Testing Django database manipulation scripts with test database

Question

I am attempting to setup the django testing environment to test a script we use to load data into our data visualization web app. It is "external" to the actual django app, so it doesn't seem appropriate or clean to use the manage.py test facility.

I have followed the instructions found in the django docs to write my own test module, but when I reach a statement that actually tries to access the database I get an error saying that a table does not exist.

Is there something else I need to do to make sure that the test database is created with all of the needed tables?

For reference, here is the code from my test case:

import os
import sys

sys.path.append(os.curdir)
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'visualization_app.settings'
from django.utils import unittest
from django.test.utils import setup_test_environment
from topic_modeling import settings

# The module to be tested
import analysis_import

setup_test_environment()

class CreateAnalysisTestCase(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_analysis_creation(self):
        self.assertTrue(analysis_import.create_analysis('a_name', 'a description'))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

The error I get looks like this:

ERROR: test_analysis_creation (__main__.CreateAnalysisTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "import_scripts/tests.py", line 20, in test_analysis_creation
    self.assertTrue(analysis_import.create_analysis('a_name', 'a description'))
  File "/home/dan/programmingProjects/topical_guide/import_scripts/analysis_import.py", line 117, in create_analysis
    Analysis.objects.get(name=name, dataset=dataset)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/manager.py", line 132, in get
    return self.get_query_set().get(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/query.py", line 344, in get
    num = len(clone)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/query.py", line 82, in __len__
    self._result_cache = list(self.iterator())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/query.py", line 273, in iterator
    for row in compiler.results_iter():
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 680, in results_iter
    for rows in self.execute_sql(MULTI):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 735, in execute_sql
    cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/backends/util.py", line 34, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.3-py2.7.egg/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 234, in execute
    return Database.Cursor.execute(self, query, params)
DatabaseError: no such table: visualize_analysis

Chris Pratt · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-11 21:18:23Z

1

Strictly speaking, test databases are intended to be created, used to run unit tests and then destroyed. They're not really a place to "test" a data loading script. Why not just use your standard dev database? There shouldn't be anything there that you can't get back, have a backup for, etc., and it's pretty much designed for this sort of destructive behavior.

answered May 11, 2011 at 21:18

Chris Pratt

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1 Comment

danbaatar Over a year ago

That's exactly what I would like: a database that can be created, tested against, and then torn down. The scripts are quite complex, and include some complicated and potentially expensive pre-processing. We really need a good facility for unit-testing the components of the module.

LeafGlowPath · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-11 22:41:51Z

0

As far as I can see, the module you are testing still uses django's ORM system to read the database, so there is anything wrong about using manage.py to run your test. You can use

./manage.py test analysis_import

to only run test codes which reside in analysis_import module. In this way, you can still run only the tests for this module, but avoid the trouble of writing your own test module.

Then let us know if you still have the same problem.

answered May 11, 2011 at 22:41

LeafGlowPath

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3 Comments

danbaatar Over a year ago

I tried running python visualization_project/manage.py test import_scripts.tests.py but I received another error: django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: App with label import_scripts could not be found

LeafGlowPath Over a year ago

Usually I run manage.py in the directory where it resides. If that doesn't solve your problem, show us your project directory structure.

Danny Staple Over a year ago

It looks like manage.py test expects tests to be inside an app in django, and danbaatar, like me, has scripts, and tests for them in another directory (where it makes use of the django parts, like the ORM). It'd be nice if it could just use a module at an arbitrary location. IE - use this appname (its models), with this testcase.

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