I have no experience with automated testing of a frontend but I wouldn't run a full backend server.
Instead we should be able to start a mock server with some predefined output so that testing becomes easier.

Nevertheless great that you started working on this!

I have no experience with automated testing of a frontend but I wouldn't run a full backend server.
Instead we should be able to start a mock server with some predefined output so that testing becomes easier.

Great! We can use mock service worker to mock network responses. I was starting down the 'real server' route mostly due to unfamiliarity with the backend. The largest issue is just keeping the mocks up-to-date with how the server actually responds, but we can work through that problem as we move forward. Expect questions while I get this going!

Yeah, what I meant is that we should adjust the server so it can be run in mock mode so it doesn't make any network calls but can serve data as it would normally. This is the idea of a bigger plan to get testing on the rails but that will have to wait until we released 2.0 stable. So the endgoal would be to have a full test framework for the server, python client and vue frontend.