A lightweight Django manage.py litetest command for quick unittest runs.

If you've been developing in Django for a while, you probably have plenty of tests written. This is great, but they probably take a long time to run. If you do any sort of Test-Driven Development, slow tests means a frustrating edit-test loop.

django-litetest helps you run quick, lightweight tests by doing a few things:

• Use in-memory SQLite databases instead of your usual test databases,
• Use in-memory caches instead of your usual caches,
• If you're using South, creates models directly.

With django-litetest, fixing a bug becomes as quick as this:

1. Add a new test to reproduce the bug,
2. Run manage.py litetest testname,
3. Edit the code to fix the bug,
4. Run manage.py litetest testname again,
5. Run manage.py test to ensure that all your tests pass.

You can get a copy of the source by using:

$ git clone https://github.com/sfllaw/django-litetest.git

This app requires:

• Python 2.6 or higher,
• Django 1.3 or higher,
• SpatiaLite (optional for GIS).

As well, this app is available from PyPi:

$ pip install django-litetest

In your Django settings file:

• Add 'django_litetest' to INSTALLED_APPS (after 'south' if you are using it),
• Add 'LITETEST': True to each of the DATABASES you want sped up,
• Add 'LITETEST': True to each of the CACHES you want sped up,
• If you are using South, set SOUTH_TESTS_MIGRATE = 'LITETEST' to avoid migrations.

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'south',
    'django_litetest',
    ...
)

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'db',
        'USER': 'user',
        'PASSWORD': 'password',
        'HOST': 'db.example.com',
        'PORT': '',
        'LITETEST': True,
    }
}

CACHES = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.memcached.PyLibMCCache',
        'LOCATION': 'memcache.example.com:11211',
        'LITETEST': True,
    },
}

SOUTH_TESTS_MIGRATE = 'LITETEST'

Please check our issue tracker for known bugs and feature requests.

We accept pull requests for fixes and new features.

Simon Law <[email protected]>