Automated Testing and CI¶

Automated testing help us to ensure that our code is working as expected. Continuous Integration (CI) is a process that helps us to ensure that our code is working as expected by running our automated testing on events such as pull requests and code commits.

Automated Testing¶

Backend: Pytest (Unit Testing)¶

We use pytest for our tests with pytest-django as a plugin.

Running Test¶

Go inside the container docker exec -it indeaa_django bash or docker-compose exec -it backend bash
Run pytest py.test or pytest.

Manual Testing Debugging

You can add breakpoint() in your code and attach a terminal to the instance docker attach indeaa_django.

Running only a specific test

If you only want to run a specific test, use the below syntax

py.test course_evaluations/ # Runs all test within the folder
py.test course_evaluations/test_crud.py # Runs the test in the file
py.test course_evaluations/test_crud.py::test_list_view_course_evaluation # Run the specific function you want

Pytest Fixture `conftest.py`¶

You will notice that the test will use conftest.py. The syntax is a little weird at first, the fixture becomes parameters in tests that needs it.

Test that uses a conftest

def test_list_view_course_evaluation(api_client_with_credentials_return_user, make_course_evaluation):
    api_client, user = api_client_with_credentials_return_user()
    course_evaluation_1 = make_course_evaluation(coordinators=[user])
    course_evaluation_2 = make_course_evaluation(coordinators=[user])
    ...

api_client_with_credentials_return_user and make_course_evaluation are function that can bhe seen in conftest.py. This is accessible because of the command called @pytest.fixture.

Also notice function such as make_course_evaluation. It has an interesting structure where it does a yield _make_course_evaluation. We are essentially creating a wrapper function that allows us to bind the teardown with that function.

Why not just use the default Django Tests?¶

The pytest ecosystem is bigger. Harder to get used to at first, but it is quite worth it because you can do cool examples like parametrised tests (checkout this link) that are more readable and maintainable.

Frontend: Cypress (E2E Testing)¶

We use Cypress for E2E testing.

Running the test.¶

There are two ways to run the test. Firstly navigate to the frontend folder:

Run tests via the the Cypress IDE: yarn cypress:open
Run tests via the CLI: yarn cypress:run

For the specific commands, see the package.json script section.

Pro Tip: Cypress Studio¶

You can write tests by recording your action such as typing and clicking. Read more about Cypress studio here. Please modularise and clean the test after using the recorder to make it easier to maintain.

Continuous Integration - Github Actions¶

We use github actions for our continuous integration. All the code being used for github actions can be seen in .github/workflows/ci.yml. This is the Continuous integration that runs for every commit on a pull request.

We run a couple of things as part of our CI:

Automated Testing eg pytest_py3, integration-test-docker
Automated Linting and Formatting eg frontend-check and backend-check

Automated Testing and CI¶