Currently there are unit tests using unittest from the Python Standard Library in the
backend/tests/ directory. In addition, we have continuous integration
setup on Github. Everytime someone makes a pull request to master, Github
automatically starts testing the code and shows the result in the pull request. Have a
look at this pull request where
this continuous integration was setup for what that looks like.
Therefore, before making any pull requests that affect the backend, it is wise to make
sure that all the tests are passing locally on your machine. To run all the tests, you
can type the following command assuming your current working directory is backend/
$ python -m unittest
If you've never done unit testing before, have a look at
backend/tests/test_utils.py, which has a testing for one
method from the Validate class in
backend/flask_app/utils.py. Additionally, the
official documentation on the unittest
library is pretty readable. If you
will be writing code dealing with Flask, I would suggest you try to understand the
TestClassifiers.test_get method in
test_classifier.py, and you'll have to read parts of
Flask's documentation on testing.
If you contribute new features, you'll have to make sure that they don't break existing functionality. Feel free to make a pull request even if the tests are not passing locally, and we can debug together.
You're not required to write new tests for new features, but you are welcome to!