django.txt

Testing when using django
=========================

Django's ORM has an unfortunate implementation choice to consider
:class:`~django.db.models.Model` instances to be identical as long as their
primary keys are the same:

>>> from testfixtures.tests.test_django.models import SampleModel
>>> SampleModel(id=1, value=1) == SampleModel(id=1, value=2)
True

To work around this, :mod:`testfixtures.django` :ref:`registers <comparer-register>`
a :func:`comparer <testfixtures.django.compare_model>` for the django
:class:`~django.db.models.Model` class. However, for this to work,
``ignore_eq=True`` must be passed:

>>> from testfixtures import compare
>>> import testfixtures.django # to register the comparer...
>>> compare(SampleModel(id=1, value=1), SampleModel(id=1, value=2),
...         ignore_eq=True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
AssertionError: SampleModel not as expected:
<BLANKLINE>
same:
[u'id']
<BLANKLINE>
values differ:
'value': 1 != 2

Since the above can quickly become cumbersome, a django-specific version
of :func:`~testfixtures.compare`, with ignoring ``__eq__`` built in, is provided:

>>> from testfixtures.django import compare as django_compare
>>> django_compare(SampleModel(id=1, value=1), SampleModel(id=1, value=2))
Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
AssertionError: SampleModel not as expected:
<BLANKLINE>
same:
[u'id']
<BLANKLINE>
values differ:
'value': 1 != 2

It may also be that you want to ignore fields over which you have no control
and cannot easily mock, such as created or modified times. For this, you
can use the `ignore_fields` option:

>>> compare(SampleModel(id=1, value=1), SampleModel(id=1, value=2),
...         ignore_eq=True, ignore_fields=['value'])

.. note::

  The implementation of the comparer for
  :class:`~django.db.models.Model` instances ignores fields
  that have ``editable`` set to ``False``.

By default, non-editable fields are ignored:

>>> django_compare(SampleModel(not_editable=1), SampleModel(not_editable=2))

If you wish to include these fields in the comparison, pass the
``non_editable_fields`` option:

>>> django_compare(SampleModel(not_editable=1), SampleModel(not_editable=2),
...                non_editable_fields=True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
AssertionError: SampleModel not as expected:
<BLANKLINE>
same:
['created', u'id', 'value']
<BLANKLINE>
values differ:
'not_editable': 1 != 2


.. note::

  The registered comparer currently ignores
  :class:`many to many <django.db.models.ManyToManyField>` fields.
  Patches to fix this deficiency are welcome!