Django unit test will not update BooleanField - django

Question

I have a situation where I want to have published functionality for articles, and I have it. The problem is that I can't get my unit test to work properly, trying to post True to the published field.
Here's what my tests look like.
class ArticleDetailViewTest(TestCase):
def setUp(self):
email = 'testuser#gmail.com'
first_name = 'test'
last_name = 'user'
password = 'test15146'
user = User.objects.create_user(email, first_name, last_name, password)
self.client = Client()
self.client.login(username='testuser#gmail.com', password='test15146')
def test_can_publish_article_from_POST(self):
other_article_two = Article.objects.create(name='Test Name One', author=User.objects.get(email='testuser#gmail.com'))
correct_article_two = Article.objects.create(name='Test Name Two', author=User.objects.get(email='testuser#gmail.com'))
response = self.client.post(reverse('publish_article', kwargs={'pk' : correct_article_two.pk}))
self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 302)
self.assertRedirects(response, f'/articles/{correct_article_two.pk}/')
self.assertEqual(correct_article_two.published, True)
Here's what my publish article view looks like.
def publish_article(request, pk):
article = get_object_or_404(models.Article, pk=pk)
if request.method == "POST":
article.published = True
article.save(update_fields=['published'])
return redirect('article_detail_view', pk=article.pk)
else:
raise Http404
Here are my urls.
from django.urls import path
from . import views
urlpatterns = [
path('', views.HomePageView.as_view(), name='home'),
path('new/', views.ArticleCreateView.as_view(), name='article_new'),
path('<int:pk>/', views.ArticleDetailView.as_view(), name='article_detail_view'),
path('<int:pk>/publish/', views.publish_article, name='publish_article'),
path('<int:pk>/unpublish/', views.unpublish_article, name='unpublish_article'),]
Here are my models.
from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
from django.urls import reverse
from django import forms
class Article(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=255, blank=False)
author = models.ForeignKey(
settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,
on_delete=models.CASCADE,
)
published = models.BooleanField(default=False)
def __str__(self):
return self.name
def get_absolute_url(self):
return reverse('article_detail_view', args=[str(self.id)])
class ArticleForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Article
fields = ['name',]
Lastly, here is the template.
{% extends 'base.html' %}
{% block title %}{{ article.name }}{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
{% if article.author_id == user.pk %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-6 col-centered">
<h2 class="text-center">{{ article.name }}</h2>
<p class="text-center">by {{ article.author.first_name }} {{ article.author.last_name }}</p>
{% if article.published %}
<small class="form-text text-muted mb-1">This article is public.</small>
<form method="post" action="/articles/{{ article.pk }}/unpublish/">
{% csrf_token %}
<input type="submit" name="unpublish" value="Unpublish Article" id="id_unpublish_button" class="btn btn-primary btn-md"/>
</form>
{% else %}
<small class="form-text text-muted mb-1">This article is private.</small>
<form method="post" action="/articles/{{ article.pk }}/publish/">
{% csrf_token %}
<input type="submit" name="publish" value="Publish Article" id="id_publish_button" class="btn btn-primary btn-md"/>
</form>
{% endif %}
</div>
</div>
{% elif article.published %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-6 col-centered">
<h2 class="text-center">{{ article.name }}</h2>
<p class="text-center">by {{ article.author.first_name }} {{ article.author.last_name }}</p>
</div>
</div>
{% else %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-6 col-centered">
<p class="text-center">This article is private.</p>
</div>
</div>
{% endif %}
{% endblock %}
This is the error message I'm getting from my test. The issue seems to be I can post to the URL with self.client.post . Any help would be greatly appreciated.
FAIL: test_can_publish_article_from_POST (articles.tests.ArticleDetailViewTest)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/christopher.chough/article_directory/articles/tests.py", line 126, in test_can_publish_article_from_POST
self.assertEqual(correct_article_two.published, True)
AssertionError: False != True
Ran 17 tests in 2.340s
FAILED (failures=1)

Answer 1

Object in your test method not updated. You can use refresh_from_db method to update it after changes:
def test_can_publish_article_from_POST(self):
other_article_two = Article.objects.create(name='Test Name One', author=User.objects.get(email='testuser#gmail.com'))
correct_article_two = Article.objects.create(name='Test Name Two', author=User.objects.get(email='testuser#gmail.com'))
response = self.client.post(reverse('publish_article', kwargs={'pk' : correct_article_two.pk}))
correct_article_two.refresh_from_db() # Add this line
self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 302)
self.assertRedirects(response, f'/articles/{correct_article_two.pk}/')
self.assertEqual(correct_article_two.published, True)