How to create table during Django tests with managed = False

Question

I have a model with managed = False.

class SampleModel(models.Model):
    apple = models.CharField(max_length=30)
    orange = models.CharField(max_length=3         


        

Answer 1

Using pytest and pytest-django

To make this work (has been tested with django 3.0.2, pytest 5.3.5 and pytest-django 3.8.0):

1. Run your pytest with the additional argument --no-migrations.
2. Put the following code in your conftest.py. This has an unfortunate amount of copypasta, but I could not figure out how to first make my models unmanaged and then call the original django_db_setup. The issue of not being able to call pytest fixtures directly is discussed here: https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/3950

conftest.py

# example file
import pytest
from pytest_django.fixtures import _disable_native_migrations


@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
def django_db_setup(
        request,
        django_test_environment,
        django_db_blocker,
        django_db_use_migrations,
        django_db_keepdb,
        django_db_createdb,
        django_db_modify_db_settings,
):
    # make unmanaged models managed
    from django.apps import apps
    unmanaged_models = []
    for app in apps.get_app_configs():
        unmanaged_models = [m for m in app.get_models()
                            if not m._meta.managed]
    for m in unmanaged_models:
        m._meta.managed = True

    # copypasta fixture code

    """Top level fixture to ensure test databases are available"""
    from pytest_django.compat import setup_databases, teardown_databases

    setup_databases_args = {}

    if not django_db_use_migrations:
        _disable_native_migrations()

    if django_db_keepdb and not django_db_createdb:
        setup_databases_args["keepdb"] = True

    with django_db_blocker.unblock():
        db_cfg = setup_databases(
            verbosity=request.config.option.verbose,
            interactive=False,
            **setup_databases_args
        )

    def teardown_database():
        with django_db_blocker.unblock():
            try:
                teardown_databases(db_cfg, verbosity=request.config.option.verbose)
            except Exception as exc:
                request.node.warn(
                    pytest.PytestWarning(
                        "Error when trying to teardown test databases: %r" % exc
                    )
                )

    if not django_db_keepdb:
        request.addfinalizer(teardown_database)