How can I fake request.POST and GET params for unit testing in Flask?

Question

I would like to fake request parameters for unit testing. How can I achieve this in Flask?

score 101 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 08 '20 at 14:20

101

You can use following:

self.app.post('/path-to-request', data=dict(var1='data1', var2='data2', ...))
self.app.get('/path-to-request', query_string=dict(arg1='data1', arg2='data2', ...))

Current development version of Flask also includes support for testing JSON APIs:

from flask import request, jsonify

@app.route('/jsonapi')
def auth():
    json_data = request.get_json()
    attribute = json_data['attr']
    return jsonify(resp=generate_response(attribute))

with app.test_client() as c:
    rv = c.post('/jsonapi', json={
        'attr': 'value', 'other': 'data'
    })
    json_data = rv.get_json()
    assert generate_response(email, json_data['resp'])

edited Jan 08 '20 at 14:20

Ri1a

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answered Sep 15 '11 at 09:43

plaes

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So, .get just expects you to add the params at the end of the query, like so -- `?param1=value&param2=value2` -- or can it receive a dict as well? – sssilver May 18 '14 at 21:43
I've tried both, only the first option worked. Why do you ask? – sssilver May 19 '14 at 17:04
14

@ssilver you can use a dict but its not called data like .post : self.app.get('/endpoint', query_string=params) – jon skulski Aug 05 '15 at 19:29
2

Thanks for a constructive answer, @jskulski -- it just helped me as well. Trying something out tells you what doesn't work, but it doesn't tell you if there's a different way that does work. – Canuck Dec 08 '15 at 22:53
how do you pass a json as input? – LoveMeow Feb 08 '18 at 15:25
cant we just do the following: response = app.post('/path-to-request', json=data) , self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200) – LoveMeow Feb 13 '18 at 13:59
additionally, should I launch the app before running the unit tests? – LoveMeow Feb 13 '18 at 14:58
@LoveMeow No, you need to set up app context. – plaes Feb 13 '18 at 16:26

score 44 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '14 at 16:48

44

POST:

self.app.post('/endpoint', data=params)

GET:

self.app.get('/endpoint', query_string=params)

answered Jun 01 '14 at 16:48

Itay Kahana

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score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 22 '21 at 17:06

6

If you prefer to use test_request_context:

import unittest
from myapp import extract_query_params

testapp = flask.Flask(__name__)

class TestFoo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_happy(self):
        with testapp.test_request_context('?limit=1&offset=2'):
            limit, offset = extract_query_params(['limit', 'offset'])
            self.assertEquals(limit, 1)
            self.assertEquals(offset, 2)

edited Nov 22 '21 at 17:06

callmebob

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answered Mar 17 '17 at 01:25

Matthew Moisen

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`with testapp.test_request_context(headers=h):` can be used to pass **headers** without mentioning any **url**, this will mock a request with _default-url_ – Abhijeet Jun 02 '17 at 10:28

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 25 '21 at 14:56

3

I needed an simple request for unit testing, and this was an easy solution:

from flask import Request
r = Request({})

answered Jun 25 '21 at 14:56

new name

15,861
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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 06:16

1

I still had issue with this when testing post form data for logging in this worked for me.

def login(self, username, password):
    return self.app.post('/', data='Client_id=' + username +'&Password=' + password,
                         follow_redirects=True,content_type='application/x-www-form-urlencoded')

I found this is out this way.

Chrome: Developer mode --> Doc --> HTML doc that was requested --> Headers Tab --> Form data --> view source

answered Oct 20 '16 at 06:16

jmcgrath207

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`urllib.urlencode(form_data_dict)` or `urllib.parse.encode` in py3 is useful to create `data` from the dictionary. – Justin Raymond Aug 27 '20 at 19:52

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 29 '18 at 23:17

here is a complete code example of a unit test

testapp = app.test_client()

class Test_test(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_user_registration_bad_password_short(self):
        response = self.register(name='pat',
                                 email='me@mail.com', 
                                 password='Flask', 
                                 password2='Flask')
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
        self.assertIn(b'password should be 8 or more characters long', 
                      response.data)

    def register(self, name, email, password, password2):
        return testapp.post(
            '/register',
            data=dict(username=name, 
                      email=email, 
                      password=password, 
                      password2=password2),
            follow_redirects=True
        )

How can I fake request.POST and GET params for unit testing in Flask?

6 Answers6

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