Note
This runner has been added to Django 1.6 as the default test runner. If you use Django 1.6 or above you don't need this app.
An alternative Django TEST_RUNNER which uses the unittest2 test discovery
from a base path specified in the settings, or any other module or package
specified to the test management command -- including app tests.
If you just run ./manage.py test, it'll discover and run all tests
underneath the current working directory. E.g. if you run
./manage.py test full.dotted.path.to.test_module, it'll run the tests in
that module (you can also pass multiple modules). If you give it a single
dotted path to a package (like a Django app) like ./manage.py test myapp
and that package does not itself directly contain any tests, it'll do
test discovery in all submodules of that package.
Note
This code uses the default unittest2 test discovery behavior, which
only searches for tests in files named test*.py. To override this
see the TEST_DISCOVER_PATTERN setting or use the --pattern
option.
Django's own test discovery is very much tied to the directory structure of Django apps, partly due to historic reasons (the unittest library didn't have its own discovery for a long time) and prevents Django app authors from being good Python citizens. django-discover-runner uses the official test discovery feature of the new unittest2 library which is included in Django.
By default there is no way to put project specific tests in a separate folder outside the Python package of the Django project, which is a great way to organize your code, separating the tests and non-test code. django-discover-runner helps you clean up your project tests.
There is also no way to specify fully dotted import paths to test
modules, functions, class or methods to the test management command
but only Django's odd standard <appname>.<TestClassName>.
django-discover-runner allows you to specify any type of label to Django's
test management command.
By default Django's test runner will execute the tests of Django's own contrib apps, which doesn't make sense if you just want to run your own app's or project's tests. django-discover-runner fixes this by allowing you to specify which tests to run and organize your test code outside the reach of the Django test runner.
More reasons can be found in Carl Meyer's excellent talk about Testing and Django (slides).
Install it with your favorite installer, e.g.:
pip install -U django-discover-runner
django-discover-runner requires at least Django 1.4 and also works on 1.5.x. Starting in Django 1.6 the discover runner is a built-in.
TEST_RUNNER(required) needs to point to theDiscoverRunnerclass to enable it:TEST_RUNNER = 'discover_runner.DiscoverRunner'
Add
'discover_runner'to yourINSTALLED_APPSsetting to enable the ability to override the discovery settings below when using thetestmanagement command.TEST_DISCOVER_TOP_LEVEL(optional) should be the directory containing your top-level package(s); in other words, the directory that should be onsys.pathfor your code to import. This is for example the directory containingmanage.pyin the new Django 1.4 project layout. The management command option is called--top-level.TEST_DISCOVER_PATTERN(optional) is the pattern to use when discovering tests and defaults to the unittest2 standardtest*.py. The management command option is called--pattern.
To test a reusable Django app it's recommended to add a test_settings.py
file to your app package to easily run the app tests with the test
management command. Simply set the TEST_RUNNER setting to
'discover_runner.DiscoverRunner', configure the other settings necessary
to run your tests and call the test management command with the name of
the app package, e.g.:
django-admin.py test --settings=myapp.test_settings myapp
If you want to test a project and want to store the project's tests outside the project main package (recommended), you can simply follow the app instructions above, applying it to the "project" package, but set a few additional settings to tell the test runner to find the tests:
from os import path TEST_DISCOVER_TOP_LEVEL = path.dirname(path.dirname(__file__))
This would find all the tests within a top-level "tests" package. Running the tests is as easy as calling:
django-admin.py test --settings=mysite.test_settings tests
Alternatively you can specify the --top-level-directory management
command option.
In case you want to test your app on older Django versions as well as Django >= 1.6 you can simply conditionally configure the test runner in your test settings, e.g.:
import django if django.VERSION[:2] < (1, 6): TEST_RUNNER = 'discover_runner.DiscoverRunner'
- GOOD NEWS! This runner was added to Django 1.6 as the new default! This version backports that runner for Django 1.4.x and 1.5.x.
- Removed
TEST_DISCOVER_ROOTsetting in favor of unittest2's own way to figure out the root. - Dropped support for Django 1.3.x.
- Added ability to override the discover settings with a custom test management command.
- Fixed setup.py to work on Python 3. This should make this app compatible to Python 3.
- Stopped setting the top level variable in the case of using a module path as the test label as it made the wrong assumption that the parent directory is the top level.
- Fixed a rather esoteric bug with testing test case class methods that was caused by a wrong import and the way Django wraps itself around the unittest2 module (if availale) or unittest on Python >= 2.7.
- Added ability to use an optionally installed unittest2 library
for Django projects using Django < 1.3 (which added unittest2 to the
django.utils.unittestpackage).
- Fixed a bug that prevented the project based feature to work correctly.
- Initial release with support for Django >= 1.3.
This test runner is a humble rip-off of Carl Meyer's DiscoveryRunner
which he published as a gist a while ago. All praise should be directed at
him. Thanks, Carl!
This was also very much related to ticket #17365 which eventually led to the replacement of the default test runner in Django. Thanks again, Carl!