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

Having read through all the answers above, I found out a solution that worked for me, in Django 3.1.1 with PostgreSQL 12.4 database.

from django.db import connection
from django.db.utils import ProgrammingError
from django.test import TestCase


class AbstractModelTestCase(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):
        if not hasattr(cls, "model"):
            super(AbstractModelTestCase, cls).setUpClass()
        else:
            # Create the schema for our test model. If the table already exists, will pass
            try:
                with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
                    schema_editor.create_model(cls.model)
                super(AbstractModelTestCase, cls).setUpClass()
            except ProgrammingError:
                pass

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

It also gets rid of the annoying RuntimeWarning: Model 'xxx' was already registered warning.