in form.fields.keys())
self.assertIsInstance(form.fields['height'], DecimalField)
self.assertEqual(2, form.fields['height'].max_value)
def test_valid_data(self):
form = BasicFormExample({"name": "Luke", "height": 1.11})
self.assertTrue(form.is_valid())
def test_invalid_data(self):
form = BasicFormExample({"name": "Luke"})
self.assertFalse(form.is_valid())
self.assertTrue("name" not in form.errors.keys())
self.assertTrue("height" in form.errors.keys())
self.assertEqual(form.errors["height"], ['This field is required.'])
Testing Class Derived Forms
Class based views are tested in pretty much the same way. However when we call save we get an instance of the record created which we can test against.
In the example below we test the form meta data to ensure that the correct fields are set along with the right model class.
#test_forms.py
class TestClassBasedForm(TestCase):
def test_valid_data(self):
form = ClassBasedForm({"number": 123, "street_name": "The high street", "city": "Bristol"})
self.assertTrue(form.is_valid())
a_record = form.save()
self.assertEqual(123, a_record.number)
self.assertEqual("The high street", a_record.street_name)
self.assertEqual("Bristol", a_record.city)
def test_invalid_data(self):
form = ClassBasedForm({})
self.assertEqual(form.errors["number"],
['We need a number of the house!', 'None of the fields have been set!!!'])
def test_meta(self):
self.assertEqual(PhoneAddress, ClassBasedForm.Meta.model)
self.assertEqual(("city", "street_name", "number"), ClassBasedForm.Meta.fields)
Posting Forms
We use the test client to test posting a form to the server. We pass the form data as a dictionary along with the URL.
#test_forms.py
def test_post_invalid(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("formsintroduction:form_class_create"),
{"city": "Word_Word", "street_name": "street", "number": 1},
follow=True)
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertFormError(response, 'form', 'city', ["Name must be a capitalised single word"])
def test_post_valid(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("formsintroduction:form_class_create"),
{"city": "Foo", "street_name": "Foo", "number": 1},
follow=True)
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertRedirects(response, "http://testserver/viewsintroduction/address/1/", 302)
Testing An Authorised View
Unsuccessful Authentication
The Django authorisation system will automatically redirect a user to the registered login page when they try to access a view which requires authentication. Our first test case assures that we are redirected successfully.
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
class TestAuthedView(TestCase):
def test_redirect_to_loging(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("auth:users"))
self.assertTrue(302, response.status_code)
self.assertRedirects(response, "auth/login/?next=/auth/users/", 302, 200)
In the above example the 302 and 200 parameters passed into assertRedirects are status codes of the HTTP for the initial page and then the redirect page. 302 is a redirect while 200 is a successful request.
Successful Authentication
The Django test web client comes with the ability to log a user in:
self.client.login(username='username', password='password')
Note: don’t forget that when we are running tests we start with a blank database so you will need to create a login first. The example below creates a new user and activates it in line; this should be moved to a test fixture set-up function.
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
class TestAuthedView(TestCase):
def test_can_login(self):
user = User.objects.create_user(username='FOOTESTFOO', password='pwd')
user.is_active = True
user.save()
login = self.client.login(username='FOOTESTFOO', password='pwd')
self.assertTrue(login)
response = self.client.post(reverse("auth:users"))
self.assertTrue(200, response.status_code)
self.assertContains(response, "Registered Users")
self.assertContains(response, "First Name")
self.assertContains(response, "Last Name")
self.assertContains(response, "FOOTESTFOO")
Testing Cookies
We can access cookies from the cookies property of the Django test web client once we have called post or get. It is a dictionary keyed upon the cookie name:
self.client.cookies self.client.cookies["hits"]
The cookie is returned as a http.cookies.Morsel. We can access the cookie value with the value property. The class responds as a dictionary for other data, in the following example we ensure the expiry has been set correctly with the max-age key.
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
class TestSessions(TestCase):
def test_cookie(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("sessionsandcookies:cookies"))
self.assertTrue(200, response.status_code)
self.assertTrue("hits" in self.client.cookies)
self.assertEqual('1', self.client.cookies["hits"].value)
self.assertEqual(30, self.client.cookies["hits"]["max-age"])
Testing Session Data
We can access session data upon the Django test web client after we have called post or get. It returns a SessionBase which responds as a dictionary to retrieve the session data from their key names. All functionality of the SessionBase class is available; below we call get_expiry_age to ensure our session expiry policy has worked as expected:
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.test import TestCase
class TestSessions(TestCase):
def test_sessions(self):
response = self.client.post(reverse("sessionsandcookies:sessions"))
self.assertTrue(200, response.status_code)
self.assertTrue("has_visited" in self.client.session)
self.assertEqual('True', self.client.session["has_visited"])
self.assertEqual(10, self.client.session.get_expiry_age())
Additional Assertions
As mentioned previously, Django provides some additional assert functions to the standard Python unittest. class We have covered many of them above though there are two others which I think will be quite useful.
The assertFieldOutput assertion allows us to validate against good and bad field input data. I tried to get this to work against the defined fields or a model or form however it seems to only work with the class type.
The assertNumQueries assertion will ensure that the database has been touched the correct number of times.
#test_additionl_assertions.py
from django.forms import EmailField, CharField
from django.test import TestCase
from viewsintroduction.models import PhoneAddress
class TestAdditionalAssertions(TestCase):
def test_assertFieldOutput(self):
self.assertFieldOutput(EmailField, {'a@a.com': 'a@a.com'}, {'aaa': ['Enter a valid email address.']})
self.assertFieldOutput(CharField, {'aa': 'aa'},
{'word': ['Ensure this value has at most 3 characters (it has 4).'],
'a': ['Ensure this value has at least 2 characters (it has 1).']}, [],
{"max_length": 3, "min_length": 2})
def test_assert_num_queries(self):
with self.assertNumQueries(1):
PhoneAddress.objects.create(city="Foo", street_name="Foo", number=1)
self.assertNumQueries(1, lambda: PhoneAddress.objects.create(city="Foo", street_name="Foo", number=1))
luke wickstead 