Python mock patch not reseting the return value

Question

I am writing test cases using python mock library.

class AddressByPhoneTestCase(TestCase):
    def test_no_content_found_with_mock(self):
        print "this function will mock Contact model get_by_phone to return none"
        with mock.patch('user_directory.models.Contact') as fake_contact:
            print "fake_contact_id ", id(fake_contact)
            conf = { 'get_by_phone.return_value': None }
            fake_contact.configure_mock(**conf)
            resp = self.client.get(reverse('get_address_by_phone'), {'phone_no' : 1234567891})
            self.assertTrue(resp.status_code == 204)

    def test_success_with_mock(self):
        print  "this function will test the address by phone view after mocking model"
        with mock.patch('user_directory.models.Contact') as fake_contact:
            print "fake_contact_id ", id(fake_contact)
            contact_obj = Contact(recent_address_id = 123, best_address_id = 456)
            conf = { 'get_by_phone.return_value': contact_obj }
            fake_contact.configure_mock(**conf)
            resp = self.client.get(reverse('get_address_by_phone'), {'phone_no' : 1234567891})
            resp_body = json.loads(resp.content)
            self.assertTrue(resp_body == {  'recent_address_id' : 123, 
                                            'frequent_address_id' : 456
                                        }
                        )

In the second case Contact.get_by_phone is still returning None even though I changed it to return a contact_obj, when I removed the upper test case, this test cases passes but fails otherwise citing the upper reason Someone help, how can i make the python mock patch to reset the value.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Don't know the real reason for it, but it seems you need to import the parent of the function/class you are testing.

I had written this line in my views.py

from user_directory.models import Contact

Contact was unaffected by mock.patch. See an example here. Hence I changed my code to the following and it worked like a charm.

def test_no_content_found_with_patch(self):
    print "this function will mock Contact model get_by_phone to return none"
    with mock.patch('user_directory.models.Contact.get_by_phone') as fake_func:
        fake_func.return_value = None
        resp = self.client.get(self.get_address_by_phone, {'phone_no' : 1234567891})
        self.assertTrue(resp.status_code == 204)

def test_success_with_patch(self):
    print  "this function will test the address by phone view after mocking model"
    with mock.patch('user_directory.models.Contact.get_by_phone') as fake_func:
        contact_obj = Contact(recent_address_id = 123, best_address_id = 457)
        fake_func.return_value = contact_obj
        resp = self.client.get(self.get_address_by_phone, {'phone_no' : 1234567891})
        resp_body = json.loads(resp.content)
        self.assertTrue(resp_body == {  'recent_address_id' : contact_obj.recent_address_id, 
                                        'frequent_address_id' : 457
                                    }
                    )

See this line

with mock.patch('user_directory.models.Contact.get_by_phone') as fake_func

This should work fine, but the original post should work as well. Please update when you can make your original post worked as is, thanks — Gang, Jan 23 '16 at 21:47
@Gang No above doesn't work. Above will work if in my views I do this from user_directory import models. and use models.Contact instead of Contact — Anubhav Agarwal, Jan 24 '16 at 06:37

Python mock patch not reseting the return value

1 Answers1