How can one mock/stub python module like urllib

Question

I need to test a function that needs to query a page on an external server using urllib.urlopen (it also uses urllib.urlencode). The server could be down, the page could cha

Answer 1

Did you give Mox a look? It should do everything you need. Here is a simple interactive session illustrating the solution you need:

>>> import urllib
>>> # check that it works
>>> urllib.urlopen('http://www.google.com/')

>>> # check what happens when it doesn't
>>> urllib.urlopen('http://hopefully.doesnotexist.com/')
#-- snip --
IOError: [Errno socket error] (-2, 'Name or service not known')

>>> # OK, let's mock it up
>>> import mox
>>> m = mox.Mox()
>>> m.StubOutWithMock(urllib, 'urlopen')
>>> # We can be verbose if we want to :)
>>> urllib.urlopen(mox.IgnoreArg()).AndRaise(
...   IOError('socket error', (-2, 'Name or service not known')))

>>> # Let's check if it works
>>> m.ReplayAll()
>>> urllib.urlopen('http://www.google.com/')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/mox.py", line 568, in __call__
    raise expected_method._exception
IOError: [Errno socket error] (-2, 'Name or service not known')

>>> # yay! now unset everything
>>> m.UnsetStubs()
>>> m.VerifyAll()
>>> # and check that it still works
>>> urllib.urlopen('http://www.google.com/')