With Akita's Django integration, you can build an Akita spec from your Django integration tests! Here's how it works.

1. You can use the Akita/Django test client (akita_django.test.Client) as a nearly-drop-in replacement for Django's test client (django.test.Client). The Akita client behaves just like the Django client, but it also creates a HAR file logging the requests and responses your integration tests send and receive through the client. Note: You will need to call akita_django.test.Client.close(), which is not necessarily with django.test.Client. See Replace the Client below.

2. Once you have a HAR file, you can use Akita's apispec command to turn it into a spec.

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Why a Django integration?

The Django test client makes Django tests more efficient by exercising your service without the extra overhead of running it as a full-fledged HTTP server. However, this means that Akita can't build a spec by watching network traffic, because the Django test client executes requests directly against your service, without sending traffic over the network.

The Akita/Django test client extends the Django test client to capture your traffic and output it as a HAR file.

Install akita-django

The first step is to install the PyPI package with the Akita/Django test client.

pip install akita-django

Replace the Client

Next, there are three changes to make to your integration tests:

1. Import akita_django.test.Client in place of django.test.Client.
2. (Optional) Set the output location for the HAR file.
3. Call client.close().

Here's a sample integration test with comments showing how to add the Akita/Django client.

# STEP 1: Import akita_django.test.Client instead of django.test.Client.
# from django.test import Client, TestCase
#
from akita_django.test import Client
from django.test import TestCase

from rest_framework import status

from .models import User, File
from .serializers import UserSerializer, FileSerializer


class UserTest(TestCase):
    """Tests for user-related APIs."""

    def setUp(self):
        # STEP 2 (optional): Set an output HAR file to save your trace.
        #  If not specified, this defaults to 
        #  `akita_trace_{timestamp}.har`.
        self.client = Client(har_file_path='akita_trace.user.har')

    def test_user_crud(self):
        kent = {
            "first_name": "Kent",
            "last_name": "Bazemore",
            "email": "[email protected]",
            "phone": "415-111-2233",
        }

        # Create user
        response = self.client.post('/users/', kent, content_type="application/json")
        expected = copy.deepcopy(kent)
        expected["id"] = response.data["id"]

    def tearDown(self):
        # STEP 3: Call `client.close()`.  This is necessary to terminate
        #  the JSON object in the HAR file and close the file descriptor.
        self.client.close()

This example comes from the Akibox Django Tutorial, a tutorial we created to showcase the Akita/Django integration.

Run your Integration Tests

After you've swapped in the Akita/Django client, run your tests! When they finish, you should see a HAR file in the location you specified when creating the client.

Next Steps

Now that you have a HAR file, you can use Akita's apispec command to turn it into a spec. Take a look at Generate Specs from Traffic for details.