Dash Testing

dash.testing provides custom Dash pytest fixtures and a set of testing APIs for unit and end-to-end testing.
This tutorial shows how to write and run tests for a Dash app.

Installing `dash.testing`

Install dash.testing with:

python -m pip install dash[testing]

In some shells (for example, Zsh), you may need to escape the opening bracket, [:

python -m pip install dash\[testing]

Unit Tests

New in Dash 2.6

dash.testing supports unit testing of callbacks. Use callback unit tests to confirm that a callback’s outputs are as expected.

In the following example, we write two tests for our app. We have an app, app.py, that has two callbacks. The update callback outputs to an html.Div the number of times btn-1 and btn-2 have been clicked. The display callback uses callback_context to determine which input triggered the callback, adds the id to a string, and outputs it to an html.Div.

app.py

import dash
from dash import callback, html, dcc, Input, Output, ctx

app = dash.Dash(__name__)

app.layout = html.Div([
    html.Button('Button 1', id='btn-1'),
    html.Button('Button 2', id='btn-2'),
    html.Button('Button 3', id='btn-3'),
    html.Div(id='container'),
    html.Div(id='container-no-ctx')
])

@callback(
    Output('container-no-ctx', 'children'),
    Input('btn-1', 'n_clicks'),
    Input('btn-2', 'n_clicks'))
def update(btn1, btn2):
    return f'button 1: {btn1} & button 2: {btn2}'


@callback(Output('container','children'),
              Input('btn-1', 'n_clicks'),
              Input('btn-2', 'n_clicks'),
              Input('btn-3', 'n_clicks'))
def display(btn1, btn2, btn3):
    button_clicked = ctx.triggered_id
    return f'You last clicked button with ID {button_clicked}'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run_server(debug=True)

In the test file, test_app_callbacks.py, we create two test cases, test_update_callback and test_display_callback.

from contextvars import copy_context
from dash._callback_context import context_value
from dash._utils import AttributeDict

# Import the names of callback functions you want to test
from app import display, update

def test_update_callback():
    output = update(1, 0)
    assert output == 'button 1: 1 & button 2: 0'

def test_display_callback():
    def run_callback():
        context_value.set(AttributeDict(**{"triggered_inputs": [{"prop_id": "btn-1-ctx-example.n_clicks"}]}))
        return display(1, 0, 0)

    ctx = copy_context()
    output = ctx.run(run_callback)
    assert output == f'You last clicked button with ID btn-1-ctx-example'

Run the tests with the command:

pytest

Notes:

Our app is a regular app. We don’t need to add anything extra to app.py for our tests.
In the test file, test_app_callbacks.py, we import the callback functions to test, withfrom app import display, update.
The first test case, test_update_callback, calls the update function with the values 1 and 0 and stores the result in the variable output.

Looking at our app (app.py), we can see these inputs are the values of n_clicks for each of the buttons:

```python

@callback(
Output(‘container-no-ctx’, ‘children’),
Input(‘btn-1’, ‘n_clicks’),
Input(‘btn-2’, ‘n_clicks’))
def update(btn1, btn2):
return f’button 1: {btn1} & button 2: {btn2}’
```

The test function then uses assert to confirm that the output is as expected, that it is equal to 'button 1: 1 & button 2: 0'.

Mocking Callback Context

The second test case uses callback_context. To test the callback, we need to mock callback_context.

To do this, we need the following additional imports:

from contextvars import copy_context
from dash._callback_context import context_value
from dash._utils import AttributeDict

In the example:

We use contextvars.copy_context
to create a copy of the current context and save it to the variable ctx.
We then use ctx.run to call our run_callback function in that context and save it to the output variable.
Within the run_callback function, we use context_value.set to define which inputs trigger the callback in our test, and call the display callback. context_value.set takes an AttributeDict (from dash._utils).
The final part of the test checks if the output equals 'You last clicked button with ID btn-1-ctx-example'.

End-to-End Tests

dash.testing also supports end-to-end tests. End-to-end tests run programmatically, start a real browser session, and click through the Dash app UI. They are slower to run than unit tests and more complex to set up but more closely mimic the end user’s experience.

If you’re running end-to-end tests,
you’ll also need to install a WebDriver, unless you’re planning on running your tests with a Selenium Grid. Your tests will use either your locally installed WebDriver or the remote WebDriver on your grid to interact with the browser. See the Running Tests section below for details on how to run tests using a Selenium Grid.

Installing a WebDriver

We recommend the ChromeDriver WebDriver, which we use for dash end-to-end tests. Install ChromeDriver by following the ChromeDriver Getting Started Guide.
Ensure you install the correct version of ChromeDriver for the version of Chrome you have installed.

Note: Mozilla Firefox geckodriver is also supported. To run your tests with geckodriver, you’ll need to add a flag when running tests. See the Running Tests section below for details on running tests with geckodriver.

Note: The Gecko (Marionette) driver from Mozilla is not fully compatible with Selenium specifications. Some features may not work as expected.

Example - Basic Test

Here we create a test case where the browser driver opens the app, waits for an element with the id

nully-wrapper to be displayed, confirms its text equals "0", and that there are no errors in the browser console.

# 1. imports of your dash app
import dash
from dash import html
# 2. give each testcase a test case ID, and pass the fixture
# dash_duo as a function argument
def test_001_child_with_0(dash_duo):
    # 3. define your app inside the test function
    app = dash.Dash(__name__)
    app.layout = html.Div(id="nully-wrapper", children=0)
    # 4. host the app locally in a thread, all dash server configs could be
    # passed after the first app argument
    dash_duo.start_server(app)
    # 5. use wait_for_* if your target element is the result of a callback,
    # keep in mind even the initial rendering can trigger callbacks
    dash_duo.wait_for_text_to_equal("#nully-wrapper", "0", timeout=4)
    # 6. use this form if its present is expected at the action point
    assert dash_duo.find_element("#nully-wrapper").text == "0"
    # 7. to make the checkpoint more readable, you can describe the
    # acceptance criterion as an assert message after the comma.
    assert dash_duo.get_logs() == [], "browser console should contain no error"
    # 8. visual testing with percy snapshot
    dash_duo.percy_snapshot("test_001_child_with_0-layout")

Notes:

For most test scenarios, you don’t need to import any modules for
the test; just import what you need for the Dash app itself.
A test case is a regular Python function. The function name follows
this pattern: test_{tcid}_{test title}. The tcid (test case ID) is
an abbreviation pattern of mmffddd => module + file + three digits.
The tcid facilitates the test selection by just running
pytest -k {tcid}. Its naming convention also helps code navigation with
modern editors.
Here we just define our app inside a test function. All the rules
still apply as in your app file.
We start the test by calling the start_server API from dash_duo.
When the test starts:
The defined app is hosted inside a light Python threading.Thread.
A Selenium WebDriver is initialized and navigates to the
local server URL using server_url.
We first wait until the Flask server is responsive to an HTTP
request, and then make sure the Dash app is fully rendered inside
the browser.
A test case is composed of preparation, actions, and checkpoints.
Both #5 and #6 are doing the same check in this example; we are expecting
that the defined Div component’s text is identical to children. #5 will
wait for the expected state to be reached within a 4 seconds timeout. It’s
a safer way to write the action steps when you are doing an element check
related to callbacks, as it normally happens under Dash context:
the element is already present in the DOM, but not necessarily the props.
The find_element API call has an implicit global timeout of two
seconds set at the driver level, i.e. the driver waits at most two seconds
to find the element by the locator, HOWEVER it will compare the text
as soon as the driver returns an element. The API
find_element('#nully-wrapper') is a shortcut to driver.find_element_by_css_selector('#nully-wrapper').
Unlike unittest, pytest allows you to use the standard Python
assert for verifying
expectations and values. It also puts more introspection information into
the assertion failure message by overriding the assert behavior. It’s
good practice to expose your acceptance criteria directly in the test
case rather than wrapping the assert inside another helper API, also to
write these messages with SHOULD/SHOULD NOT without failure confusion.
By looking at the test name, the app definition, the actions, and the
checkpoints, reviewers should figure out easily the purpose of the test.
We use Percy as our Visual Regression Testing
tool. It’s a good alternative to assertions when your checkpoint is
about the graphical aspects of a Dash App, such as the whole layout or a
dcc.Graph component. We integrate the Percy service with a PERCY_TOKEN
variable, so the regression result is only available in Plotly’s CircleCI
setup.

Example – Deployed Dash App

Use the dash_br fixture to test a deployed app.
Set dash_br.server_url to the URL of the app:

def test_002_nav_bar(dash_br):
    dash_br.server_url = "https://dash-example-index.herokuapp.com/"
    dash_br.wait_for_text_to_equal(".navbar-brand", "Dash Example Index", timeout=20)
    assert dash_br.find_element(".navbar-brand").text == "Dash Example Index"

Running Tests

There are many ways to run your tests, and you can change how your tests run by adding flags to
the pytest command.

All Tests

You can run all tests in the current working directory (and its subdirectories) with:

pytest

Any tests in .py files with names that start with test_ or end with _test are run.

Specific Tests

In the Basic Test example above, we gave our test case a test case ID, 001.
We can use this to run that specific test:

pytest -k 001

WebDriver Options

There are different ways to configure your WebDriver when running end-to-end tests.

With an Alternative Web Driver

ChromeDriver is the default WebDriver, but dash.testing also supports geckodriver for Firefox.
Add the --webdriver Firefox flag when running tests to use it:

pytest --webdriver Firefox -k 001

In Headless Mode

You can run tests in headless mode, if you don’t need to see
the tests in a browser UI:

pytest --headless -k 001

Using a Selenium Grid

You can use Selenium Grid to run tests across multiple machines. To run tests with a local hosted grid at http://localhost:4444/wd/hu:

pytest --remote -k 001

http://localhost:4444/wd/hu is the default value. To add an different remote, use the --remote-url flag:

pytest --webdriver Firefox --remote-url <a href="https://grid_provider_endpoints">https://grid_provider_endpoints</a>

Note: If you set --remote-url, and the value is different to the default value, http://localhost:4444/wd/hu, you don’t need to include the --remote flag.

Caveats

We can’t guarantee that the above examples work with every Selenium Grid. There may be limitations because of how your network is configured. For example, because of:

A different hosting OS
How docker-compose is configured

If you encounter issues, it may be because you need to do some auxiliary WebDriver options tuning to run the tests. Here are some things to try:

Change the default logging level with --log-cli-level DEBUG.
Customize your browser options. There is a back door for browser option customization by a pytest_setup_options hook defined in plugin.py. The example below is to use the headless mode with Chrome WebDriver in Windows. There is a workaround by adding --disable-gpu in the options.

from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

def pytest_setup_options():
    options = Options()
    options.add_argument('--disable-gpu')
    return options

Fixtures

To avoid accidental name collision with other pytest plugins, all Dash test
fixtures start with the prefix dash|r dashr.

dash_br
A standalone WebDriver wrapped with high-level Dash testing APIs. This is
suitable for testing a Dash App in a deployed environment (Dash for Python
or R), i.e. when your Dash App is accessible from a URL.
dash_duo
The default fixture for Dash Python integration tests, it contains a
thread_server and a WebDriver wrapped with high-level Dash testing APIs.
dash_thread_server
Start your Dash App locally in a Python threading.Thread, which is
lighter and faster than a process.
dash_process_server
This is close to your production/deployed environment. Start your Dash App
with waitress(by default if raw_command is not provided) in a Python
subprocess. You can control the process runner with two supplemental
arguments. To run the application with alternative deployment options, use
the raw_command argument; to extend the timeout if your application needs
more than the default three seconds to launch, use the start_timeout
argument. Note: You need to configure your PYTHONPATH so that the Dash
app source file is directly importable.

APIs

Selenium Overview

Both dash_duo and dash_br expose the Selenium WebDriver via the
property driver, e.g. dash_duo.driver, which gives you full access to
the Python Selenium API.
(Note that this is not the official Selenium documentation site, but has
somehow become the de facto Python community reference)
One of the core components of Selenium testing is finding the
web element with a locator, and performing some actions like click
or send_keys on it, and waiting to verify if the expected state is met
after those actions. The check is considered as an acceptance criterion,
for which you can write in a standard Python assert statement.

Element Locators

There are several strategies to
locate elements;
CSS selector and XPATH are the two most versatile ways. We recommend using
the CSS Selector in most cases due to its
better performance and robustness across browsers.
If you are new to using CSS Selectors, these
SauceLab tips
are a great start. Also, remember that
Chrome Dev Tools Console
is always your good friend and playground.

Waits

This link covers
this topic nicely. For impatient readers, a quick take away is
quoted as follows:
The Selenium WebDriver provides two types of waits:
- explicit wait
Makes WebDriver wait for a certain condition to occur before
proceeding further with execution. All our APIs with wait_for_*
falls into this category.
- implicit wait
Makes WebDriver poll the DOM for a certain amount of time when trying
to locate an element. We set a global two-second timeout at the
driver level.
Note all custom wait conditions are defined in dash.testing.wait
and there are two extra APIs until and until_not which are similar to
the explicit wait with WebDriver, but they are not binding to
WebDriver context, i.e. they abstract a more generic mechanism to
poll and wait for certain condition to happen

Browser APIs

This section lists a minimal set of browser testing APIs. They are
convenient shortcuts to Selenium APIs and have been approved in
our daily integration tests.
The following table might grow as we start migrating more legacy tests in
the near future. But we have no intention to build a comprehensive list,
the goal is to make writing Dash tests concise and error-free.
Please feel free to submit a community PR to add any missing ingredient,
we would be happy to accept that if it’s adequate for Dash testing.

API	Description
`find_element(selector)`	return the first found element by the `CSS selector`, shortcut to `driver.find_element_by_css_selector`. note that this API will raise exceptions if not found, the `find_elements` API returns an empty list instead
`find_elements(selector)`	return a list of all elements matching by the `CSS selector`, shortcut to `driver.find_elements_by_css_selector`
`multiple_click(selector, clicks)`	find the element with the `CSS selector` and clicks it with number of `clicks`
`wait_for_element(selector, timeout=None)`	shortcut to `wait_for_element_by_css_selector` the long version is kept for back compatibility. `timeout` if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`
`wait_for_element_by_css_selector(selector, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element is present, shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with `EC.presence_of_element_located`
`wait_for_element_by_id(element_id, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element is present, shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with `EC.presence_of_element_located`
`wait_for_style_to_equal(selector, style, value, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element’s style has expected `value`. shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with custom wait condition `style_to_equal`. `timeout` if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`
`wait_for_text_to_equal(selector, text, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element’s text equals the expected `text`. shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with custom wait condition `text_to_equal`. `timeout` if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`
`wait_for_contains_text(selector, text, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element’s text contains the expected `text`. shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with custom wait condition `contains_text` condition. `timeout` if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`
`wait_for_class_to_equal(selector, classname, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element’s class has expected `value`. timeout if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`. shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with custom `class_to_equal` condition.
`wait_for_contains_class(selector, classname, timeout=None)`	explicit wait until the element’s classes contains the expected `classname`. timeout if not set, equals to the fixture’s `wait_timeout`. shortcut to `WebDriverWait` with custom `contains_class` condition.
`wait_for_page(url=None, timeout=10)`	navigate to the `url` in webdriver and wait until the dash renderer is loaded in browser. use `server_url` if `url` is None
`toggle_window()`	switch between the current working window and the newly opened one.
`switch_window(idx)`	switch to window by window index. shortcut to `driver.switch_to.window`. raise `BrowserError` if no second window present in browser
`open_new_tab(url=None)`	open a new tab in browser with window name `new window`. `url` if not set, equals to `server_url`
`percy_snapshot(name, wait_for_callbacks=False)`	visual test API shortcut to `percy_runner.snapshot`. it also combines the snapshot `name` with the actual python versions. The `wait_for_callbacks` parameter controls whether the snapshot is taken only after all callbacks have fired; the default is `False`.
`visit_and_snapshot(resource_path, hook_id, wait_for_callbacks=True, assert_check=True)`	This method automates a common task during dash-docs testing: the URL described by `resource_path` is visited, and completion of page loading is assured by waiting until the element described by `hook_id` is fetched. Once `hook_id` is available, `visit_and_snapshot` acquires a snapshot of the page and returns to the main page. `wait_for_callbacks` controls if the snapshot is taken until all dash callbacks are fired, default True. `assert_check` is a switch to enable/disable an assertion that there is no devtools error alert icon.
`take_snapshot(name)`	hook method to take a snapshot while Selenium test fails. the snapshot is placed under `/tmp/dash_artifacts` in Linux or `%TEMP` in windows with a filename combining test case `name` and the running Selenium session id
`zoom_in_graph_by_ratio(elem_or_selector, start_fraction=0.5, zoom_box_fraction=0.2, compare=True)`	zoom out a graph (provided with either a Selenium WebElement or CSS selector) with a zoom box fraction of component dimension, default start at middle with a rectangle of 1/5 of the dimension use `compare` to control if we check the SVG get changed
`click_at_coord_fractions(elem_or_selector, fx, fy)`	Use `ActionChains` to click a Selenium WebElement at a location a given fraction of the way `fx` between its left (0) and right (1) edges, and `fy` between its top (0) and bottom (1) edges.
`get_logs()`	return a list of `SEVERE` level logs after last reset time stamps (default to 0, resettable by `reset_log_timestamp`. Chrome only
`clear_input()`	simulate key press to clear the input
`driver`	property exposes the Selenium WebDriver as fixture property
`session_id`	property returns the Selenium session_id, shortcut to `driver.session_id`
`server_url`	set the server_url as setter so the Selenium is aware of the local server port, it also implicitly calls `wait_for_page`. return the server_url as property
`download_path`	property returns the download_path, note that dash fixtures are initialized with a temporary path from pytest `tmpdir`

Dash APIs

This section enumerates a full list of Dash App related properties and APIs
apart from the previous browser ones.

API	Description
`devtools_error_count_locator`	property returns the selector of the error count number in the devtool UI
`dash_entry_locator`	property returns the selector of react entry point, it can be used to verify if an Dash app is loaded
`dash_outerhtml_dom`	property returns the BeautifulSoup parsed Dash DOM from outerHTML
`dash_innerhtml_dom`	property returns the BeautifulSoup parsed Dash DOM from innerHTML
`redux_state_paths`	property returns the `window.store.getState().paths`
`redux_state_rqs`	property returns `window.store.getState().requestQueue`
`window_store`	property returns `window.store`
`get_local_storage(store_id="local")`	get the value of local storage item by the id, default is `local`
`get_session_storage(session_id="session")`	get the value of session storage item by the id, default is `session`
`clear_local_storage()`	shortcut to `window.localStorage.clear()`
`clear_session_storage()`	shortcut to `window.sessionStorage.clear()`
`clear_storage()`	clears both local and session storages

Debugging

Verify Your Test Environment

If you run the integration in a virtual environment, make sure you are
getting the latest commit in the master branch from each component, and
that the installed pip versions are correct.
Note: We have some enhancement initiatives tracking in this issue

Run the CI Job Locally

The CircleCI Local CLI is a
handy tool to execute some jobs locally. It gives you an earlier warning
before even pushing your commits to remote. For example, it’s always
recommended to pass lint and unit tests job first on your local machine. So
we can make sure there are no simple mistakes in the commit.

# install the cli (first time only)
$ curl -fLSs <a href="https://circle.ci/cli">https://circle.ci/cli</a> | bash && circleci version
# run at least the lint & unit test job on both python 2 and 3
# note: the current config requires all tests pass on python 2.7, 3.6 and 3.7.
$ circleci local execute --job lint-unit-27 && $ circleci local execute --job lint-unit-37

Increase the Verbosity of pytest Logging Level

pytest --log-cli-level DEBUG -k bsly001

You can get more logging information from Selenium WebDriver, Flask server,
and our test APIs.

14:05:41 | DEBUG | selenium.webdriver.remote.remote_connection:388 | DELETE <a href="http://127.0.0.1:53672/session/87b6f1ed3710173eff8037447e2b8f56">http://127.0.0.1:53672/session/87b6f1ed3710173eff8037447e2b8f56</a> {"sessionId": "87b6f1ed3710173eff8037447e2b8f56"}
14:05:41 | DEBUG | urllib3.connectionpool:393 | <a href="http://127.0.0.1:53672">http://127.0.0.1:53672</a> "DELETE /session/87b6f1ed3710173eff8037447e2b8f56 HTTP/1.1" 200 72
14:05:41 | DEBUG | selenium.webdriver.remote.remote_connection:440 | Finished Request
14:05:41 | INFO | dash.testing.application_runners:80 | killing the app runner
14:05:41 | DEBUG | urllib3.connectionpool:205 | Starting new HTTP connection (1): localhost:8050
14:05:41 | DEBUG | urllib3.connectionpool:393 | <a href="http://localhost:8050">http://localhost:8050</a> "GET /_stop-3ef0e64e8688436caced44e9f39d4263 HTTP/1.1" 200 29

Selenium Snapshots

If you run your tests with CircleCI dockers (locally with CircleCI CLI
and/or remotely with CircleCI).
Inside a docker run or VM instance where there is no direct access to the
video card, there is a known limitation that you cannot see anything from
the Selenium browser on your screen. Automation developers use
Xvfb as
a workaround to solve this issue. It enables you to run graphical
applications without a display (e.g., browser tests on a CI server) while
also having the ability to take screenshots.
We implemented an automatic hook at the test report stage, it checks if a
test case failed with a Selenium test fixture. Before tearing down every
instance, it will take a snapshot at the moment where your assertion is
False or having a runtime error. refer to Browser APIs
Note: you can also check the snapshot directly in CircleCI web page
under Artifacts Tab

Percy Snapshots

There are two customized pytest arguments to tune Percy runner:
1. --nopercyfinalize disables the Percy finalize in dash fixtures. This
is required if you run your tests in parallel, then you add an extra
percy finalize --all step at the end. For more details, please visit
Percy Documents.
2. --percy-assets lets Percy know where to collect additional assets
such as CSS files. You can refer to the example we used for dash-docs.