How do you mock a readonly property with mock?
I tried:
setattr(obj.__class__, 'property_to_be_mocked', mock.Mock())
but the issue is that it then applies to all instances of the class... which breaks my tests.
Do you have any other idea? I don't want to mock the full object, only this specific property.
I think the better way is to mock the property as PropertyMock, rather than to mock the __get__ method directly.
It is stated in the documentation, search for unittest.mock.PropertyMock:
A mock intended to be used as a property, or other descriptor, on a class. PropertyMock provides __get__ and __set__ methods so you can specify a return value when it is fetched.
Here is how:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
def test(unittest.TestCase):
with mock.patch('MyClass.last_transaction', new_callable=PropertyMock) as mock_last_transaction:
mock_last_transaction.return_value = Transaction()
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
mock_last_transaction.assert_called_once_with()
Actually, the answer was (as usual) in the documentation, it's just that I was applying the patch to the instance instead of the class when I followed their example.
Here is how to do it:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
In the test suite:
def test():
# Make sure you patch on MyClass, not on a MyClass instance, otherwise
# you'll get an AttributeError, because mock is using settattr and
# last_transaction is a readonly property so there's no setter.
with mock.patch(MyClass, 'last_transaction') as mock_last_transaction:
mock_last_transaction.__get__ = mock.Mock(return_value=Transaction())
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
If the object whose property you want to override is a mock object, you don't have to use patch.
Instead, can create a PropertyMock and then override the property on the type of the mock. For example, to override mock_rows.pages property to return (mock_page, mock_page,):
mock_page = mock.create_autospec(reader.ReadRowsPage)
# TODO: set up mock_page.
mock_pages = mock.PropertyMock(return_value=(mock_page, mock_page,))
type(mock_rows).pages = mock_pages
In case you are using pytest along with pytest-mock, you can simplify your code and also avoid using the context manger, i.e., the with statement as follows:
def test_name(mocker): # mocker is a fixture included in pytest-mock
mocked_property = mocker.patch(
'MyClass.property_to_be_mocked',
new_callable=mocker.PropertyMock,
return_value='any desired value'
)
o = MyClass()
print(o.property_to_be_mocked) # this will print: any desired value
mocked_property.assert_called_once_with()
Probably a matter of style but in case you prefer decorators in tests, #jamescastlefield's answer could be changed to something like this:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
class Test(unittest.TestCase):
#mock.patch('MyClass.last_transaction', new_callable=PropertyMock)
def test(self, mock_last_transaction):
mock_last_transaction.return_value = Transaction()
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
mock_last_transaction.assert_called_once_with()
If you need your mocked #property to rely on the original __get__, you can create your custom MockProperty
class PropertyMock(mock.Mock):
def __get__(self, obj, obj_type=None):
return self(obj, obj_type)
Usage:
class A:
#property
def f(self):
return 123
original_get = A.f.__get__
def new_get(self, obj_type=None):
return f'mocked result: {original_get(self, obj_type)}'
with mock.patch('__main__.A.f', new_callable=PropertyMock) as mock_foo:
mock_foo.side_effect = new_get
print(A().f) # mocked result: 123
print(mock_foo.call_count) # 1
If you don't want to test whether or not the mocked property was accessed you can simply patch it with the expected return_value.
with mock.patch(MyClass, 'last_transaction', Transaction()):
...
I was directed to this question because I wanted to mock the Python version in a test. Not sure whether this is quite relevant to this question, but sys.version is obviously read-only (... though technically an "attribute" rather than a "property", I suppose).
So, after perusing this place and trying some stupidly complicated stuff I realised the answer was simplicity itself:
with mock.patch('sys.version', version_tried):
if version_tried == '2.5.2':
with pytest.raises(SystemExit):
import core.__main__
_, err = capsys.readouterr()
assert 'FATAL' in err and 'too old' in err
... might help someone.
Related
How do you mock a readonly property with mock?
I tried:
setattr(obj.__class__, 'property_to_be_mocked', mock.Mock())
but the issue is that it then applies to all instances of the class... which breaks my tests.
Do you have any other idea? I don't want to mock the full object, only this specific property.
I think the better way is to mock the property as PropertyMock, rather than to mock the __get__ method directly.
It is stated in the documentation, search for unittest.mock.PropertyMock:
A mock intended to be used as a property, or other descriptor, on a class. PropertyMock provides __get__ and __set__ methods so you can specify a return value when it is fetched.
Here is how:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
def test(unittest.TestCase):
with mock.patch('MyClass.last_transaction', new_callable=PropertyMock) as mock_last_transaction:
mock_last_transaction.return_value = Transaction()
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
mock_last_transaction.assert_called_once_with()
Actually, the answer was (as usual) in the documentation, it's just that I was applying the patch to the instance instead of the class when I followed their example.
Here is how to do it:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
In the test suite:
def test():
# Make sure you patch on MyClass, not on a MyClass instance, otherwise
# you'll get an AttributeError, because mock is using settattr and
# last_transaction is a readonly property so there's no setter.
with mock.patch(MyClass, 'last_transaction') as mock_last_transaction:
mock_last_transaction.__get__ = mock.Mock(return_value=Transaction())
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
If the object whose property you want to override is a mock object, you don't have to use patch.
Instead, can create a PropertyMock and then override the property on the type of the mock. For example, to override mock_rows.pages property to return (mock_page, mock_page,):
mock_page = mock.create_autospec(reader.ReadRowsPage)
# TODO: set up mock_page.
mock_pages = mock.PropertyMock(return_value=(mock_page, mock_page,))
type(mock_rows).pages = mock_pages
In case you are using pytest along with pytest-mock, you can simplify your code and also avoid using the context manger, i.e., the with statement as follows:
def test_name(mocker): # mocker is a fixture included in pytest-mock
mocked_property = mocker.patch(
'MyClass.property_to_be_mocked',
new_callable=mocker.PropertyMock,
return_value='any desired value'
)
o = MyClass()
print(o.property_to_be_mocked) # this will print: any desired value
mocked_property.assert_called_once_with()
Probably a matter of style but in case you prefer decorators in tests, #jamescastlefield's answer could be changed to something like this:
class MyClass:
#property
def last_transaction(self):
# an expensive and complicated DB query here
pass
class Test(unittest.TestCase):
#mock.patch('MyClass.last_transaction', new_callable=PropertyMock)
def test(self, mock_last_transaction):
mock_last_transaction.return_value = Transaction()
myclass = MyClass()
print myclass.last_transaction
mock_last_transaction.assert_called_once_with()
If you need your mocked #property to rely on the original __get__, you can create your custom MockProperty
class PropertyMock(mock.Mock):
def __get__(self, obj, obj_type=None):
return self(obj, obj_type)
Usage:
class A:
#property
def f(self):
return 123
original_get = A.f.__get__
def new_get(self, obj_type=None):
return f'mocked result: {original_get(self, obj_type)}'
with mock.patch('__main__.A.f', new_callable=PropertyMock) as mock_foo:
mock_foo.side_effect = new_get
print(A().f) # mocked result: 123
print(mock_foo.call_count) # 1
If you don't want to test whether or not the mocked property was accessed you can simply patch it with the expected return_value.
with mock.patch(MyClass, 'last_transaction', Transaction()):
...
I was directed to this question because I wanted to mock the Python version in a test. Not sure whether this is quite relevant to this question, but sys.version is obviously read-only (... though technically an "attribute" rather than a "property", I suppose).
So, after perusing this place and trying some stupidly complicated stuff I realised the answer was simplicity itself:
with mock.patch('sys.version', version_tried):
if version_tried == '2.5.2':
with pytest.raises(SystemExit):
import core.__main__
_, err = capsys.readouterr()
assert 'FATAL' in err and 'too old' in err
... might help someone.
I read that it is considered bad practice to create a variable in the class namespace and then change its value in the class constructor.
(One of my sources: SoftwareEngineering SE: Is it a good practice to declare instance variables as None in a class in Python.)
Consider the following code:
# lib.py
class mixin:
def __init_subclass__(cls, **kwargs):
cls.check_mixin_subclass_validity(cls)
super().__init_subclass__(**kwargs)
def check_mixin_subclass_validity(subclass):
assert hasattr(subclass, 'necessary_var'), \
'Missing necessary_var'
def method_used_by_subclass(self):
return self.necessary_var * 3.14
# app.py
class my_subclass(mixin):
necessary_var = None
def __init__(self, some_value):
self.necessary_var = some_value
def run(self):
# DO SOME STUFF
self.necessary_var = self.method_used_by_subclass()
# DO OTHER STUFF
To force its subclass to declare the variable necessary_var, the class mixin uses the metaclass subclass_validator.
And the only way I know to makes it work on app.py side, is to initialized necessary_var as a class variable.
I am missing something or is it the only way to do so?
Short answer
You should check that attributes and methods exist at instantiation of a class, not before. This is what the abc module does and it has good reasons to work like this.
Long answer
First, I would like to point out that it seems what you want to check is that an instance attribute exists.
Due to Python dynamic nature, it is not possible to do so before an instance is created, that is after the call to __init__. We could define Mixin.__init__, but we would then have to rely on the users of your API to have perfect hygiene and to always call super().__init__.
One option is thus to create a metaclass and add a check in its __call__ method.
class MetaMixin(type):
def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
instance = super().__call__(*args, **kwargs)
assert hasattr(instance, 'necessary_var')
class Mixin(metaclass=MetaMixin):
pass
class Foo(Mixin):
def __init__(self):
self.necessary_var = ...
Foo() # Works fine
class Bar(Mixin):
pass
Bar() # AssertionError
To convince yourself that it is good practice to do this at instantiation, we can look toward the abc module which uses this behaviour.
from abc import abstractmethod, ABC
class AbstractMixin(ABC):
#abstractmethod
def foo(self):
...
class Foo(AbstractMixin):
pass
# Right now, everything is still all good
Foo() # TypeError: Can't instantiate abstract class Foo with abstract methods foo
As you can see the TypeError was raise at instantiation of Foo() and not at class creation.
But why does it behave like this?
The reason for that is that not every class will be instantiated, consider the example where we want to inherit from Mixin to create a new mixin which checks for some more attributes.
class Mixin:
def __init_subclass__(cls, **kwargs):
assert hasattr(cls, 'necessary_var')
super().__init_subclass__(**kwargs)
class MoreMixin(Mixin):
def __init_subclass__(cls, **kwargs):
assert hasattr(cls, 'other_necessary_var')
super().__init_subclass__(**kwargs)
# AssertionError was raised at that point
class Foo(MoreMixin):
necessary_var = ...
other_necessary_var = ...
As you see, the AssertionError was raised at the creation of the MoreMixin class. This is clearly not the desired behaviour since the Foo class is actually correctly built and that is what our mixin was supposed to check.
In conclusion, the existence of some attribute or method should be done at instantiation, Otherwise, you are preventing a whole lot of helpful inheritance techniques. This is why the abc module does it like that and this is why we should.
I am trying to patch a class that is instantiated by the class I am trying to test, but it doesn't work. I have read the various docs but still haven't found what I am doing wrong. Here is the code snippet:
In tests/Test.py:
from module.ClassToTest import ClassToTest
class Test(object):
#mock.patch('module.ClassToPatch.ClassToPatch', autospec = False)
def setUp(self, my_class_mock):
self.instance = my_class_mock.return_value
self.instance.my_method.return_value = "def"
self.class_to_test = ClassToTest()
def test(self):
val = self.class_to_test.instance.my_method() #Returns 'abc' instead of 'def'
self.assertEqual(val, 'def')
In module/ClassToPatch.py:
class ClassToPatch(object):
def __init__(self):
pass
def my_method(self):
return "abc"
In module/ClassToTest.py:
from module.ClassToPatch import ClassToPatch
class ClassToTest(object):
def __init__:
# Still instantiates the concrete class instead of the mock
self.instance = ClassToPatch()
I know in this case I could easily inject the dependency, but this is just an example. Also, we use a single class per file policy, with the file named like the class, hence the weird import naming.
As norbert mentions, the fix is to change the mock line from
#mock.patch('module.ClassToPatch.ClassToPatch', autospec = False)
to
#mock.patch('module.ClassToTest.ClassToPatch', autospec = False)
According to the docs:
The patch() decorator / context manager makes it easy to mock classes or objects in a module under test. The object you specify will be replaced with a mock (or other object) during the test and restored when the test ends.
You are testing the ClassToTest module, not the ClassToPatch module.
I'm trying to patch a class method using mock as described in the documentation. The Mock object itself works fine, but its methods don't: For example, their attributes like call_count aren't updated, even though the method_calls attribute of the class Mock object is. More importantly, their return_value attribute is ignored:
class Lib:
"""In my actual program, a module that I import"""
def method(self):
return "real"
class User:
"""The class I want to test"""
def run(self):
l = Lib()
return l.method()
with patch("__main__.Lib") as mock:
#mock.return_value = "bla" # This works
mock.method.return_value = "mock"
u = User()
print(u.run())
>>>
mock
<MagicMock name='Lib().method()' id='39868624'>
What am I doing wrong here?
EDIT: Passing a class Mock via the constructor doesn't work either, so this is not really related to the patch function.
I have found my error: In order to configure the methods of my mock's instances, I have to use mock().method instead of mock.method.
class Lib:
"""In my actual program, a module that I import"""
def method(self):
return "real"
class User:
"""The class I want to test"""
def run(self):
l = Lib()
return l.method()
with patch("__main__.Lib") as mock:
#mock.return_value = "bla" # This works
mock().method.return_value = "mock"
u = User()
print(u.run())
from mock import *
class Lib:
"""In my actual program, a module that I import"""
def method(self):
return "real"
class User:
"""The class I want to test"""
def run(self, m):
return m.method()
with patch("__main__.Lib") as mock:
#mock.return_value = "bla" # This works
mock.method.return_value = "mock"
print User().run(mock)
I mock classmethods like this:
def raiser(*args, **kwargs):
raise forms.ValidationError('foo')
with mock.patch.object(mylib.Commands, 'my_class_method', classmethod(raiser)):
response=self.admin_client.get(url, data=dict(term='+1000'))
This doesn't work:
def register_method(name=None):
def decorator(method):
# The next line assumes the decorated method is bound (which of course it isn't at this point)
cls = method.im_class
cls.my_attr = 'FOO BAR'
def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
method(*args, **kwargs)
return wrapper
return decorator
Decorators are like the movie Inception; the more levels in you go, the more confusing they are. I'm trying to access the class that defines a method (at definition time) so that I can set an attribute (or alter an attribute) of the class.
Version 2 also doesn't work:
def register_method(name=None):
def decorator(method):
# The next line assumes the decorated method is bound (of course it isn't bound at this point).
cls = method.__class__ # I don't really understand this.
cls.my_attr = 'FOO BAR'
def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
method(*args, **kwargs)
return wrapper
return decorator
The point of putting my broken code above when I already know why it's broken is that it conveys what I'm trying to do.
I don't think you can do what you want to do with a decorator (quick edit: with a decorator of the method, anyway). The decorator gets called when the method gets constructed, which is before the class is constructed. The reason your code isn't working is because the class doesn't exist when the decorator is called.
jldupont's comment is the way to go: if you want to set an attribute of the class, you should either decorate the class or use a metaclass.
EDIT: okay, having seen your comment, I can think of a two-part solution that might work for you. Use a decorator of the method to set an attribute of the method, and then use a metaclass to search for methods with that attribute and set the appropriate attribute of the class:
def TaggingDecorator(method):
"Decorate the method with an attribute to let the metaclass know it's there."
method.my_attr = 'FOO BAR'
return method # No need for a wrapper, we haven't changed
# what method actually does; your mileage may vary
class TaggingMetaclass(type):
"Metaclass to check for tags from TaggingDecorator and add them to the class."
def __new__(cls, name, bases, dct):
# Check for tagged members
has_tag = False
for member in dct.itervalues():
if hasattr(member, 'my_attr'):
has_tag = True
break
if has_tag:
# Set the class attribute
dct['my_attr'] = 'FOO BAR'
# Now let 'type' actually allocate the class object and go on with life
return type.__new__(cls, name, bases, dct)
That's it. Use as follows:
class Foo(object):
__metaclass__ = TaggingMetaclass
pass
class Baz(Foo):
"It's enough for a base class to have the right metaclass"
#TaggingDecorator
def Bar(self):
pass
>> Baz.my_attr
'FOO BAR'
Honestly, though? Use the supported_methods = [...] approach. Metaclasses are cool, but people who have to maintain your code after you will probably hate you.
Rather than use a metaclass, in python 2.6+ you should use a class decorator. You can wrap the function and class decorators up as methods of a class, like this real-world example.
I use this example with djcelery; the important aspects for this problem are the "task" method and the line "args, kw = self.marked[klass.dict[attr]]" which implicitly checks for "klass.dict[attr] in self.marked". If you want to use #methodtasks.task instead of #methodtasks.task() as a decorator, you could remove the nested def and use a set instead of a dict for self.marked. The use of self.marked, instead of setting a marking attribute on the function as the other answer did, allows this to work for classmethods and staticmethods which, because they use slots, won't allow setting arbitrary attributes. The downside of doing it this way is that the function decorator MUST go above other decorators, and the class decorator MUST go below, so that the functions are not modified / re=wrapped between one and the other.
class DummyClass(object):
"""Just a holder for attributes."""
pass
class MethodTasksHolder(object):
"""Register tasks with class AND method decorators, then use as a dispatcher, like so:
methodtasks = MethodTasksHolder()
#methodtasks.serve_tasks
class C:
#methodtasks.task()
##other_decorators_come_below
def some_task(self, *args):
pass
#methodtasks.task()
#classmethod
def classmethod_task(self, *args):
pass
def not_a_task(self):
pass
#..later
methodtasks.C.some_task.delay(c_instance,*args) #always treat as unbound
#analagous to c_instance.some_task(*args) (or C.some_task(c_instance,*args))
#...
methodtasks.C.classmethod_task.delay(C,*args) #treat as unbound classmethod!
#analagous to C.classmethod_task(*args)
"""
def __init__(self):
self.marked = {}
def task(self, *args, **kw):
def mark(fun):
self.marked[fun] = (args,kw)
return fun
return mark
def serve_tasks(self, klass):
setattr(self, klass.__name__, DummyClass())
for attr in klass.__dict__:
try:
args, kw = self.marked[klass.__dict__[attr]]
setattr(getattr(self, klass.__name__), attr, task(*args,**kw)(getattr(klass, attr)))
except KeyError:
pass
#reset for next class
self.marked = {}
return klass