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

Question

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()

Answer 1

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.