Django test not loading fixture data - django

Question

I have written tests for a Django project that i am working on, but one particular fixture fails to load.
The fixture is generated using dumpdata and i havent fiddled with it at all.
I can load the data using manage.py on that fixture without errors. I have verified that the data actually loaded using shell and querying the data.
This is driving me nuts, any help would be much appreciated.
Here is my test file (irrelevant portions removed):
class ViewsFromUrls(TestCase):
fixtures = [
'centers/fixtures/test_data.json',
'intranet/fixtures/test_data.json',
'training/fixtures/test_data.json', #The one that fails to load
]
def setUp(self):
self.c = Client()
self.c.login(username='USER', password='PASS')
...
def test_ViewBatch(self):
b = Batch.objects.all()[0].ticket_number
response = self.c.get(reverse('training.views.view_batch', kwargs={'id':b}))
self.assertTrue(response.status_code, 200)
...

Answer 1

Import the TestCase from django.test:
from django.test import TestCase
class test_something(TestCase):
fixtures = ['one.json', 'two.json']
...
Not: import unittest
Not: import django.utils.unittest
But: import django.test
That's a day of frustration right there.
Stop complaining - it's in the docs :-/

Answer 2

I Am not sure if this fixes your problem, but on this site:
https://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Fixtures
I found an interesting remark:
you see that Django searches for appnames/fixtures and
settings.FIXTURE_DIRS and loads the first match. So if you use names
like testdata.json for your fixtures you must make sure that no other
active application uses a fixture with the same name. If not, you can
never be sure what fixtures you actually load. Therefore it is
suggested that you prefix your fixtures with the application names,
e.g. myapp/fixtures/myapp_testdata.json .
Applying this (renaming the fixtures with appname as prefix in the filename), solved my problem (I had the same issue as described here)

Answer 3

Check if the fixture is really in the right place. From the docs:
Django will search in three locations
for fixtures:
In the fixtures directory of every installed application
In any directory named in the FIXTURE_DIRS setting
In the literal path named by the fixture

Answer 4

One thing to note, when creating the FIXTURE_DIRS constant in your settings file, be sure to leave out the leading '/' if you have a general fixtures directory off of the root of your project.
Ex:
'/actual/path/to/my/app/fixtures/'
Now, in the settings.py file:
Will NOT work:
FIXTURE_DIRS = '/fixtures/'
Will work:
FIXTURE_DIRS = 'fixtures/'
It's possible this depends on how your other routes are configured, but it was a gotcha that had me scratching my head for a little while. Hope this is useful. Cheers.

Answer 5

A simple mistake I made was adding a custom setUpClass() and forgetting to include super().setUpClass() with it (which of course, is where Django's logic for loading fixtures lives)