The `APIRequestFactory` class supports an almost identical API to Django's standard `RequestFactory` class. This means that the standard `.get()`, `.post()`, `.put()`, `.patch()`, `.delete()`, `.head()` and `.options()` methods are all available.
Methods which create a request body, such as `post`, `put` and `patch`, include a `format` argument, which make it easy to generate requests using a content type other than multipart form data. For example:
By default the available formats are `'multipart'` and `'json'`. For compatibility with Django's existing `RequestFactory` the default format is `'multipart'`.
To support a wider set of request formats, or change the default format, [see the configuration section][configuration].
One difference worth noting between Django's `RequestFactory` and REST framework's `APIRequestFactory` is that multipart form data will be encoded for methods other than just `.post()`.
For example, using `APIRequestFactory`, you can make a form PUT request like so:
factory = APIRequestFactory()
request = factory.put('/notes/547/', {'title': 'remember to email dave'})
When testing views directly using a request factory, it's often convenient to be able to directly authenticate the request, rather than having to construct the correct authentication credentials.
To forcibly authenticate a request, use the `force_authenticate()` method.
The signature for the method is `force_authenticate(request, user=None, token=None)`. When making the call, either or both of the user and token may be set.
**Note**: `force_authenticate` directly sets `request.user` to the in-memory `user` instance. If you are re-using the same `user` instance across multiple tests that update the saved `user` state, you may need to call [`refresh_from_db()`][refresh_from_db_docs] between tests.
**Note**: When using `APIRequestFactory`, the object that is returned is Django's standard `HttpRequest`, and not REST framework's `Request` object, which is only generated once the view is called.
This means that setting attributes directly on the request object may not always have the effect you expect. For example, setting `.token` directly will have no effect, and setting `.user` directly will only work if session authentication is being used.
# Request will only authenticate if `SessionAuthentication` is in use.
By default, requests created with `APIRequestFactory` will not have CSRF validation applied when passed to a REST framework view. If you need to explicitly turn CSRF validation on, you can do so by setting the `enforce_csrf_checks` flag when instantiating the factory.
**Note**: It's worth noting that Django's standard `RequestFactory` doesn't need to include this option, because when using regular Django the CSRF validation takes place in middleware, which is not run when testing views directly. When using REST framework, CSRF validation takes place inside the view, so the request factory needs to disable view-level CSRF checks.
The `APIClient` class supports the same request interface as Django's standard `Client` class. This means the that standard `.get()`, `.post()`, `.put()`, `.patch()`, `.delete()`, `.head()` and `.options()` methods are all available. For example:
The `login` method functions exactly as it does with Django's regular `Client` class. This allows you to authenticate requests against any views which include `SessionAuthentication`.
# Make all requests in the context of a logged in session.
Note that calling `credentials` a second time overwrites any existing credentials. You can unset any existing credentials by calling the method with no arguments.
The `credentials` method is appropriate for testing APIs that require authentication headers, such as basic authentication, OAuth1a and OAuth2 authentication, and simple token authentication schemes.
This can be a useful shortcut if you're testing the API but don't want to have to construct valid authentication credentials in order to make test requests.
By default CSRF validation is not applied when using `APIClient`. If you need to explicitly enable CSRF validation, you can do so by setting the `enforce_csrf_checks` flag when instantiating the client.
client = APIClient(enforce_csrf_checks=True)
As usual CSRF validation will only apply to any session authenticated views. This means CSRF validation will only occur if the client has been logged in by calling `login()`.
The `RequestsClient` class is useful if you want to write tests that solely interact with the service interface. This is a little stricter than using the standard Django test client, as it means that all interactions should be via the API.
If you're using `RequestsClient` you'll want to ensure that test setup, and results assertions are performed as regular API calls, rather than interacting with the database models directly. For example, rather than checking that `Customer.objects.count() == 3` you would list the customers endpoint, and ensure that it contains three records.
REST framework includes the following test case classes, that mirror the existing Django test case classes, but use `APIClient` instead of Django's default `Client`.
*`APISimpleTestCase`
*`APITransactionTestCase`
*`APITestCase`
*`APILiveServerTestCase`
## Example
You can use any of REST framework's test case classes as you would for the regular Django test case classes. The `self.client` attribute will be an `APIClient` instance.
When checking the validity of test responses it's often more convenient to inspect the data that the response was created with, rather than inspecting the fully rendered response.
If you're testing views directly using `APIRequestFactory`, the responses that are returned will not yet be rendered, as rendering of template responses is performed by Django's internal request-response cycle. In order to access `response.content`, you'll first need to render the response.
view = UserDetail.as_view()
request = factory.get('/users/4')
response = view(request, pk='4')
response.render() # Cannot access `response.content` without this.
The default format used to make test requests may be set using the `TEST_REQUEST_DEFAULT_FORMAT` setting key. For example, to always use JSON for test requests by default instead of standard multipart form requests, set the following in your `settings.py` file:
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
...
'TEST_REQUEST_DEFAULT_FORMAT': 'json'
}
## Setting the available formats
If you need to test requests using something other than multipart or json requests, you can do so by setting the `TEST_REQUEST_RENDERER_CLASSES` setting.
