Testing using HTTP call mocking
Working with mocks is a common operation when testing. Some dependencies are typically mocked in most tests.
One common dependency to be mocked is external HTTP calls. Performing these calls while running tests is costly, slow, and can produce unreliable results if the network connection fails.
Though external calls can be mocked through the library mock in the Python standard library, as shown in the previous recipe, Testing using dependency mocking, there are specific testing modules that allow you to simulate HTTP calls and responses. Also, there are specific libraries that mock other specific libraries. This produces easier and better mocks, as they are adapted to the behavior of the mock.
We have previously used the fantastic requests library (introduced in the Installing third-party packages recipe from Chapter 1, Let's Begin Our Automation Journey, but also used throughout the book). We will look at how to mock this library specifically...