mirror of
https://github.com/django/django.git
synced 2024-12-24 10:05:46 +00:00
112 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
112 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
=================
|
|
Testing in Django
|
|
=================
|
|
|
|
.. toctree::
|
|
:hidden:
|
|
|
|
overview
|
|
doctests
|
|
advanced
|
|
|
|
Automated testing is an extremely useful bug-killing tool for the modern
|
|
Web developer. You can use a collection of tests -- a **test suite** -- to
|
|
solve, or avoid, a number of problems:
|
|
|
|
* When you're writing new code, you can use tests to validate your code
|
|
works as expected.
|
|
|
|
* When you're refactoring or modifying old code, you can use tests to
|
|
ensure your changes haven't affected your application's behavior
|
|
unexpectedly.
|
|
|
|
Testing a Web application is a complex task, because a Web application is made
|
|
of several layers of logic -- from HTTP-level request handling, to form
|
|
validation and processing, to template rendering. With Django's test-execution
|
|
framework and assorted utilities, you can simulate requests, insert test data,
|
|
inspect your application's output and generally verify your code is doing what
|
|
it should be doing.
|
|
|
|
The best part is, it's really easy.
|
|
|
|
Unit tests v. doctests
|
|
======================
|
|
|
|
There are two primary ways to write tests with Django, corresponding to the
|
|
two test frameworks that ship in the Python standard library. The two
|
|
frameworks are:
|
|
|
|
* **Unit tests** -- tests that are expressed as methods on a Python class
|
|
that subclasses :class:`unittest.TestCase` or Django's customized
|
|
:class:`~django.test.TestCase`. For example::
|
|
|
|
import unittest
|
|
|
|
class MyFuncTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
|
|
def testBasic(self):
|
|
a = ['larry', 'curly', 'moe']
|
|
self.assertEqual(my_func(a, 0), 'larry')
|
|
self.assertEqual(my_func(a, 1), 'curly')
|
|
|
|
* **Doctests** -- tests that are embedded in your functions' docstrings and
|
|
are written in a way that emulates a session of the Python interactive
|
|
interpreter. For example::
|
|
|
|
def my_func(a_list, idx):
|
|
"""
|
|
>>> a = ['larry', 'curly', 'moe']
|
|
>>> my_func(a, 0)
|
|
'larry'
|
|
>>> my_func(a, 1)
|
|
'curly'
|
|
"""
|
|
return a_list[idx]
|
|
|
|
Which should I use?
|
|
-------------------
|
|
|
|
Because Django supports both of the standard Python test frameworks, it's up to
|
|
you and your tastes to decide which one to use. You can even decide to use
|
|
*both*.
|
|
|
|
For developers new to testing, however, this choice can seem confusing. Here,
|
|
then, are a few key differences to help you decide which approach is right for
|
|
you:
|
|
|
|
* If you've been using Python for a while, :mod:`doctest` will probably feel
|
|
more "pythonic". It's designed to make writing tests as easy as possible,
|
|
so it requires no overhead of writing classes or methods. You simply put
|
|
tests in docstrings. This has the added advantage of serving as
|
|
documentation (and correct documentation, at that!). However, while
|
|
doctests are good for some simple example code, they are not very good if
|
|
you want to produce either high quality, comprehensive tests or high
|
|
quality documentation. Test failures are often difficult to debug
|
|
as it can be unclear exactly why the test failed. Thus, doctests should
|
|
generally be avoided and used primarily for documentation examples only.
|
|
|
|
* The :mod:`unittest` framework will probably feel very familiar to
|
|
developers coming from Java. :mod:`unittest` is inspired by Java's JUnit,
|
|
so you'll feel at home with this method if you've used JUnit or any test
|
|
framework inspired by JUnit.
|
|
|
|
* If you need to write a bunch of tests that share similar code, then
|
|
you'll appreciate the :mod:`unittest` framework's organization around
|
|
classes and methods. This makes it easy to abstract common tasks into
|
|
common methods. The framework also supports explicit setup and/or cleanup
|
|
routines, which give you a high level of control over the environment
|
|
in which your test cases are run.
|
|
|
|
* If you're writing tests for Django itself, you should use :mod:`unittest`.
|
|
|
|
Where to go from here
|
|
=====================
|
|
|
|
As unit tests are preferred in Django, we treat them in detail in the
|
|
:doc:`overview` document.
|
|
|
|
:doc:`doctests` describes Django-specific features when using doctests.
|
|
|
|
You can also use any *other* Python test framework, Django provides an API and
|
|
tools for that kind of integration. They are described in the
|
|
:ref:`other-testing-frameworks` section of :doc:`advanced`.
|