How to mock <ModelClass>.query.filter_by() in Flask-SqlAlchemy

Question

In brief

When testing a model class in Flask-SqlAlchemy, how can we mock the method .query.filter_by() so as to return the list of mocked model objects?

Full details

Let's say we have a model class as below code

from flask.ext.sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
db = SQLAlchemy()
class SomeModel(db.Model):
    # more column mapping and methods go here

Then in our Flask code we call

SomeModel.query.filter_by(...)

In our testing code, using Python unittest model with mocking, we want to mock the filter_by() call so that it returns a list of model objects under our designed test case.

How can we get to that?

p.s.

My google search only found this related post; though applying @patch("flask_sqlalchemy.SignallingSession", autospec=True) at the beginning of the class not work for me.

I also tried to mock the function as below code snippet

@patch('app.model.some_model.SomeModel.query.filter_by')
def test_some_case(self, filterbyMOCK):
    # more test logic goes here

and the code get immediate error when started

RuntimeError: application not registered on db instance and no application bound to current context

The full error from PyCharm IDE as snapshot below.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock/mock.py", line 1297, in patched
    arg = patching.__enter__()
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock/mock.py", line 1353, in __enter__
    self.target = self.getter()
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock/mock.py", line 1523, in <lambda>
    getter = lambda: _importer(target)
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock/mock.py", line 1210, in _importer
    thing = _dot_lookup(thing, comp, import_path)
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock/mock.py", line 1197, in _dot_lookup
    return getattr(thing, comp)
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 428, in __get__
    return type.query_class(mapper, session=self.sa.session())
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/orm/scoping.py", line 78, in __call__
    return self.registry()
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sqlalchemy/util/_collections.py", line 990, in __call__
    return self.registry.setdefault(key, self.createfunc())
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 136, in __init__
    self.app = db.get_app()
  File "/home/namgivu/NN/code/someproject-cloud/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flask_sqlalchemy/__init__.py", line 809, in get_app
    raise RuntimeError('application not registered on db '
RuntimeError: application not registered on db instance and no application bound to current context

Answer 1

You'll have to mock the whole mapper class; accessing the query attribute on the mapper causes a session load:

@patch('app.model.some_model.SomeModel')
def test_some_case(self, some_model_mock):
    filter_by_mock = some_model_mock.query.filter_by
    # more test logic goes here

That's because the .query attribute is a descriptor object; accessing it triggers the binding to a session.

The alternative would be to mock out the _QueryProperty.__get__ method (which backs the .query attribute); only use this if you must test with actual SomeModel instances:

@patch('flask_sqlalchemy._QueryProperty.__get__')
def test_some_case(self, query_property_getter_mock):
    filter_by_mock = query_property_getter_mock.return_value.filter_by
    # more test logic goes here

Demo:

>>> from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
>>> db = SQLAlchemy()
>>> class SomeModel(db.Model):
...     id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
...
>>> from unittest import mock
>>> with mock.patch('__main__.SomeModel') as model_mock:
...     filter_by = model_mock.query.filter_by
...     SomeModel.query.filter_by(SomeModel.id == 'foo')
...
<MagicMock name='SomeModel.query.filter_by()' id='4438980312'>
>>> with mock.patch('flask_sqlalchemy._QueryProperty.__get__') as query_property_getter_mock:
...     filter_by_mock = query_property_getter_mock.return_value.filter_by
...     SomeModel.query.filter_by(SomeModel.id == 'foo')
...
<MagicMock name='__get__().filter_by()' id='4439035184'>

Answer 2

Just a sum-up from Martijn Pieters answer

Target

• We want to mock .query.filter_by().all() result e.g. SomeModel.query.filter_by().all()

Code 01

@patch('flask_sqlalchemy._QueryProperty.__get__')
def test (
  self,
  queryMOCK,
):

  #setup
  queryMOCK\
    .return_value.filter_by\
    .return_value.all\
    .return_value = [1,22]

  #get actual
  modelObj = SomeModel.query.filter_by().all()
  print(modelObj)

Code 02 - similar as above and using with

def test(self):
  with patch('flask_sqlalchemy._QueryProperty.__get__') as queryMOCK      #setup
    queryMOCK\
      .return_value.filter_by\
      .return_value.all\
      .return_value = [1,22]

    #get actual
    modelObj = SomeModel.query.filter_by().all()
    print(modelObj)