django - how to detect test environment (check / determine if tests are being run)

How can I detect whether a view is being called in a test environment (e.g., from manage.py test)?

#pseudo_code
def my_view(request):
    if not request.is_secure() and not TEST_ENVIRONMENT:
        return HttpResponseForbidden()

Put this in your settings.py:

import sys

TESTING = len(sys.argv) > 1 and sys.argv[1] == 'test'

This tests whether the second commandline argument (after ./manage.py) was test. Then you can access this variable from other modules, like so:

from django.conf import settings

if settings.TESTING:
    ...

There are good reasons to do this: suppose you're accessing some backend service, other than Django's models and DB connections. Then you might need to know when to call the production service vs. the test service.

Create your own TestSuiteRunner subclass and change a setting or do whatever else you need to for the rest of your application. You specify the test runner in your settings:

TEST_RUNNER = 'your.project.MyTestSuiteRunner'

In general, you don't want to do this, but it works if you absolutely need it.

from django.conf import settings
from django.test.simple import DjangoTestSuiteRunner

class MyTestSuiteRunner(DjangoTestSuiteRunner):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        settings.IM_IN_TEST_MODE = True
        super(MyTestSuiteRunner, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

Just look at request.META['SERVER_NAME']

def my_view(request):
    if request.META['SERVER_NAME'] == "testserver":
        print "This is test environment!"

There's also a way to temporarily overwrite settings in a unit test in Django. This might be a easier/cleaner solution for certain cases.

You can do this inside a test:

with self.settings(MY_SETTING='my_value'):
    # test code

Or add it as a decorator on the test method:

@override_settings(MY_SETTING='my_value')
def test_my_test(self):
    # test code

You can also set the decorator for the whole test case class:

@override_settings(MY_SETTING='my_value')
class MyTestCase(TestCase):
    # test methods

For more info check the Django docs: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/topics/testing/tools/#django.test.override_settings

I think the best approach is to run your tests using their own settings file (i.e. settings/tests.py). That file can look like this (the first line imports settings from a local.py settings file):

from local import *
TEST_MODE = True

Then do ducktyping to check if you are in test mode.

try:
    if settings.TEST_MODE:
        print 'foo'
except AttributeError:
    pass

If you are multiple settings file for different environment, all you need to do is to create one settings file for testing.

For instance, your setting files are:

your_project/
      |_ settings/
           |_ __init__.py
           |_ base.py  <-- your original settings
           |_ testing.py  <-- for testing only

In your testing.py, add a TESTING flag:

from .base import *

TESTING = True

In your application, you can access settings.TESTING to check if you're in testing environment.

To run tests, use:

python manage.py test --settings your_project.settings.testing

While there's no official way to see whether we're in a test environment, django actually leaves some clues for us. By default Django’s test runner automatically redirects all Django-sent email to a dummy outbox. This is accomplished by replacing EMAIL_BACKEND in a function called setup_test_environment, which in turn is called by a method of DiscoverRunner. So, we can check whether settings.EMAIL_BACKEND is set to 'django.core.mail.backends.locmem.EmailBackend'. That mean we're in a test environment.

A less hacky solution would be following the devs lead by adding our own setting by subclassing DisoverRunner and then overriding setup_test_environment method.

Piggybacking off of @Tobia's answer, I think it is better implemented in settings.py like this:

import sys
try:
    TESTING = 'test' == sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
    TESTING = False

This will prevent it from catching things like ./manage.py loaddata test.json or ./manage.py i_am_not_running_a_test