Question

I am going to outline my workflow and I would like some suggestions on how to improve the efficiency of this. It seems right now a bit cumbersome and repetitive (something I hate), so I am looking for some improvements. Keep in mind I’m still new to django and how it works but I’m a pretty fluent coder (IMHO). So here goes…

Tools (I use these everyday so I’m not inclined to shift):

• Mac OSX Leopard
• TextMate
• Terminal w/tabs
• Perforce

Assumptions

• Django Basics (Did the tutorials/bought the books)
• Python Fluent (running 2.6 with IDLE Support)
• Starting my first Application working on models.py

Starting out

• Create a TextMate Project with the entire django Tree inside of it.

TextMate Project http://img.skitch.com/20090821-g48cpt38pyfwk4u95mf4gk1m7d.jpg

• In the first tab of the terminal start the server

  python ./manage.py runserver

• In the second tab of the terminal window start the shell

  python ./manage.py shell

• This spawns up iPython and let’s me start the development workflow

Workflow

• Create and build a basic Model called models.py

• Build a basic Model

---

class P4Change(models.Model):
  """This simply expands out 'p4 describe' """
  change        = models.IntegerField(primary_key=True)
  client        = models.ForeignKey(P4Client)
  user          = models.ForeignKey(P4User)
  files         = models.ManyToManyField(P4Document)
  desc          = models.TextField()
  status        = models.CharField(max_length=128)
  time          = models.DateField(auto_now_add=True)


  def __unicode__(self):
    return str(self.change)

admin.site.register(P4Change)

• In the first terminal (Running server) stop it ^C and syncdb start server

---

>  python ./manage.py syncdb
Creating table perforce_p4change
Installing index for perforce.P4Change model

• In the shell terminal window load it..

---

> python ./manage.py shell
Python 2.6.2 (r262:71600, Apr 23 2009, 14:22:01) 
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 0.10 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.
?         -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features.
%quickref -> Quick reference.
help      -> Python's own help system.
object?   -> Details about 'object'. ?object also works, ?? prints more.

In [1]: from perforce.models import *

In [2]: c = P4Client.objects.get_or_create("nellie")

• Did it break yes/no if it did not work then do this:
  • Stop the shell
  • Clear the database
  • Rebuild the database
  • Fix the code
  • Reload the shell
  • Reload the modules
  • PRAY…

Issues / Comments / Thoughts

• Is it me or does this seem terribly inefficient?
• It seems like I should be able to do a reload(module) but I can’t figure out how to do this.. Anyone?
• It would seem as though I should be able to test this from within TextMate?? Anyone??
• Even to just get out of the shell I have to verify I want to leave..

The point of this is for all of you geniuses out there to show me the light on a more productive way to work. I am completely open to reasonable suggestions. I’m not inclined to shift tools but I am open to criticisms.

Answer 1

Thanks to everyone who read this and is looking for a better way. I think unit tests are definately the simpler approach.

So according to the docs you simply need to create a file tests.py parallel to models.py and put tests in there.

from django.test import TestCase
from perforce.models import P4User, P4Client

class ModelTests(TestCase):
  def setUp(self):
    self.p4 = P4.P4()
    self.p4.connect()

  def test_BasicP4(self):
    """
    Make sure we are running 2009.1 == 65
    """
    self.failUnlessEqual(self.p4.api_level, 65)

  def test_P4User_get_or_retrieve(self):
    """
    This will simply verify we can get a user and push it into the model
    """
    user = self.p4.run(("users"))[0]
    dbuser = P4User.objects.get_or_retrieve(user.get('User'))

    # Did it get loaded into the db?
    self.assertEqual(dbuser[1], True)

    # Do it again but hey it already exists..
    dbuser = P4User.objects.get_or_retrieve(user.get('User'))
    # Did it get loaded into the db?
    self.assertEqual(dbuser[1], False)

    # Verify one field of the data matches
    dbuser = dbuser[0]
    self.assertEqual(dbuser.email, user.get("Email"))

Now you can simply fire up the terminal and do python manage.py test and that will run the tests but again that’s a pretty limited view and still requires you to swap in/out of programs.. So here is how you do this directly from Textmate using ⌘R.

Add an import line at the top and a few line at the bottom.

from django.test.simple import run_tests
#
# Unit tests from above
#
if __name__ == '__main__':
  run_tests(None, verbosity=1, interactive=False)

And now ⌘R will work directly from TextMate.