Question

I have a view that looks like this:

def login(request):
    ...
    # some variables has been set here
    ...
    if request.POST.get('remember_me', None):
        request.session.set_expiry(1209600) # 2 weeks
    return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('dashboard'))

Now If I assert for the variables using context, I get the error: “AttributeError: ‘HttpResponseRedirect’ object has no attribute ‘context’ ” this is the same for sessions. How do I test it then that some variables has been set and possible session expiration has been set even if i redirect?

Answer 1

You cannot retrieve the context variables from a HttpResponseRedirect. It doesn’t make sense why you are setting the context variables if you are redirecting anyway.

You certainly should be able to pick up variables from session after redirecting. I have done this in several of my test cases. How are you asserting the session data in your test case?

This is how I go about asserting session variables after a redirect:

response = self.client.post(reverse('foo'))
self.assertRedirects(response, reverse('bar', args = ['baz']), 
        status_code = 302, target_status_code = 200)
self.assertEqual('value', self.client.session.get('key'))

Self.client is an instance of django.test.client.Client in this case.

Update

(In response to @Marconi‘s comment) Here is one way of displaying a message to the user after redirecting. This is copied almost verbatim from my answer to another question.

Your first view can create a message for the current using auth and have the second view read and delete it. Something like this:

def first_view(request, *args, **kwargs):
    # all goes well
    message = _("<message for user>")
    request.user.message_set.create(message = message)
    return redirect('second_view')

def second_view(request, *args, **kwargs):
    # Render page

# Template for second_view:
{% for message in messages %}
   ... 
{% endfor %}

Messages are saved to the database. This means that you can access them even after a redirect. They are automatically read and deleted on rendering the template. You will have to use RequestContext for this to work.