What are some effective mocking techniques in Flask for testing?

What are some effective mocking techniques in Flask for testing?

In Flask, you can use the unittest.mock library to mock dependencies. This allows you to isolate your tests.

Can you give me an example of how to mock a database call?

Sure! You can use patch to replace the database call with a mock object. Here's a simple example:

from unittest.mock import patch

@patch('yourapp.models.db.session')
def test_your_function(mock_session):
    mock_session.query.return_value = [MockUser()]
    result = your_function()
    assert result == expected_result

What about mocking external APIs?

For external APIs, you can use responses or requests-mock libraries to simulate API responses without making real calls.

Are there any best practices for mocking in Flask?

Yes! Always mock only what you need, keep your tests isolated, and ensure your mocks reflect realistic scenarios.