Test-Driven Development with Python, 3rd Edition

Part III. Forms and Validation

Now that we’ve got things into production, we’ll spend a bit of time on validation, a core topic in web development.

There’s quite a lot of Django-specific content in this part, so if you weren’t familiar with Django before starting on the book, you may find that taking a little time to run through the official Django tutorial will complement the next few chapters nicely.

With that said, there are lots of good lessons about test-driven development (TDD) in general in here too! So, alternatively, if you’re not that interested in Django itself, don’t worry too much about the details; instead, look out for the more general principles of testing.

Here’s a little preview of what we’ll cover:

• Splitting tests out across multiple files

• Using a decorator for Selenium waits/polling

• Database-layer validation and constraints

• HTML5 form validation in the frontend

• The Django forms framework

• The trade-offs of frameworks in general, and when to stop using them

• How far to go when testing for possible coding errors

• An overview of all the typical tests for Django views