{"id":3616,"date":"2022-07-03T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T08:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pythontutorial.net\/?page_id=3616"},"modified":"2022-07-09T07:46:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T07:46:55","slug":"python-mock-requests","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pythontutorial.net\/python-unit-testing\/python-mock-requests\/","title":{"rendered":"Python Mock Requests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/strong>: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to mock the requests<\/code> module in Python to test an API call using the unittest<\/a> module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The requests<\/code> module is an HTTP library that allows you to send HTTP requests easily. Typically, you use the requests<\/code> module to call an API from a remote server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scenario #<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the demo purposes, we’ll use a public API provided by jsonplaceholder.typicode.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n

https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com\/<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
To make an API call, you’ll use the requests<\/code> method to send an HTTP GET method to the following end-point:<\/p>\n\n\n
https:\/\/jsonplaceholder.typicode.com\/albums\/1<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
It’ll return JSON data in the following format:<\/p>\n\n\n
{\n  \"userId\"<\/span>: 1<\/span>,\n  \"id\"<\/span>: 1<\/span>,\n  \"title\"<\/span>: \"quidem molestiae enim\"<\/span>\n}<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Since the requests<\/code> module is not a built-in module, you need to install it by running the following pip command:<\/p>\n\n\n
pip install requests<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Making an API call using the requests module #<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The following defines a new module called album.py<\/code> with a function find_album_by_id()<\/code> that returns an album by an id:<\/p>\n\n\n
import<\/span> requests\n\n\ndef<\/span> find_album_by_id<\/span>(id)<\/span>:<\/span>\n    url = f'https:\/\/jsonplaceholder.typicode.com\/albums\/{id}<\/span>'<\/span>\n    response = requests.get(url)\n    if<\/span> response.status_code == 200<\/span>:\n        return<\/span> response.json()['title'<\/span>]\n    else<\/span>:\n        return<\/span> None<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
How it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, format the API end-point that includes the id parameter:<\/p>\n\n\n
url = f'https:\/\/jsonplaceholder.typicode.com\/albums\/{id}<\/span>'<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Second, call the get()<\/code> function of the requests module to get a Response<\/code> object:<\/p>\n\n\n
response = requests.get(url)<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Third, call the json()<\/code> method of the response object if the API call succeeds:<\/p>\n\n\n
if<\/span> response.status_code == 200<\/span>:\n   return<\/span> response.json()['title'<\/span>]\nelse<\/span>:\n   return<\/span> None<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
 The response.json()<\/code> returns a dictionary that represents the JSON data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creating a test module #<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We’ll create a test_album.py<\/code> test module that tests the functions in the album.py<\/code> module:<\/p>\n\n\n
import<\/span> unittest\n\nfrom<\/span> album import<\/span> find_album_by_id\n\n\nclass<\/span> TestAlbum<\/span>(unittest.TestCase)<\/span>:<\/span>\n   pass<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Python<\/span> (<\/span>python<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Mocking the requests module #<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The find_album_by_id()<\/code> function has two dependencies: <\/p>\n\n\n\n