Django: Best way to unit-test an abstract model

Question

I need to write some unit tests for an abstract base model, that provides some basic functionality that should be used by other apps. It it would be necessary to define a mo

Answer 1

I have the same situation as well. I ended up using a version of @dylanboxalot solution. Got extra details from here specifically after reading 'Test structure overview' section.

The setUp and the tearDown methods are called each time a tests is run. A better solution is to run the creation of the 'abstract' model once, before all the tests are run. To do so, you can implement the setUpClassData and also implement the tearDownClass.

class ModelMixinTestCase(TestCase):
    '''
    Base class for tests of model mixins. To use, subclass and specify the
    mixin class variable. A model using the mixin will be made available in
    self.model
    '''
    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        # Create a dummy model which extends the mixin
        cls.model = ModelBase('__TestModel__' +
            cls.mixin.__name__, (cls.mixin,),
            {'__module__': cls.mixin.__module__}
        )

        # Create the schema for  our test model
        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.create_model(cls.model)
        super(ModelMixinTestCase, cls).setUpClass()

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(cls):
        # Delete the schema for the test model
        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.delete_model(cls.model)
        super(ModelMixinTestCase, cls).tearDownClass()

A possible implementation may look like this:

class MyModelTestCase(ModelMixinTestCase):
    mixin = MyModel

    def setUp(self):
        # Runs every time a test is run.
        self.model.objects.create(pk=1)

    def test_my_unit(self):
        # a test
        aModel = self.objects.get(pk=1)
        ...

Maybe ModelMixinTestCase class should be added to Django? :P