pytest-flask-sqlalchemy
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A pytest plugin for preserving test isolation in Flask-SQlAlchemy using database transactions.
A pytest plugin providing fixtures for running tests in transactions using Flask-SQLAlchemy.
Inspired by Django's built-in support for transactional tests, this plugin seeks to provide comprehensive, easy-to-use Pytest fixtures for wrapping tests in database transactions for Flask-SQLAlchemy apps. The goal is to make testing stateful Flask-SQLAlchemy applications easier by providing fixtures that permit the developer to make arbitrary database updates with the confidence that any changes made during a test will roll back once the test exits.
Use the db_session fixture to make database updates that won't persist beyond
the body of the test:
def test_a_transaction(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
row.name = 'testing'
db_session.add(row)
db_session.commit()
def test_transaction_doesnt_persist(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
assert row.name != 'testing'
The db_engine fixture works the same way, but copies the API of
SQLAlchemy's Engine
object:
def test_a_transaction_using_engine(db_engine):
with db_engine.begin() as conn:
row = conn.execute('''UPDATE table SET name = 'testing' WHERE id = 1''')
def test_transaction_doesnt_persist(db_engine):
row_name = db_engine.execute('''SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = 1''').fetchone()[0]
assert row_name != 'testing'
Use configuration properties to mock database connections in an app and enforce nested transactions, allowing any method from the codebase to run inside a test with the assurance that any database changes made will be rolled back at the end of the test:
# In setup.cfg
[tool:pytest]
mocked-sessions=database.db.session
mocked-engines=database.engine
# In database.py
db = flask_sqlalchemy.SQLAlchemy()
engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine('DATABASE_URI')
# In models.py
class Table(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'table'
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
name = db.Column(db.String(80))
def set_name(new_name):
self.name = new_name
db.session.add(self)
db.session.commit()
# In tests/test_set_name.py
def test_set_name(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
row.set_name('testing')
assert row.name == 'testing'
def test_transaction_doesnt_persist(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
assert row.name != 'testing'
Install using pip:
pip install pytest-flask-sqlalchemy
Once installed, pytest will detect the plugin automatically during test collection. For basic background on using third-party plugins with pytest, see the pytest documentation.
Clone the repo from GitHub and switch into the new directory:
git clone git@github.com:jeancochrane/pytest-flask-sqlalchemy.git
cd pytest-flask-sqlalchemy
You can install using pip:
pip install .
So far, pytest-flask-sqlalchemy has been most extensively tested against PostgreSQL 9.6. It should theoretically work with any backend that is supported by SQLAlchemy, but Postgres is the only backend that is currently tested by the test suite.
Official support for SQLite and MySQL is planned for a future release. In the meantime, if you're using one of those backends and you run in to problems, we would greatly appreciate your help! Open an issue if something isn't working as you expect.
This plugin assumes that a fixture called _db has been
defined in the root conftest file for your tests. The _db fixture should
expose access to a valid SQLAlchemy Session object that can interact with your database,
for example via the SQLAlchemy initialization class
that configures Flask-SQLAlchemy.
The fixtures in this plugin depend on this _db fixture to access your
database and create nested transactions to run tests in. You must define
this fixture in your conftest.py file for the plugin to work.
An example setup that will produce a valid _db fixture could look like this
(this example comes from the test setup for this repo):
@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def database(request):
'''
Create a Postgres database for the tests, and drop it when the tests are done.
'''
pg_host = DB_OPTS.get("host")
pg_port = DB_OPTS.get("port")
pg_user = DB_OPTS.get("username")
pg_db = DB_OPTS["database"]
init_postgresql_database(pg_user, pg_host, pg_port, pg_db)
@request.addfinalizer
def drop_database():
drop_postgresql_database(pg_user, pg_host, pg_port, pg_db, 9.6)
@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def app(database):
'''
Create a Flask app context for the tests.
'''
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = DB_CONN
return app
@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def _db(app):
'''
Provide the transactional fixtures with access to the database via a Flask-SQLAlchemy
database connection.
'''
db = SQLAlchemy(app=app)
return db
Alternatively, if you already have a fixture that sets up database access for
your tests, you can define _db to return that fixture directly:
@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def database():
# Set up all your database stuff here
# ...
return db
@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def _db(database):
return database
This plugin allows you to configure a few different properties in a
setup.cfg test configuration file in order to handle the specific database connection needs
of your app. For basic background on setting up pytest configuration files, see
the pytest docs.
All three configuration properties (mocked-engines,
mocked-sessions, and mocked-sessionmakers)
work by patching
one or more specified objects during a test, replacing them with equivalent objects whose
database interactions will run inside of a transaction and ultimately be
rolled back when the test exits. Using these patches, you can call methods from
your codebase that alter database state with the knowledge that no changes will persist
beyond the body of the test.
The configured patches are only applied in tests where a transactional fixture
(either db_session or db_engine) is included
in the test function arguments.
mocked-enginesThe mocked-engines property directs the plugin to patch
objects in your codebase, typically SQLAlchemy Engine
instances, replacing them with the db_engine fixture such that
any database updates performed by the objects get rolled back at the end of
the test.
The value for this property should be formatted as a whitespace-separated list
of standard Python import paths, like database.engine. This property is optional.
Example:
# In database.py
engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine(DATABASE_URI)
# In setup.cfg
[tool:pytest]
mocked-engines=database.engine
To patch multiple objects at once, separate the paths with a whitespace:
# In setup.cfg
[tool:pytest]
mocked-engines=database.engine database.second_engine
mocked-sessionsThe mocked-sessions property directs the plugin to patch
objects in your codebase, typically SQLAlchemy Session
instances, replacing them with the db_session fixture such that
any database updates performed by the objects get rolled back at the end of
the test.
The value for this property should be formatted as a whitespace-separated list
of standard Python import paths, like database.db.session. This property is optional.
Example:
# In database.py
db = SQLAlchemy()
# In setup.cfg
[tool:pytest]
mocked-sessions=database.db.session
To patch multiple objects at once, separate the paths with a whitespace:
# In setup.cfg
[tool:pytest]
mocked-sessions=database.db.session database.second_db.session
mocked-sessionmakersThe mocked-sessionmakers property directs the plugin to patch
objects in your codebase, typically instances of SQLAlchemy's sessionmaker
factory,
replacing them with a mocked class that will return the transactional
db_session fixture. This can be useful if you have
pre-configured instances of sessionmaker objects that you import in the code
to spin up sessions on the fly.
The value for this property should be formatted as a whitespace-separated list
of standard Python import paths, like database.WorkerSessionmaker. This property is optional.
Example:
# In database.py
WorkerSessionmaker = sessionmaker()
[tool:pytest]
mocked-sessionmakers=database.WorkerSessionmaker
To patch multiple objects at once, separate the paths with a whitespace.
[tool:pytest]
mocked-sessionmakers=database.WorkerSessionmaker database.SecondWorkerSessionmaker
Once you have your conftest file set up and you've overrided the necessary connectables in your test configuration, you're ready to write some transactional tests. Simply import one of the module's transactional fixtures in your test signature, and the test will be wrapped in a transaction.
Note that by default, tests are only wrapped in transactions if they import one of the transactional fixtures provided by this module. Tests that do not import the fixture will interact with your database without opening a transaction:
# This test will be wrapped in a transaction.
def transactional_test(db_session):
...
# This test **will not** be wrapped in a transaction, since it does not import a
# transactional fixture.
def non_transactional_test():
...
The fixtures provide a way for you to control which tests require transactions and which don't. This is often useful, since avoiding transaction setup can speed up tests that don't interact with your database.
For more information about the transactional fixtures provided by this module, read on to the fixtures section. For guidance on how to automatically enable transactions without having to specify fixtures, see the section on enabling transactions without fixtures.
This plugin provides two fixtures for performing database updates inside nested
transactions that get rolled back at the end of a test: db_session and
db_engine. The fixtures provide similar functionality, but
with different APIs.
db_sessionThe db_session fixture allows you to perform direct updates that will be
rolled back when the test exits. It exposes the same API as SQLAlchemy's
scoped_session object.
Including this fixture as a function argument of a test will activate any mocks that are defined
by the configuration properties mocked-engines, mocked-sessions,
or mocked-sessionmakers in the test configuration file for
the duration of that test.
Example:
def test_a_transaction(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
row.name = 'testing'
db_session.add(row)
db_session.commit()
def test_transaction_doesnt_persist(db_session):
row = db_session.query(Table).get(1)
assert row.name != 'testing'
db_engineLike db_session, the db_engine fixture allows you to perform direct updates
against the test database that will be rolled back when the test exits. It is
an instance of Python's built-in MagicMock
class, with a spec set to match the API of SQLAlchemy's
Engine object.
Only a few Engine methods are exposed on this fixture:
db_engine.begin: begin a new nested transaction (API docs)db_engine.execute: execute a raw SQL query (API docs)db_engine.raw_connection: return a raw DBAPI connection (API docs)Since db_engine is an instance of MagicMock with an Engine spec, other
methods of the Engine API can be called, but they will not perform any useful
work.
Including this fixture as a function argument of a test will activate any mocks that are defined
by the configuration properties mocked-engines, mocked-sessions,
or mocked-sessionmakers in the test configuration file for
the duration of that test.
Example:
def test_a_transaction_using_engine(db_engine):
with db_engine.begin() as conn:
row = conn.execute('''UPDATE table SET name = 'testing' WHERE id = 1''')
def test_transaction_doesnt_persist(db_engine):
row_name = db_engine.execute('''SELECT name FROM table WHERE id = 1''').fetchone()[0]
assert row_name != 'testing'
If you know you want to make all of your tests transactional, it can be annoying to have to specify one of the fixtures in every test signature.
The best way to automatically enable transactions without having to include an extra fixture in every test is to wire up an autouse fixture for your test suite. This can be as simple as:
# Automatically enable transactions for all tests, without importing any extra fixtures.
@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
def enable_transactional_tests(db_session):
pass
In this configuration, the enable_transactional_tests fixture will be automatically used in
all tests, meaning that db_session will also be used. This way, all tests will be wrapped
in transactions without having to explicitly require either db_session or enable_transactional_tests.
To run the tests, start by installing a development version of the plugin that includes test dependencies:
pip install -e .[tests]
Next, export a database connection string that the tests can use (the database referenced by the string will be created during test setup, so it does not need to exist):
export TEST_DATABASE_URL=<db_connection_string>
Finally, run the tests using pytest:
pytest
This plugin was initially developed for testing Dedupe.io, a web app for record linkage and entity resolution using machine learning. Dedupe.io is built and maintained by DataMade.
The code is greatly indebted to Alex Michael, whose blog post "Delightful testing with pytest and Flask-SQLAlchemy" helped establish the basic approach on which this plugin builds.
Many thanks to Igor Ghisi, who donated the PyPi package name. Igor had been working on a similar plugin and proposed combining efforts. Thanks to Igor, the plugin name is much stronger.
Copyright (c) 2019 Jean Cochrane and DataMade. Released under the MIT License.
Third-party copyright in this distribution is noted where applicable.
FAQs
A pytest plugin for preserving test isolation in Flask-SQlAlchemy using database transactions.
We found that pytest-flask-sqlalchemy demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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