Mocking Django for plugin: can't find settings.py - django

Question

I'm trying to write test for a django plugin called Dynamic Response (available on GitHub), but I'm having some issues. Using mock I'm trying to mock certain Django methods like render_to_response, (i'm not going to test django after all) but when I try to do so, i get an error message saying it can't find settings.py, which it shouldn't as this is a plugin to be used in other projects, not a project in itself. I've tried the following code:
class ResponseTest (unittest.TestCase):
#patch('dynamicresponse.response.render_to_response')
def test_is_testframework_working(self, render_to_response):
from dynamicresponse.response import SerializeOrRender
SerializeOrRender()
Which, as stated, gives an error message. Stubbing HttpResponse, HttpRedirect does not throw these errors...
gives the following stacktrace
Response (unittest.loader.ModuleImportFailure) ... ERROR
======================================================================
ERROR: response (unittest.loader.ModuleImportFailure)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError: Failed to import test module: response
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py", line 252, in _find_tests
module = self._get_module_from_name(name)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py", line 230, in _get_module_from_name
__import__(name)
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/tests/response.py", line 5, in <module>
class ResponseTest (unittest.TestCase):
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/tests/response.py", line 7, in ResponseTest
#patch('dynamicresponse.response.render_to_response')
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/tests/mock.py", line 720, in patch
target = _importer(target)
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/tests/mock.py", line 514, in _importer
thing = _dot_lookup(thing, comp, import_path)
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/tests/mock.py", line 503, in _dot_lookup
__import__(import_path)
File "/Users/skinney/Workspace/django-dynamicresponse/dynamicresponse/response.py", line 3, in <module>
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/shortcuts/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
from django.db.models.manager import Manager
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 14, in <module>
if not settings.DATABASES:
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 276, in __getattr__
self._setup()
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 40, in _setup
raise ImportError("Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable %s is undefined." % ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE)
ImportError: Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is undefined.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s
FAILED (errors=1)

Answer 1

You can't test django apps without any project (real or dummy, whatever) having its own settings file.