Getting Started

Basic Example of Usage

Models sample (models.py):

from django.db import models

class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)

class Book(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    authors = models.ManyToManyField(Author)

    @staticmethod
    def search_by_author(author_name):
        return Book.objects.filter(authors__name=author_name)

PyTest example (tests/test_books.py):

from ddf import G

def test_search_book_by_author():
    author1 = G(Author)
    author2 = G(Author)
    book1 = G(Book, authors=[author1])
    book2 = G(Book, authors=[author2])
    books = Book.objects.search_by_author(author1.name)
    assert book1 in books
    assert book2 not in books

Django TestCase example (tests/test_books.py):

from django.test import TestCase
from ddf import G

class SearchingBooks(TestCase):
    def test_search_book_by_author(self):
        author1 = G(Author)
        author2 = G(Author)
        book1 = G(Book, authors=[author1])
        book2 = G(Book, authors=[author2])
        books = Book.objects.search_by_author(author1.name)
        self.assertTrue(book1 in books)
        self.assertTrue(book2 not in books)

Installation

pip install django-dynamic-fixture

or:

1. Download zip file
2. Extract it
3. Execute in the extracted directory: python setup.py install

Development version

pip install -e git+git@github.com:paulocheque/django-dynamic-fixture.git#egg=django-dynamic-fixture

requirements.txt

django-dynamic-fixture==<VERSION>
# or use the development version
git+git://github.com/paulocheque/django-dynamic-fixture.git#egg=django-dynamic-fixture

Upgrade

pip install django-dynamic-fixture --upgrade --no-deps

Support and Compatibility

DDF current support
Python 3.11	Django 4.x.x	DDF 4.*.* - Aug 2023
Python 3.10	Django 4.x.x	DDF 4.*.* - Aug 2023
Python 3.9	Django 4.x.x	DDF 4.*.* - Aug 2023
Python 3.8	Django 4.x.x	DDF 4.*.* - Aug 2023

For old versions of Python or Django, use old versions of DDF too:

DDF old support
Python 3.8	Django 3.x.x	DDF 3.*.* - Jan 2020
Python 3.7	Django 3.x.x	DDF 3.*.* - Jan 2020
Python 3.6	Django 3.x.x	DDF 3.*.* - Jan 2020
Python > 3.5	Django 2.x.x	DDF 3.*.* - Jan 2020
Python 3.3	Django < 1.11.x	DDF 2.0.* - Dec 2017
Python 2.7	Django 1.11.x	DDF 3.*.* - Jan 2020
Python <= 2.7	Django < 1.11.x	DDF 2.0.* - Dec 2017

List of features

• Highly customizable: you can customize fields recursively
• Deals with unique=True
• Deals with cyclic dependencies (including self references)
• Deals with many to many relationship (common M2M or M2M with additional data, i.e. through=’table’)
• Deals with custom fields (especially if the custom field inherits from a django field)
• Support for parallel tests
• Deals with auto calculated attributes
• It is easy to debug errors

Motivation

• It is a terrible practice to use static data in tests (yml/json/sql files).
• It is very hard to maintain lots of Factory objects.
• Creating fixtures for each model is boring and it produces a lot of replicated code.
• It is a bad idea to use uncontrolled data in tests, like bizarre random data.

Comparison with other tools

The DDF was created in a context of a project with a very complex design with many cyclic dependencies. In that context, no available tool was satisfactory. Or we stumbled in some infinite loop or some bug caused by a custom field. For these reasons, the tests started to fail and it was very hard to understand why.

Another thing, the DDF was planned to have a lean and clean syntax. We believe that automated tests must be developed quickly with the minimum overhead. For that reason we are in favor of less verbose approach, except in the documentation ;)

Also, DDF is flexible, since it is possible to customize the entire data generation or by field.

• Either they are incomplete, or bugged or it produces erratic tests, because they use random and uncontrolled data.
• The syntax of others tools is too verbose, which pollutes the tests.
• Complete, lean and practice documentation.
• It is hard to debug tests with another tools.
• List of other tools: <https://www.djangopackages.com/grids/g/testing/> or <http://djangopackages.com/grids/g/fixtures>
• The core of the tool is the algorithm, it is not the data generation as all other tools. This means you can change the data generation logic.

Plus:

• PyTest compatible
• Command to count how many queries are executed to save any kind of model instance
• FileSystemDjangoTestCase that facilitates to create tests for features that use filesystem.