Django 1.1 Testing and Debugging: Building rigorously tested and bug-free Django applications

Don't let the Django 1.1 label on the cover fool you, this is still the best book available on testing Django applications.

This book is nothing if not ambitious. Weighing in at over 400 pages, it aims to highlight the development of an entire web app, start to finish, with a particular emphasis on the testing and debugging tools that Django provides.Starting with the fundamentals of doctests and unit tests, the book also discusses what should be tested - not just how. And in doing this, the book reveals its target audience. I would particularly recommend this book for the following groups of people: developers who are relatively new to Django, and developers who are new to MVC frameworks in general.The book then moves on to describe some of the tools you can use to extend Django's testing and debugging capabilities - the django-debug-toolbar, and Twill to name two.A detailed discussion of Django error pages comes next, before what was, for me, the highlight of the book: an examination of PDB - the Python Debugger. If, like me, your initial exposure to Python came through Django, then you might well have missed some of the gems that the standard library contains, such as PDB. The book contains a detailed walkthrough of how to use PDB, and if you haven't used it before, well, you'll love it.The book ends with a chapter on deployment, even including a section on load testing. Advanced topics such as testing threading issues are covered here too, ensuring that even seasoned Django developers will learn something from this book.The book's greatest strength is its breadth - covering the entire development process from start to finish. If there's one flaw though, it is that it goes into a little too much detail in places. Like Juho, I could have done without the section on reporting bugs in Django.You shouldn't let that put you off though - if the worst criticism I can muster is 'too much detail', that has to be a good thing! In particular, if you want to learn how to test your Django applications properly, or are new to Django and want to see the testing and debugging tools on offer, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book.

First, a little about my background: I've been using Django for approximately 8 months, both professionally and for fun.This book really blew me away. I learned more new things in this book than I have reading the past 5 or so tech books alone. This book is extremely useful for any developers who would like to be better all around Django programmers, as it provides a solid, proven system for developing, testing, and debugging Django applications.The rest of my review will be spent breaking this book down for anyone interested.TARGET AUDIENCE---------------The target audience for this book are developers comfortable writing Django websites. This includes proficiency with:* models* forms* views* templates* settings (settings.py)* python modules* the concept of unit testing* the concept of 'agile development'If you are decent at any of the above, or can at least understand all of the terminology, and know WHY things work the way they do, then this book will be extremely useful to you.If you aren't really sure you know the topics above, consider reading another Django book before this one (but still buy this one).TOPICS COVERED--------------The book covers the following topics in-depth:* Running tests on Django websites / applications.* How to write useful doctests.* How to write useful unit tests.* Doctest dependence and creation / specification.* Unicode problems with doctests, and how to fix them.* Basic, intermediate, and advanced unit testing.* What to unit test, what not to worry about. (EG: Don't test native parts of Django, it is already tested.)* Environmental dependence in tests: database dependence, test interdependence, etc.* How to generate test fixtures.* How to use test fixtures.* Testing Django admin applications.* Testing emails.* Testing other HTTP methods.* Testing URL configurations.* Testing templates with Django's test client, and twil.* Using nose as a test runner.* How to understand Django's debug pages.* How to use PDB to do intensive low-level debugging of running applications.* How to perform performance / stress tests using siege.* Fixing multi-threaded coding errors.* Tracking SQL queries and optimizing SQL requests.* Using Django Debug Toolbar.* How to use the Django ticketing system.* How to deploy using mod_wsgi + apache for fast websites.* How to log code effectively using the native python logger.* How to get *real* coverage reports using django-coverage.OVERALL REVIEW--------------This book is by far the best book on agile development with Django that has been written. If it were up to me, I would require every programmer who uses Django to read this book before writing production code. It outlines the best practices for developing with Django (with a strong focus on testing), and WHY they are best practices.The author is an extremely good technical writer, and her focus and clarity is easily identifiable in the text. She is able to elegantly describe even the most complex thoughts, actions, and results with little reader friction.If you work with Django (for fun or profit), and haven't read this book, do yourself a favor and buy it. It will make a world of difference in your day-to-day work, and will make future programmers working on your code love you.It also covers details such as the best way to test models, how to test forms, etc., in a straightforward, easy to understand method.

Just finished <Django 1.1 Testing and Debugging> by Karen M. Tracy.The chapter on using the Python debugger alone was worth the cost of the entire book. Even though it (obviously) doesn't include information about Django's newer testing features/integration, all the information is incredibly relevant.The author walks the reader through building a simple survey application, addressing best practices on debugging, testing, efficiency and resiliency along the way. It reads like a brisk but casual conversation with the author -- I feel almost surprised at the amount of technical knowledge conveyed so effortlessly. No words wasted, no pointless ramblings.Highly recommended (if you're into this kinda thing).

A fantastic introduction, and deep delve into Django test-driven development. Much of the material applies to plain Python programming as well. If I had to pick just one book for a new Django developer, it would be this one, no question.Only relatively recently has the Django community started to develop a good test-driven methodology, and I suspect this book might be part of the reason why -- it's a brilliant book.Don't let the slightly unfortunate title put you off, it's just as useful to users of Django 1.3 -- the only outdated advice are a couple of places where the author points out something that doesn't quite work yet, that now works in the latest versions of Django.There are relatively few nits. The visual presentation isn't great, and it can sometimes be a little difficult to follow along with the examples -- you have to make the same (deliberate) mistakes she does. Not knowing where the example was going, I had to back-track more than once and add the error I'd absentmindedly fixed!