Unit testing is an essential part of programming, and in Django, it is especially straightforward due to its inbuilt testing framework. To begin with, Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Built by experienced developers, it takes care of much of the hassle of Web development, so you can focus on writing your application without needing to reinvent the wheel.
Unit testing is a level of software testing where individual units or components of a software are tested. The purpose is to validate that each unit of the software performs as designed (Myers, G.J., Badgett, T, Thomas, T.M., Sandler, C. 2011).
In Django, tests are grouped into Applications, which can be run separately or together as required. The primary tool Django provides for testing is the `test` object. Each Django application you write can have its test case, which is a Python class that inherits from django.test.TestCase.
In this class, you can define several methods to test different things. Every test method must start with the word ‘test’. An example of how this might look is shown below:
```
from django.test import TestCase
from .models import MyModel
class MyModelTest(TestCase): def setUp(self): MyModel.objects.create(name=‘Test Name’)
def test_text_content(self): model= MyModel.objects.get(id=1) expected_object_name = f’{model.name}‘ self.assertEquals(expected_object_name, ‘Test Name’) ``` In the example above, I’ve made a simple test for a Django Model called `MyModel`. It first sets up an instance of `MyModel` in the `setUp()` function, and then in `test_text_content()`, it retrieves the object and asserts that its name is correct.When you’re ready to run tests, you do so through the command `python manage.py test myapp`.
This was a simple overview of Django Tests and how to set them up. For a more deep dive into tests, refer to the Django documentation (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/testing/overview/) and The Django Book, Chapter 20: Advanced Testing Topics (https://djangobook.com/mdj2-advanced-testing/).
References:
1. Myers, G.J., Badgett, T, Thomas, T.M., Sandler, C. (2011). The Art of Software Testing.
2. Django Project Documentation: Testing in Django (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/topics/testing/overview/)
3. The Django Book, Chapter 20 – Advanced Testing Topics (https://djangobook.com/mdj2-advanced-testing/).
