=================

Testing in Django

=================

Automated testing is an extremely useful bug-killing tool for the modern

web developer. You can use a collection of tests -- a **test suite** -- to

solve, or avoid, a number of problems:

* When you're writing new code, you can use tests to validate your code

  works as expected.

* When you're refactoring or modifying old code, you can use tests to

  ensure your changes haven't affected your application's behavior

  unexpectedly.

Testing a web application is a complex task, because a web application is made

of several layers of logic -- from HTTP-level request handling, to form

validation and processing, to template rendering. With Django's test-execution

framework and assorted utilities, you can simulate requests, insert test data,

inspect your application's output and generally verify your code is doing what

it should be doing.

The preferred way to write tests in Django is using the :mod:`unittest` module

built-in to the Python standard library. This is covered in detail in the

:doc:`overview` document.

You can also use any *other* Python test framework; Django provides an API and

tools for that kind of integration. They are described in the

:ref:`other-testing-frameworks` section of :doc:`advanced`.

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   overview

   tools

   advanced