Quickly test Django endpoints locally

Ever wanted to give your Django endpoints a go without a front end in place?

Turns out Django’s testing tools aren’t just for TestCase classes:

from django.test import Client

client = Client()

This little object is where all the magic begins - a simple yet powerful gateway for simulating requests.

Need to hit endpoints that require authentication? No problem:

from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model

...

user = get_user_model().objects.get(username="my-username")
client.force_login(user)

With that, you’re logged in and ready to make requests.

Here’s a quick example of a GET call:

...

client.get("http://localhost:8000/my-endpoint")

Running into issues with host validation? Specify the server name explicitly:

...

client.get("http://localhost:8000/my-endpoint", SERVER_NAME="mydomain")

And that’s it: a direct way to play with Django endpoints in your local environment.