django: Testing POST-based views with json objects

Question

I have a django application with several views that accept json objects via POST requests. The json objects are medium-complex with a few layers of nesting, so I'm using the json library to parse raw_post_data, as shown here:

def handle_ajax_call(request):
    post_json = json.loads(request.raw_post_data)

    ... (do stuff with json query)

Next, I want to write tests for these views. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to pass the json object to the Client. Here's a simplest-case version of my code:

def test_ajax_call(self):
    c = Client()
    call_command('loadfixtures', 'temp-fixtures-1') #Custom command to populate the DB

    J = {
      some_info : {
        attr1 : "AAAA",
        attr2 : "BBBB",
        list_attr : [ "x", "y", "z" ]
      },
      more_info : { ... },
      info_list : [ 1, 22, 23, 24, 5, 26, 7 ]
    }

    J_string = json.dumps(J)
    response = c.post('/ajax/call/', data=J_string )

When I run the test, it fails with:

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'items'

How can I pass the JSON object in the Client.post method?

Daniel Roseman · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-03 20:13:51Z

54

The documentation seems to imply that if you pass a content_type parameter to client.post, it will treat the data value as a document and POST it directly. So try this:

response = c.post('/ajax/call/', content_type='application/json', data=J_string)

answered Aug 3, 2012 at 20:13

Daniel Roseman

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5 Comments

Abe Over a year ago

Awesome! Thanks for decoding the fine print in the documentation. It never mentions json specifically, so it wasn't turning up in any of my searches.

Mark Chackerian Over a year ago

Note that for this particular use case, the request.is_ajax() probably doesn't work. So if you are using something like 'application/json' in request.META['CONTENT_TYPE'] to detect if the call is Ajax instead, Daniel's solution has the added benefit of properly setting the content type header.

Hassek Over a year ago

This is the post info I receive when adding that content type:

<QueryDict: {u'{"info_list": [1, 22, 23, 24, 5, 26, 7], "some_info": {"list_attr": ["x", "y", "z"], "attr2": "BBBB", "attr1": "AAAA"}}': [u'']}>

, so all the data becomes the key, that doesn't seems right.

mynameistechno Over a year ago

@Hassek you must not have dumped a json string like the question above. I was getting same issue until I did a json.dumps(data)

Mereva Over a year ago

@Abe did you manage to test your ajax view? i.e. your were able to retrieve data post from client in your view? I have open a post for an issue testing my ajax view so I would appreciate your kind help...

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