Testing Odoo

There are many ways to test an application. In Odoo, we have three kinds of tests

• Python unit tests (see Testing Python code): useful for testing model business logic

• JS unit tests (see Testing JS code): useful to test the javascript code in isolation

• Tours (see Integration Testing): tours simulate a real situation. They ensures that the python and the javascript parts properly talk to each other.

Testing Python code

Odoo provides support for testing modules using Python’s unittest library.

To write tests, simply define a tests sub-package in your module, it will be automatically inspected for test modules. Test modules should have a name starting with test_ and should be imported from tests/__init__.py, e.g.

your_module
├── ...
├── tests
|   ├── __init__.py
|   ├── test_bar.py
|   └── test_foo.py

and __init__.py contains:

from . import test_foo, test_bar

Warning

test modules which are not imported from tests/__init__.py will not be run

The test runner will simply run any test case, as described in the official unittest documentation, but Odoo provides a number of utilities and helpers related to testing Odoo content (modules, mainly):

By default, tests are run once right after the corresponding module has been installed. Test cases can also be configured to run after all modules have been installed, and not run right after the module installation:

# coding: utf-8
from odoo.tests import HttpCase, tagged

# This test should only be executed after all modules have been installed.
@tagged('-at_install', 'post_install')
class WebsiteVisitorTests(HttpCase):
  def test_create_visitor_on_tracked_page(self):
      Page = self.env['website.page']

The most common situation is to use TransactionCase and test a property of a model in each method:

class TestModelA(TransactionCase):
    def test_some_action(self):
        record = self.env['model.a'].create({'field': 'value'})
        record.some_action()
        self.assertEqual(
            record.field,
            expected_field_value)

    # other tests...

Note

Test methods must start with test_

Running tests

Tests are automatically run when installing or updating modules if --test-enable was enabled when starting the Odoo server.

Test selection

In Odoo, Python tests can be tagged to facilitate the test selection when running tests.

Subclasses of odoo.tests.BaseCase (usually through TransactionCase or HttpCase) are automatically tagged with standard and at_install by default.

Invocation

--test-tags can be used to select/filter tests to run on the command-line. It implies --test-enable, so it’s not necessary to specify --test-enable when using --test-tags.

This option defaults to +standard meaning tests tagged standard (explicitly or implicitly) will be run by default when starting Odoo with --test-enable.

When writing tests, the tagged() decorator can be used on test classes to add or remove tags.

The decorator’s arguments are tag names, as strings.

Danger

tagged() is a class decorator, it has no effect on functions or methods

Tags can be prefixed with the minus (-) sign, to remove them instead of add or select them e.g. if you don’t want your test to be executed by default you can remove the standard tag:

from odoo.tests import TransactionCase, tagged

@tagged('-standard', 'nice')
class NiceTest(TransactionCase):
    ...

This test will not be selected by default, to run it the relevant tag will have to be selected explicitly:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags nice

Note that only the tests tagged nice are going to be executed. To run both nice and standard tests, provide multiple values to --test-tags: on the command-line, values are additive (you’re selecting all tests with any of the specified tags)

$ odoo-bin --test-tags nice,standard

The config switch parameter also accepts the + and - prefixes. The + prefix is implied and therefore, totally optional. The - (minus) prefix is made to deselect tests tagged with the prefixed tags, even if they are selected by other specified tags e.g. if there are standard tests which are also tagged as slow you can run all standard tests except the slow ones:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags 'standard,-slow'

When you write a test that does not inherit from the BaseCase, this test will not have the default tags, you have to add them explicitly to have the test included in the default test suite. This is a common issue when using a simple unittest.TestCase as they’re not going to get run:

import unittest
from odoo.tests import tagged

@tagged('standard', 'at_install')
class SmallTest(unittest.TestCase):
    ...

Besides tags you can also specify specific modules, classes or functions to test. The full syntax of the format accepted by --test-tags is:

[-][tag][/module][:class][.method]

So if you want to test the stock_account module, you can use:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags /stock_account

If you want to test a specific function with a unique name, it can be specified directly:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags .test_supplier_invoice_forwarded_by_internal_user_without_supplier

This is equivalent to

$ odoo-bin --test-tags /account:TestAccountIncomingSupplierInvoice.test_supplier_invoice_forwarded_by_internal_user_without_supplier

if the name of the test is unambiguous. Multiple modules, classes and functions can be specified at once separated by a , like with regular tags.

Special tags

• standard: All Odoo tests that inherit from BaseCase are implicitly tagged standard. --test-tags also defaults to standard.

  That means untagged test will be executed by default when tests are enabled.

• at_install: Means that the test will be executed right after the module installation and before other modules are installed. This is a default implicit tag.

• post_install: Means that the test will be executed after all the modules are installed. This is what you want for HttpCase tests most of the time.

  Note that this is not exclusive with at_install, however since you will generally not want both post_install is usually paired with -at_install when tagging a test class.

Examples

Important

Tests will be executed only in installed modules. If you’re starting from a clean database, you’ll need to install the modules with the -i switch at least once. After that it’s no longer needed, unless you need to upgrade the module, in which case -u can be used. For simplicity, those switches are not specified in the examples below.

Run only the tests from the sale module:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags /sale

Run the tests from the sale module but not the ones tagged as slow:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags '/sale,-slow'

Run only the tests from stock or tagged as slow:

$ odoo-bin --test-tags '-standard, slow, /stock'

Note

-standard is implicit (not required), and present for clarity

Testing JS code

Testing a complex system is an important safeguard to prevent regressions and to guarantee that some basic functionality still works. Since Odoo has a non trivial codebase in Javascript, it is necessary to test it. In this section, we will discuss the practice of testing JS code in isolation: these tests stay in the browser, and are not supposed to reach the server.

Qunit test suite

The Odoo framework uses the QUnit library testing framework as a test runner. QUnit defines the concepts of tests and modules (a set of related tests), and gives us a web based interface to execute the tests.

For example, here is what a pyUtils test could look like:

QUnit.module('py_utils');

QUnit.test('simple arithmetic', function (assert) {
    assert.expect(2);

    var result = pyUtils.py_eval("1 + 2");
    assert.strictEqual(result, 3, "should properly evaluate sum");
    result = pyUtils.py_eval("42 % 5");
    assert.strictEqual(result, 2, "should properly evaluate modulo operator");
});

The main way to run the test suite is to have a running Odoo server, then navigate a web browser to /web/tests. The test suite will then be executed by the web browser Javascript engine.

The web UI has many useful features: it can run only some submodules, or filter tests that match a string. It can show every assertions, failed or passed, rerun specific tests, …

Warning

While the test suite is running, make sure that:

• your browser window is focused,

• it is not zoomed in/out. It needs to have exactly 100% zoom level.

If this is not the case, some tests will fail, without a proper explanation.

Testing Infrastructure

Here is a high level overview of the most important parts of the testing infrastructure:

• there is an asset bundle named web.qunit_suite. This bundle contains the main code (assets common + assets backend), some libraries, the QUnit test runner and the test bundles listed below.

• a bundle named web.tests_assets includes most of the assets and utils required by the test suite: custom QUnit asserts, test helpers, lazy loaded assets, etc.

• another asset bundle, web.qunit_suite_tests, contains all the test scripts. This is typically where the test files are added to the suite.

• there is a controller in web, mapped to the route /web/tests. This controller simply renders the web.qunit_suite template.

• to execute the tests, one can simply point its browser to the route /web/tests. In that case, the browser will download all assets, and QUnit will take over.

• there is some code in qunit_config.js which logs in the console some information when a test passes or fails.

• we want the runbot to also run these tests, so there is a test (in test_js.py) which simply spawns a browser and points it to the web/tests url. Note that the browser_js method spawns a Chrome headless instance.

Modularity and testing

With the way Odoo is designed, any addon can modify the behaviour of other parts of the system. For example, the voip addon can modify the FieldPhone widget to use extra features. This is not really good from the perspective of the testing system, since this means that a test in the addon web will fail whenever the voip addon is installed (note that the runbot runs the tests with all addons installed).

At the same time, our testing system is good, because it can detect whenever another module breaks some core functionality. There is no complete solution to this issue. For now, we solve this on a case by case basis.

Usually, it is not a good idea to modify some other behaviour. For our voip example, it is certainly cleaner to add a new FieldVOIPPhone widget and modify the few views that needs it. This way, the FieldPhone widget is not impacted, and both can be tested.

Adding a new test case

Let us assume that we are maintaining an addon my_addon, and that we want to add a test for some javascript code (for example, some utility function myFunction, located in my_addon.utils). The process to add a new test case is the following:

1. create a new file my_addon/static/tests/utils_tests.js. This file contains the basic code to add a QUnit module my_addon > utils.

   odoo.define('my_addon.utils_tests', function (require) {
   "use strict";
   
   var utils = require('my_addon.utils');
   
   QUnit.module('my_addon', {}, function () {
   
       QUnit.module('utils');
   
   });
   });
   

2. In my_addon/assets.xml, add the file to the main test assets:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <odoo>
       <template id="qunit_suite_tests" name="my addon tests" inherit_id="web.qunit_suite_tests">
           <xpath expr="//script[last()]" position="after">
               <script type="text/javascript" src="/my_addon/static/tests/utils_tests.js"/>
           </xpath>
       </template>
   </odoo>
   

3. Restart the server and update my_addon, or do it from the interface (to make sure the new test file is loaded)

4. Add a test case after the definition of the utils sub test suite:

   QUnit.test("some test case that we want to test", function (assert) {
       assert.expect(1);
   
       var result = utils.myFunction(someArgument);
       assert.strictEqual(result, expectedResult);
   });
   

5. Visit /web/tests/ to make sure the test is executed

Helper functions and specialized assertions

Without help, it is quite difficult to test some parts of Odoo. In particular, views are tricky, because they communicate with the server and may perform many rpcs, which needs to be mocked. This is why we developed some specialized helper functions, located in test_utils.js.

• Mock test functions: these functions help setting up a test environment. The most important use case is mocking the answers given by the Odoo server. These functions use a mock server. This is a javascript class that simulates answers to the most common model methods: read, search_read, nameget, …

• DOM helpers: useful to simulate events/actions on some specific target. For example, testUtils.dom.click performs a click on a target. Note that it is safer than doing it manually, because it also checks that the target exists, and is visible.

• create helpers: they are probably the most important functions exported by test_utils.js. These helpers are useful to create a widget, with a mock environment, and a lot of small detail to simulate as much as possible the real conditions. The most important is certainly createView.

• qunit assertions: QUnit can be extended with specialized assertions. For Odoo, we frequently test some DOM properties. This is why we made some assertions to help with that. For example, the containsOnce assertion takes a widget/jQuery/HtmlElement and a selector, then checks if the target contains exactly one match for the css selector.

For example, with these helpers, here is what a simple form test could look like:

QUnit.test('simple group rendering', function (assert) {
    assert.expect(1);

    var form = testUtils.createView({
        View: FormView,
        model: 'partner',
        data: this.data,
        arch: '<form string="Partners">' +
                '<group>' +
                    '<field name="foo"/>' +
                '</group>' +
            '</form>',
        res_id: 1,
    });

    assert.containsOnce(form, 'table.o_inner_group');

    form.destroy();
});

Notice the use of the testUtils.createView helper and of the containsOnce assertion. Also, the form controller was properly destroyed at the end of the test.

Best Practices

In no particular order:

• all test files should be added in some_addon/static/tests/

• for bug fixes, make sure that the test fails without the bug fix, and passes with it. This ensures that it actually works.

• try to have the minimal amount of code necessary for the test to work.

• usually, two small tests are better than one large test. A smaller test is easier to understand and to fix.

• always cleanup after a test. For example, if your test instantiates a widget, it should destroy it at the end.

• no need to have full and complete code coverage. But adding a few tests helps a lot: it makes sure that your code is not completely broken, and whenever a bug is fixed, it is really much easier to add a test to an existing test suite.

• if you want to check some negative assertion (for example, that a HtmlElement does not have a specific css class), then try to add the positive assertion in the same test (for example, by doing an action that changes the state). This will help avoid the test to become dead in the future (for example, if the css class is changed).

Tips

• running only one test: you can (temporarily!) change the QUnit.test(…) definition into QUnit.only(…). This is useful to make sure that QUnit only runs this specific test.

• debug flag: most create utility functions have a debug mode (activated by the debug: true parameter). In that case, the target widget will be put in the DOM instead of the hidden qunit specific fixture, and more information will be logged. For example, all mocked network communications will be available in the console.

• when working on a failing test, it is common to add the debug flag, then comment the end of the test (in particular, the destroy call). With this, it is possible to see the state of the widget directly, and even better, to manipulate the widget by clicking/interacting with it.

Integration Testing

Testing Python code and JS code separately is very useful, but it does not prove that the web client and the server work together. In order to do that, we can write another kind of test: tours. A tour is a mini scenario of some interesting business flow. It explains a sequence of steps that should be followed. The test runner will then create a PhantomJs browser, point it to the proper url and simulate the click and inputs, according to the scenario.

Writing a test tour

Structure

To write a test tour for your_module, start with creating the required files:

your_module
├── ...
├── static
|   └── tests
|       └── tours
|           └── your_tour.js
├── tests
|   ├── __init__.py
|   └── test_calling_the_tour.py
└── __manifest__.py

You can then:

• update __manifest__.py to add your_tour.js in the assets.

  'assets': {
      'web.assets_tests': [
          'your_module/static/tests/tours/your_tour.js',
      ],
  },
  

• update __init__.py in the folder tests to import test_calling_the_tour.

See also

• Assets Bundle

• Testing Python code

Javascript

1. Setup your tour by registering it.

   import tour from 'web_tour.tour';
   tour.register('rental_product_configurator_tour', {
       url: '/web',  // Here, you can specify any other starting url
       test: true,
   }, [
       // Your sequence of steps
   ]);
   

2. Add any step you want.

Every step contains at least a trigger. You can either use the predefined steps or write your own personalized step.

Here are some example of steps:

Example

// First step
tour.stepUtils.showAppsMenuItem(),
// Second step
{
   trigger: '.o_app[data-menu-xmlid="your_module.maybe_your_module_menu_root"]',
   isActive: ['community'],  // Optional
   run: "click",
}, {
    // Third step
},

Example

{
    trigger: '.js_product:has(strong:contains(Chair floor protection)) .js_add',
    run: "click",
},

Example

{
    isActive: ["mobile", "enterprise"],
    content: "Click on Add a product link",
    trigger: 'a:contains("Add a product")',
    tooltipPosition: "bottom",
    async run(helpers) { //Exactly the same as run: "click"
      helpers.click();
    }
},

Here are some possible arguments for your personalized steps:

• trigger: Required, Selector/element to run an action on. The tour will wait until the element exists and is visible before run-ing the action on it.

• run: Optional, Action to perform on the trigger element. If no run, no action.

  The action can be:

  • A function, asynchronous, executed with the trigger’s Tip as context (this) and the action helpers as parameter.

  • The name of one of the action helpers, which will be run on the trigger element:

    check

    Ensures that the trigger element is checked. This helper is intended for <input[type=checkbox]> elements only.

    clear

    Clears the value of the trigger element. This helper is intended for <input> or <textarea> elements only.

    click

    Clicks the trigger element, performing all the relevant intermediate events.

    dblclick,

    Same as click with two repetitions.

    drag_and_drop target

    Simulates the dragging of the trigger element over to the target.

    edit content

    clear the element and then fill the content.

    editor content

    Focus the trigger element (wysiwyg) and then press the content.

    fill content

    Focus the trigger element and then press the content. This helper is intended for <input> or <textarea> elements only.

    hover

    Performs a hover sequence on the trigger element.

    press content

    Performs a keyboard event sequence.

    range content

    Focus the trigger element and set content as value. This helper is intended for <input[type=range]> elements only.

    select value

    Performs a selection event sequence on trigger element. Select the option by its value. This helper is intended for <select> elements only.

    selectByIndex index

    Same as select but select the option by its index. Note that first option has index 0.

    selectByLabel label

    Same as select but select the option by its label.

    uncheck

    Ensures that the trigger element is unchecked. This helper is intended for <input[type=checkbox]> elements only.

• isActive: Optional, Activates the step only if all conditions of isActive array are met. - Browser is in either desktop or mobile mode. - The tour concerns either community or enterprise edition. - The tour is run in either auto (runbot) or manual (onboarding) mode.

• tooltipPosition: Optional, "top", "right", "bottom", or "left". Where to position the tooltip relative to the target when running interactive tours.

• content: Optional but recommended, the content of the tooltip in interactive tours, also logged to the console so very useful to trace and debug automated tours.

• timeout: How long to wait until the step can run, in milliseconds, 10000 (10 seconds).

Important

The last step(s) of a tour should always return the client to a “stable” state (e.g. no ongoing editions) and ensure all side-effects (network requests) have finished running to avoid race conditions or errors during teardown.

See also

• jQuery documentation about find

Python

To start a tour from a python test, make the class inherit from HTTPCase, and call start_tour:

def test_your_test(self):
    # Optional Setup
    self.start_tour("/web", 'your_module.your_tour_name', login="admin")
    # Optional verifications

Debugging tips

Observing tours in a browser

There are three ways with different tradeoffs:

watch=True

When running a tour locally via the test suite, the watch=True parameter can be added to the browser_js or start_tour call:

self.start_tour("/web", code, watch=True)

This will automatically open a Chrome window with the tour being run inside it.

Advantages

• always works if the tour has Python setup / surrounding code, or multiple steps

• runs entirely automatically (just select the test which launches the tour)

• transactional (should always be runnable multiple times)

Drawbacks

• only works locally

• only works if the test / tour can run correctly locally

debug=True

When running a tour locally via the test suite, the debug=True parameter can be added to the browser_js or start_tour call:

self.start_tour("/web", code, debug=True)

This will automatically open a fullscreen Chrome window with opened devtools and a debugger breakpoint set at the start of the tour. The tour is ran with the debug=assets query parameter. When an error is thrown, the debugger stops on the exception.

Advantages

• Same advantages as mode watch=True

• Easier to debug steps

Drawbacks

• only works locally

• only works if the test / tour can run correctly locally

Run via browser

Tours can also be launched via the browser UI, either by calling

odoo.startTour(tour_name);

in the javascript console, or by enabling tests mode by setting ?debug=tests in the URL, then selecting Start Tour in the debug menu and picking a tour:

Advantages

• easier to run

• can be used on production or test sites, not just local instances

• allows running in “Onboarding” mode (manual steps)

Drawbacks

• harder to use with test tours involving Python setup

• may not work multiple times depending on tour side-effects

Tip

It’s possible to use this method to observe or interact with tours which require Python setup:

• add a python breakpoint before the relevant tour is started (start_tour or browser_js call)

• when the breakpoint is hit, open the instance in your browser

• run the tour

At this point the Python setup will be visible to the browser, and the tour will be able to run.

You may want to comment the start_tour or browser_js call if you also want the test to continue afterwards, depending on the tour’s side-effects.

Screenshots and screencasts during browser_js tests

When running tests that use HttpCase.browser_js from the command line, the Chrome browser is used in headless mode. By default, if a test fails, a PNG screenshot is taken at the moment of the failure and written in

'/tmp/odoo_tests/{db_name}/screenshots/'

Two new command line arguments were added since Odoo 13.0 to control this behavior: --screenshots and --screencasts

Introspecting / debugging steps

When trying to fix / debug a tour, the screenshots (on failure) are not necessarily sufficient. In that case it can be useful to see what’s happening at some or each step.

While this is pretty easy when in an “onboarding” (as they’re mostly driven explicitly by the user) it’s more complicated when running “test” tours, or when running tours through the test suite. In that case there are two main tricks:

• A step property break: true, in debug mode (debug=True).

  This adds a debugger breakpoint at the start of the step. You can then add your own wherever you need.

  Advantages

  • very simple

  • the tour continues as soon as you resume execution

  Drawbacks

  • page interaction is limited as all javascript is blocked

• A step property pause: true, in debug mode (debug=True).

  The tour will stop at the end of the step. This allows inspecting and interacting with the page until the developer is ready to resume by typing play(); in the browser console.

  Advantages

  • allows interacting with the page

  • no useless (for this situation) debugger UI

• A step with a run() { debugger; } action.

  This can be added to an existing step, or can be a new dedicated step. Once the step’s trigger is matched, the execution will stop all javascript execution.

  Advantages

  • simple

  • the tour continues as soon as you resume execution

  Drawbacks

  • page interaction is limited as all javascript is blocked

  • the debugger is triggered after trying to find targeted element defined in the step.

Performance Testing

Query counts

One of the ways to test performance is to measure database queries. Manually, this can be tested with the --log-sql CLI parameter. If you want to establish the maximum number of queries for an operation, you can use the assertQueryCount() method, integrated in Odoo test classes.

with self.assertQueryCount(11):
    do_something()