The Pywikibot tests are based on the unittest framework.

The tests package provides a function load_tests that supports the load tests protocol. The default ordering begins with tests of underlying components, then tests site and page semantics, and finishes with tests of the scripts and finally any tests which have not been inserted into the ordered list of tests.

A function collector also exists in the 'tests' package.

The entire suite of tests may be run in the following ways from the root directory:

setup.py

pip install pytest
pip install pytest-runner
python setup.py pytest

Module unittest

python -m unittest discover -v -p "*_tests.py"

pytest

py.test

tox

tox

Individual test components can be run using unittest, pytest or pwb. With -lang and -family or -site options pwb can be used to specify a site.

unittest

python -m unittest -v tests.api_tests tests.site_tests
python -m unittest -v tests.api_tests.TestParamInfo.test_init

pytest

py.test -s -v tests/api_tests.py tests/site_tests.py
py.test -s -v tests/api_tests.py::TestParamInfo::test_init

pwb

python pwb.py tests/api_tests -v
python pwb.py tests/site_tests -v
python pwb.py tests/api_tests -v TestParamInfo.test_init
python pwb.py -lang:de -family:wikipedia tests/page_tests -v TestPageObject

env

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_MODULES=api,site python -m unittest -v

After changes are published into a GitHub repository, tests may be run on a Microsoft Windows box provided by ci.appveyor.com according to the configuration in .appveyor.yml file. To do this:

1. create a GitHub and AppVeyor account
2. fork the main GitHub repository
3. create a project in ci.appveyor.com
4. go to https://ci.appveyor.com/project/<username>/pywikibot/settings and enter the custom configuration .yml filename: .appveyor.yml
5. push changes into the forked git repository
6. watch the build at https://ci.appveyor.com/<username>/pywikibot/history

The 'user' tests are not yet enabled on AppVeyor builds.

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_GUI

Enable :mod:`tests.gui_tests`. Used for AppVeyor tests. GitHub actions would fail due to couldn't connect to display ":1.0" error. Set this environment variable to run this test locally:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_GUI=1

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_MODULES

Only run tests given with this environment variable. Multiple tests must be separated by a , without any white space. Available library tests are listed in :ref:`Library tests` and script tests can be found in :ref:`Script tests`. To enable only :mod:`tests.site_tests` and :mod:`tests.wikibase_tests` set the environment variable as:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_MODULES=site,wikibase

Note

test names must be given without subsequent _tests.

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_OAUTH

This environment variable holds the Oauth token. It is set by oauth_tests-ci.yml CI config file and is solely used by :mod:`tests.oauth_tests`. You can use it for your private tests. The environment variabke must contain consumer key and secret and access key and secret delimited by : as:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_OAUTH=consumer_key:consumer_secret:access_key:access:secret

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_RUNNING

This environment variable skips tests instead of raising :exc:`exceptions.MaxlagTimeoutError` when maximum retries attempted due to maxlag without success. It is also used by :mod:`tests.script_tests` for code coverage. GitHub actions and AppVeyor tests activate this variable:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_RUNNING=1

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_WRITE

There are also several other 'write' tests which also attempt to perform write operations successfully. These will write to the wikis, and they should always only write to 'test' wikis.

These 'write' tests are disabled by default, and currently cannot be run on Travis or AppVeyor as they require interaction using a terminal. Also enabling them won't enable 'edit failure' tests.

To enable 'write' tests, set:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_WRITE=1

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_WRITE_FAIL

There are a set of 'edit failure' tests, which attempt to write to the wikis and should fail. If there is a bug in pywikibot or MediaWiki, these tests may actually perform a write operation.

These 'edit failure' tests are disabled by default. On Travis they are enabled by default on builds by any other GitHub account except 'wikimedia'.

To disable 'edit failure' tests, set:

PYWIKIBOT_TEST_WRITE_FAIL=0

Instead of setting the environment by the os (or os.environ as well) you can use the :mod:`pwb` wrapper script to set it:

pwb PYWIKIBOT_TEST_AUTORUN=1 script_tests -v TestScriptSimulate.test_archivebot

The assignment can be omitted and defaults to 1. The following is equal to the line above:

pwb PYWIKIBOT_TEST_AUTORUN script_tests -v TestScriptSimulate.test_archivebot

pywikibot's test suite, including Python's unittest module, provides decorators to modify the behaviour of the test cases.

Skip a test if the condition is true. Refer to unittest's documentation.

import unittest
[......]
@unittest.skipIf(check_if_fatal(), 'Something is not okay.')
def test_skipIf(self):

Skip a test unless the condition is true. Refer to unittest's documentation.

import unittest
[......]
@unittest.skipUnless(check_if_true(), 'Something must happen.')
def test_skipUnless(self):

Require that the given list of modules can be imported.

from tests.aspects import require_modules
[......]
@require_modules(['important1', 'musthave2'])
def test_require_modules(self):

Require a given MediaWiki version

from tests.aspects import require_version
[......]
@require_version('>=1.27.0')
def test_require_version(self):

Replaces target with object specified in new. Refer to mock's documentation. This is especially useful in tests, where requests to third-parties should be avoided.

from unittest.mock import patch


def fake_ping(url):
  return 'pong'
[......]
@patch('http_ping', side_effect=fake_ping)
def test_patch(self):
  self.assertEqual('pong', http_ping())

Test modules should be named according to the pywikibot that is being tested. e.g. the module pywikibot.page is tested by tests.page_tests.

New test classes should be added to the existing test modules unless it tests a new component of pywikibot.

All test classes must be a subclass of tests.aspects.TestCase, which uses a metaclass to dynamically check the test can be run on a specified site, or run a test on multiple sites.

If a test depends on a specific site, add class attributes 'family' and code'.

family = 'wikipedia'
code = 'en'

Once declared, the Site object can be accessed at self.site.

If a test requires multiple specific sites, add a class attribute 'sites'.

sites = {
    'enwiki': {
        'family': 'wikipedia',
        'code': 'en',
    },
    'itwikt': {
        'family': 'wiktionary',
        'code': 'it',
    }
}

To obtain the Site object, call self.get_site with the key given to the site.

self.get_site('itwikt')

For tests which require network access to a website which is not an APISite, the class attribute 'sites' may include a hostname.

sites = {
    'wdq':
        'hostname': 'wdq.wmflabs.org',
    }
}

• net = False: test class does not use a site
• dry = True: test class can use a fake site object
• cached = True: test class may aggressively cache API responses
• login = True: test class needs to login to site
• rights = '<rights>': test class needs specific rights. Multiple rights must be delimited with ,.
• write = True: test class needs to write to a site