Odoo Automated Tests

Overview

Odoo has a built-in testing framework based on Python's unittest. This skill helps you write TransactionCase unit tests, HttpCase integration tests, and JavaScript tour tests. It also covers running tests in CI pipelines.

When to Use This Skill

• Writing unit tests for a custom model's business logic.
• Creating an HTTP test to verify a controller endpoint.
• Debugging test failures in a CI pipeline.
• Setting up automated test execution with --test-enable.

How It Works

1. Activate: Mention @odoo-automated-tests and describe the feature to test.
2. Generate: Get complete test class code with setup, teardown, and assertions.
3. Run: Get the exact odoo CLI command to execute your tests.

Examples

Example 1: TransactionCase Unit Test (Odoo 15+ pattern)

# tests/test_hospital_patient.py
from odoo.tests.common import TransactionCase
from odoo.tests import tagged
from odoo.exceptions import ValidationError

@tagged('post_install', '-at_install')
class TestHospitalPatient(TransactionCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        # Use setUpClass for performance — runs once per class, not per test
        super().setUpClass()
        cls.Patient = cls.env['hospital.patient']
        cls.doctor = cls.env['res.users'].browse(cls.env.uid)

    def test_create_patient(self):
        patient = self.Patient.create({
            'name': 'John Doe',
            'doctor_id': self.doctor.id,
        })
        self.assertEqual(patient.state, 'draft')
        self.assertEqual(patient.name, 'John Doe')

    def test_confirm_patient(self):
        patient = self.Patient.create({'name': 'Jane Smith'})
        patient.action_confirm()
        self.assertEqual(patient.state, 'confirmed')

    def test_empty_name_raises_error(self):
        with self.assertRaises(ValidationError):
            self.Patient.create({'name': ''})

    def test_access_denied_for_other_user(self):
        # Test security rules by running as a different user
        other_user = self.env.ref('base.user_demo')
        with self.assertRaises(Exception):
            self.Patient.with_user(other_user).create({'name': 'Test'})

setUpClass vs setUp: Use setUpClass (Odoo 15+) for shared test data. It runs once per class and is significantly faster than setUp which re-initializes for every single test method.

Example 2: Run Tests via CLI

# Run all tests for a specific module
./odoo-bin --test-enable --stop-after-init -d my_database -u hospital_management

# Run only tests tagged with a specific tag
./odoo-bin --test-enable --stop-after-init -d my_database \
  --test-tags hospital_management

# Run a specific test class
./odoo-bin --test-enable --stop-after-init -d my_database \
  --test-tags /hospital_management:TestHospitalPatient

Example 3: HttpCase for Controller Testing

from odoo.tests.common import HttpCase
from odoo.tests import tagged

@tagged('post_install', '-at_install')
class TestPatientController(HttpCase):

    def test_patient_page_authenticated(self):
        # Authenticate as a user, not with hardcoded password
        self.authenticate(self.env.user.login, self.env.user.login)
        resp = self.url_open('/hospital/patients')
        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 200)

    def test_patient_page_redirects_unauthenticated(self):
        # No authenticate() call = public/anonymous user
        resp = self.url_open('/hospital/patients', allow_redirects=False)
        self.assertIn(resp.status_code, [301, 302, 403])

Best Practices

• ✅ Do: Use setUpClass() with cls.env instead of setUp() — it is dramatically faster for large test suites.
• ✅ Do: Use @tagged('post_install', '-at_install') to run tests after all modules are installed.
• ✅ Do: Test both the happy path and error conditions (ValidationError, AccessError, UserError).
• ✅ Do: Use self.with_user(user) to test access control without calling sudo().
• ❌ Don't: Use a production database for tests — always use a dedicated test database.
• ❌ Don't: Rely on test execution order — each TransactionCase test is rolled back in isolation.
• ❌ Don't: Hardcode passwords in HttpCase.authenticate() — use self.env.user.login or a fixture user.

Limitations

• JavaScript tour tests require a running browser (via phantomjs or Chrome headless) and a live Odoo server — not covered in depth here.
• HttpCase tests are significantly slower than TransactionCase — use them only for controller/route verification.
• Does not cover mocking external services (e.g., mocking an SMTP server or payment gateway in tests).
• Test isolation is at the transaction level, not database level — tests that commit data (e.g., via cr.commit()) can leak state between tests.