Django Form test File upload , error show empty field

Question

I have problem testing form, it wont accept file upload even I tried many ways, it just returns error that file upload field can't be empty:

AssertionError: False is not true : <ul class="errorlist"><li>file<ul class="errorlist"><li>This field is required.</li></ul></li></ul>

Test.py:

def test_applicant_form(self):
        placements = Position.objects.filter(published=True)[0]
        client = Client()
        file =  File(open('root/static/applications/file.pdf', 'rb'))
        data_set = {'name': 'Caleb', 'surname': 'Dvorszky',
            'phone_number': '+1963124575', 'city': 'Kansas City', 'country': 'United States', 'message': 'Would like to be there', 'file':file}
        form = ApplicantForm(data=data_set)
        self.assertTrue(form.is_valid(), form.errors)

even tried and:

response = client.post(placements.get_absolute_url,data=data_set, content_type='multipart/form-data')

And still doesnt work.

Here is forms.py

class ApplicantForm(forms.ModelForm):
    name = forms.CharField(widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    surname = forms.CharField(widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    phone_number = forms.CharField(widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    city = forms.CharField(widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    country = forms.CharField(widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    message = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea(attrs={'class': 'form-control form-control-lg'}))
    file = forms.FileField(widget=forms.FileInput())

    class Meta:
        model = Candidate
        exclude = ['position', 'seen']

models.py This is model that need to be saved when form is filled with data

class Applicant(models.Model):
    date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    surname = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    phone_number = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    city = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    country = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    position = models.ForeignKey(
        Position, on_delete=models.CASCADE,
        related_name='applicants')
    cover_letter = models.TextField()
    file = models.FileField(upload_to='files/applications')
    seen = models.BooleanField(default=False, editable=False)

    ADMIN_DISPLAY = ['get_name', 'position', 'city', 'country', 'get_file', 'date']

    def get_name(self):
        return "%s %s" % (self.name, self.surname)
    get_name.short_description = 'Name'

    def get_file(self):
        return '<a href="%s%s" target="_blank">Download</a>' % (
            settings.BASE_DOMAIN_URL, self.file.url)
    get_file.allow_tags = True
    get_file.short_description = 'Download file'

And here is views.py , just form part:

if request.method == 'POST':
        form = ApplicantForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
        if form.is_valid():
            applicant = form.save(commit=False)
            applicant.position = placement
            applicant.save()
            notification(applicant)
            messages.info(request, 'We received your application. See you soon!')
            return redirect('postions:position-post', placement.slug)
    form = ApplicantForm()

Answer 1

You seem to not have passed in the file properly. Also you seem to be trying to access a data keyword argument you didn't define in your form. Try out this: Remember to import `SimpleUploadedFile from django.core.files.uploadedfile

  from django.core.files.uploadedfile import SimpleUploadedFile

  def test_applicant_form(self):
    placements = Position.objects.filter(published=True)[0]
    with open('root/static/applications/file.pdf', 'rb') as file:
      document = SimpleUploadedFile(file.name, file.read(), content_type='application/pdf')
    data_set = {'name': 'Caleb',
    'surname':'Dvorszky',
    'phone_number': '+1963124575',
    'city': 'Kansas City',
    'country':'United States',
    'message': 'Would like to be there',
    }
    form = ApplicantForm(data_set, {'file': document})
    self.assertTrue(form.is_valid(), form.errors)

Look at this link on testing for further reading. You could also look at this link on testing file upload with django