Running django tutorial tests fail - No module named polls.tests

Question

I'm playing with django 1.6 tutorial but i can't run tests. My project (name mydjango) and app structure (name is polls) are as shown below in a virtualenv. (.nja files are just created by ninja-ide the ide I'm using)

.
├── __init__.py
├── manage.py
├── mydjango
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __init__.pyc
│   ├── mydjango.nja
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── settings.pyc
│   ├── templates
│   │   └── admin
│   │       └── base_site.html
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── urls.pyc
│   ├── wsgi.py
│   └── wsgi.pyc
├── polls
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── admin.pyc
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── __init__.pyc
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── models.pyc
│   ├── templates
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── polls
│   │       ├── detail.html
│   │       ├── index.html
│   │       ├── __init__.py
│   │       └── results.html
│   ├── tests.py
│   ├── tests.pyc
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── urls.pyc
│   ├── views.py
│   └── views.pyc
└── polls.nja

I followed the tutorial to understand how django works but I'm stuck in the test part. As tutorial suggest I created a file named tests.py into the app folder, the pretty straightforward file is:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from django.test import TestCase
import datetime
from django.utils import timezone
from polls.models import Question

# Create your tests here.l  
class QuestionMethodTests(TestCase):

    def test_was_published_recently_with_future_poll(self):
        """
        was_published_recently dovrebbe ritornare falso se si mette una data nel futuro
        """
        future_question = Question(pub_date=timezone.now() + datetime.timedelta(hours=50))
        self.assertEqual(future_question.was_published_recently(), False)

then i installed unittest2 into the virtualenv with

$pip install unittest2

and run

$python manage.py test polls
Creating test database for alias 'default'...
E
======================================================================
ERROR: mydjango.polls.tests (unittest2.loader.ModuleImportFailure)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError: Failed to import test module: mydjango.polls.tests
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/sergio/.virtualenvs/django4/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/unittest2/loader.py", line 260, in _find_tests
    module = self._get_module_from_name(name)
  File "/home/sergio/.virtualenvs/django4/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/unittest2/loader.py", line 238, in _get_module_from_name
    __import__(name)
ImportError: No module named polls.tests


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.001s

FAILED (errors=1)
Destroying test database for alias 'default'...

No way to have the test working, also if don't pass the app name it returns the same error:

$ python manage.py test
Creating test database for alias 'default'...
E
======================================================================
ERROR: mydjango.polls.tests (unittest2.loader.ModuleImportFailure)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError: Failed to import test module: mydjango.polls.tests
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/sergio/.virtualenvs/django4/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/unittest2/loader.py", line 260, in _find_tests
    module = self._get_module_from_name(name)
  File "/home/sergio/.virtualenvs/django4/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/unittest2/loader.py", line 238, in _get_module_from_name
    __import__(name)
ImportError: No module named polls.tests


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.001s

FAILED (errors=1)
Destroying test database for alias 'default'...

My INSTALLED_APPS are:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'south',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'polls',
)

What am I doing wrong?

Floccose

syncdb and runserver commands work? – Fasciate

yes both of them, i mean they run without errors – Floccose

What OS did you have when encountered problem? We can't reproduce it's on Ubuntu, though have it on Mac – Affairs

@Affairs the os was ubuntu server 14.04 but as you can see it was some time ago - maybe things changed – Floccose

Answer 1

I had exactly the same issue with my Django project:

$ python manage test polls.tests

worked fine whereas the following failed with an import error:

$ python manage test polls
$ python manage test
(...)
ImportError: Failed to import test module: mydjango.polls.tests
Traceback (most recent call last):
(...)
ImportError: No module named polls.tests

Check carefully the error message: Django's test runner tries to import the tests from mydjango.polls.tests where mydjango is the name of the root directory (the container for your project).

I fixed this issue by deleting the __init__.py file in mydjango directory (at the same level than manage.py file). This directory is not supposed to be a python module and it seems to mess up with Django's test runner if it is the case.

So just deleting the _init_.py file should fix our problem:

$ rm mydjango/__init__.py

Fissure

Also if you're following the Django 1.9 tutorial to a tee, there's a typo at the command to run your new unit test. Make sure to run python manage.py test polls.tests not the documented python manage.py test polls – Umbles

@DylanPierce I'm pretty sure that the docs are correct. Running python manage.py test polls works for me, as long as I don't have an __init__.py in my project folder. – Gonnella

Lifesaver.. Thanks "So just deleting the init.py file should fix our problem: " worked like a charm.. :) – Elysia

Good spot, however the Django docs (section 2) state that we should use __init__.py to define models (I've seen migration break if this is not done). So this could be a Django bug. – Jacklynjackman

@MatthewHegarty this is not the same __init__.py file: Django documentation mentions models/__init__.py, the file to delete here is the project's __init__.py file (this file should not exist). – Fissure

Thanks a lot. I got this error after upgrading from django 2.7 to django 3. Resolving the init.py file solved the problem. – Litchfield

Deleting the init.py file located at the project's root folderr solved the issue for me. Very good to know, had been stuck for a while because of that. – Evora

Removing the __init__.py file solved my problem. Thanks. – Knickknack

Answer 2

For anyone else having the same problem, another reason for this to happen is if you have the same name for the root folder and the project folder.

For example:

mydjango
├── __init__.py
├── manage.py
├── mydjango
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
├── polls
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models.py
|   ├── tests.py
│   ├── templates

running ./manage.py test

throws errors No module named polls.tests

to fix it simply rename the root folder to something else like :

mydjango_project
├── __init__.py
├── manage.py
├── mydjango
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
├── polls
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models.py
|   ├── tests.py
│   ├── templates

Melodramatize

Alternatively, in Django 1.4+ you should remove mydjango/__init__.py, check github.com/django-nose/django-nose/issues/81 – Ascogonium

Answer 3

Anyhow running

$ python manage.py test polls.tests

It works, it's enough for me right now:

Creating test database for alias 'default'...
F
======================================================================
FAIL: test_was_published_recently_with_future_poll (polls.tests.QuestionMethodTests)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/sergio/.virtualenvs/django4/mydjango/polls/tests.py", line 17, in test_was_published_recently_with_future_poll
    self.assertEqual(future_question.was_published_recently(), False)
AssertionError: True != False

Floccose

While this is a viable work-around, I believe that pchiquet's answer should be selected as the correct answer as it actually solves the problem. – Gateway

+1 the accepted question should be the @Fissure one. – Howdy

Answer 4

first answer didn't work for me. im using win8, may be this is a reason. in terminal try to change dir to ./polls and the run

python ../manage.py test polls

Emmet