django-test-autocomplete 0.1.4

A shell-autocomplete helper that list TestCases and tests

This package provides a helpful way to run specific tests within your project.

Expedites the invocation of tests to run by providing autocompletion inside test modules, listing its TestCases and also tests inside each TestCase.

This first release is a proof-of-concept, and in the “Future features” section there is a list of possible improvements considered for next releases.

How does it work

In order to make a non-intrusive installation, instead of coupling this autocompletion with the one provided by Django, we created a proxy command named “djntest” which work is to redirect every call to itself to “python manage.py test”.

Later we defined our customized autocompletion for this new command. Autocompletion is defined with a lightweight layer of bash code that it’s invoked each time the user triggers autocompletion (typically by hitting the <TAB> key). Based on the provided arguments, the bash layer decides to call the helper python script get_testcases.py which in turn reads the provided .py file, and parse it using the ast module.

How to use

Located at the root of your django project, typing:

$ djntest books_application/tests/test_book_creation.py:<TAB>

will list all classes defined in that file, in the standard bash way, ie:

• if there is only 1 option, it will be automatically completed

• if all the options at a given time have the same prefix, it’s autocompleted

• if you start typing the name of some TestCase after the colon, hitting <TAB> again will filter the offer to only those matching with what you are writing

After a TestCase name, if you a point and trigger autocompletion like this

$ djntest books_application/tests/test_book_creation.py:TestStore.<TAB>

you will see listed all functions defined inside that class which name starts with “test_”, and again, with all the usual bash autocompletion features.

Disclaimer Notes:

• This autocompleter only facilitates the way of invoking the command for your running tests. Nothing related with PYTHONPATH is done here.

• If your test runner does not support be called with individual tests modules (like django-nose does), then you will have to wait for 0.2 release in order to enjoy this package.

Installation Notes:

In order to install this package you need to follow 2 steps:

1. First install the script

   $ sudo pip install django-test-autocomplete

Alternatively, you can install it from the source distribution: Extract the tarball and run

$ python setup.py install

2. For enabling the bash autocompletion you need to look for the script djntest.sh located in the source distribution, and later do one of the following:

• inside your $HOME/.bashrc adding a line like this:

  source path/to/djntest.sh

• copy the file into your bash configuration folder like this:

  $ copy path/to/djntest.sh /etc/bash_completion.d/

And later restart your bash session.

The djntest.sh file can be found:

• on the source distribution

• on /etc/django-test-autocomplete/djntest.sh or if working with virtualenv, on $VIRTUAL_ENV/etc/django-test-autocomplete/djntest.sh

• https://raw.github.com/machinalis/django-test-autocomplete/master/djntest.sh

Extra: For running the internal package tests (if you want to experiment customizing or extending this package) you will have to install mock package first.

Future features:

• Improve the python file parsing (done now with ast) for:

  • Detecting if defined classes are TestCases or not

  • Detect tests defined on parent TestCases

• Clear integration with the usual way of running django tests (ie, avoid the need of “proxy” command djntest)

• Try it out with not-only django projects

• Support for some other shells (zsh will probably be the next one)

Tested with:

• GNU bash, version 4.1.5+

• bash completion 1.1+

• Django 1.3+

• I’m using it together with django-nose without problems. I see no reason for have it not working without nose.