Question

Can I launch tests for my reusable Django app without incorporating this app into a project?

My app uses some models, so it is necessary to provide (TEST_)DATABASE_* settings. Where should I store them and how should I launch tests?

For a Django project, I can run tests with manage.py test; when I use django-admin.py test with my standalone app, I get:

Error: Settings cannot be imported,
because environment variable
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is undefined.

What are the best practises here?

Answer 1

I’ve ended with such solution (it was inspired by solution found in django-voting):

Create file eg. ‘runtests.py’ in tests dir containing:

import os, sys
from django.conf import settings

DIRNAME = os.path.dirname(__file__)
settings.configure(DEBUG = True,
                   DATABASE_ENGINE = 'sqlite3',
                   DATABASE_NAME = os.path.join(DIRNAME, 'database.db'),
                   INSTALLED_APPS = ('django.contrib.auth',
                                     'django.contrib.contenttypes',
                                     'django.contrib.sessions',
                                     'django.contrib.admin',
                                     'myapp',
                                     'myapp.tests',))


from django.test.simple import run_tests

failures = run_tests(['myapp',], verbosity=1)
if failures:
    sys.exit(failures)

It allows to run tests by python runtests.py command.
It doesn’t require installed dependencies (eg. buildout) and it doesn’t harm tests run when app is incorporated into bigger project.