Convert unittest test cases to pytest

[DhavalGojiya]

Convert unittest test cases to pytest

PyTest --> https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/

Summary

This project test files still use Python's built in unittest framework. Converting them to pytest will make the test suite more consistent, easier to read, and simpler to maintain.

Potential Tasks

• Convert existing unittest.TestCase classes to pytest style tests.
• Replace self.assert* methods with standard assert statements.
• Use pytest fixtures where appropriate instead of setUp and tearDown.
• Ensure all existing test coverage is preserved.
• Verify the full test suite passes after the migration.

[ulgens]

Converting them to pytest will make the test suite more consistent, easier to read, and simpler to maintain.

Can you please explain this a bit more? In my personal experience with testing around Django, unittest (with additions coming from Django) performs pretty similar to pytest. I think pytest feels familiar to some developers, but I wouldn't migrate an existing setup/codebase to pytest just because of that.

[DhavalGojiya]

I think pytest feels familiar to some developers

I don't think that's the only reason. Developers adopt pytest for many reasons.

Pytest provides ready-to-use test classes without requiring them to subclass unittest.TestCase. It also offers markers and fixtures, which make testing different scenarios much easier. In addition, there are many pytest11 plugins available that add a lot of functionality to the codebase out of the box.
Also auto test discovery even with different name patterns is very powerful feature of PyTest.

[ulgens]

Pytest provides ready-to-use test classes without requiring them to subclass unittest.TestCase.

Do you mean fixtures? If so, personally I prefer inheriting classes over decorator - parameter based dependency injections.

In addition, there are many pytest11 plugins available that add a lot of functionality to the codebase out of the box.

I'm missing what you mean here. If they are plugins, they are not "out of the box" by definition but nevertheless, in Django ecosystem, this doesn't provide much over the vanilla Django - unittest setup.

Also auto test discovery even with different name patterns is very powerful feature of PyTest.

I agree it's powerful, but in my experience, real world benefits are almost none.

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pytest is a nice tool, and has many benefits in theory but I don't see any reason to switch to it unless we have tangible practical examples.

[ulgens]

@DhavalGojiya Let's continue under the same thread.

...pytest also supports plain test functions without requiring a test class or inheritance.

I don't see this as a strength. It sure provides flexibility, but the trade off is readability - consistent structure.

I am talking about the overall plugin ecosystem and markers available in pytest. You can also install lightweight third party plugins, for example - to get more verbose test output in the terminal.

This is too broad / vague. If there is anything in particular that you think is useful for the project, please let us know.

almost all developers are familiar with pytest because it is the most popular testing framework in Python.

For a specific community / ecosystem, this is true - I agree, but I wouldn't say it applies to Django specific projects. Because Django itself is coming with a unittest-flavored custom test suite, pytest is always a choice and never the default.

Since this is an open source project, we can also expect future contributions from developers who are already familiar with it.

I appreciate the intention but this is premature optimization, especially when it's only the two of us.

We can revisit the topic in case there are more developers and they are having issues that migrating to pytest could solve. Until then, I don't think this migration / conversion is the best usage of our resources.

[DhavalGojiya]

but the trade off is readability

I think test cases written in pytest style are more readable because I don't want to see what we inherit from, whether it's unittest or Django's TestCase, with an extra layer of abstraction on top of Python's built-in unittest package. But it's ok not a big deal

If there is anything in particular that you think is useful for the project,

For example, we can use plugins to easily show a good looking progress bar and display failed tests immediately with better output in CI logs : pytest-sugar. There are many more, but this is just one example.

We can revisit the topic in case there are more developers

Yeah sure.