Python Web Development: Test-Driven Approach

This book is the Chinese translation of Test-Driven Development with Python (2015, Posts & Telecom Press, Turing Programming Series, translated by An Dao). In the tone of pair programming, the author Harry J. W. Percival leads the reader to build a real to-do list website from scratch, carrying through the Test Goat creed of "do nothing without a test": first write a failing test, then write the minimum code to make it pass, then refactor. The book is divided into three parts. Part I (Chapters 1–6) builds the foundation: writing functional tests with Selenium, writing unit tests with Python's standard unittest library and Django's built-in testing tools, clarifying the division of labour between functional and unit tests, and along the way introducing Django's models, views, templates, forms, ORM, and database migrations, while incorporating Git commits into the TDD cycle. Part II (Chapters 7–14) deals with the practical problems unavoidable in web development: beautifying pages with Bootstrap and template inheritance, managing static files, setting up a staging server, automating deployment with Fabric, doing input validation and form refactoring, exploring JavaScript and its testing, and safely putting new code into production. Part III (Chapters 15–22) moves into advanced topics: user authentication and integrating third-party login, using mocking to isolate external dependencies, test fixtures and logging for debugging, outside-in TDD, test isolation, and continuous integration. This is not a Python grammar book, nor is it content to list knowledge points; it aims to impart a repeatable set of engineering habits: making tests a design tool and giving refactoring a safety net. Readers will also pick up the basics of Django, Selenium, Git, jQuery, and Mock along the way.