Django REST Testing: Attribute Missing

Question

I am trying to test a User model and view in a Python 3.4 environment, but I am having difficulties resolving an issue.

In my app, only staff users should be able to add/delete/modify a user profile. Hence, on setUp I create an admin user with the field is_staff set. Then, in the test case I force authentication as this admin user, which should allow me to create a new user. This code is shown below:

class UserTests(APITestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.admin = User(username='admin', password='pass', is_staff=True)
        self.admin.save()

    def test_create_user(self):
        """
        Ensure we can create a new user object without any optional fields.
        """
        url = reverse('user-list')
        data = {'username': 'adam', 'is_staff': False}
        self.client.force_authenticate(user='admin')
        response = self.client.post(url, data, format='json')
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        self.assertEqual(response.data, data)

Running this test case results in the follow error trace:

Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/Jonathan/GitHub/h2oiq_api/h2oiq_api/test.py", line 19, in test_create_user
    response = self.client.post(url, data, format='json')
    .
    .
    .
  File "/Users/Jonathan/.virtualenvs/h2oiq-api/lib/python3.4/site-packages/rest_framework/test.py", line 90, in post
    return self.generic('POST', path, data, content_type, **extra)
  File "/Users/Jonathan/.virtualenvs/h2oiq-api/lib/python3.4/site-packages/rest_framework/views.py", line 359, in initial
    self.check_permissions(request)
    .
    .
    .
  File "/Users/Jonathan/.virtualenvs/h2oiq-api/lib/python3.4/site-packages/rest_framework/views.py", line 304, in check_permissions
    if not permission.has_permission(request, self):
  File "/Users/Jonathan/.virtualenvs/h2oiq-api/lib/python3.4/site-packages/rest_framework/permissions.py", line 55, in has_permission
    return request.user and request.user.is_staff
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'is_staff'

Could someone please elaborate on why this attribute is missing? I have read the Django REST framework documentation thoroughly, especially the APIClient, Permissions, and BasicAuthentication guides, but I have not been able to find any additional info on this issue. I have tried commenting out the forced authentication, and that did not fix anything.

Any amount of help or insight is appreciated! I am learning Django REST as I go.

IIRC force_authenticate() should be getting a user object, not the string of the username. So self.client.force_authenticate(user=self.admin) in your case. — MrAlexBailey
– MrAlexBailey, Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 18:30

MrAlexBailey · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-20 18:36:42Z

1

force_authenticate() takes a user object for the user arguement, not the string of the username.

So in your case you'd use

self.client.force_authenticate(user=self.admin)

answered Aug 20, 2015 at 18:36

MrAlexBailey

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