[riffraff]

That works fine for files, but what if the integration is with a third party service for example?

You can create an actual mock networked service but it's much more work.

I think this is an example explaining what seems like a good practice for using mocks in python to me, the actual code in the post is barely "supporting cast".

[efortis]

If it's HTTP you can create the fixtures and serve them with a mock server. I'm a frontend dev, so backend APIs are like 3rd parties to me.

I use a browser extension for scraping actual backend responses, which downloads them with a filename convention the mock server understands. I mostly use it for development, but also for setting up screenshot tests. For example,

  PATCH /select

  'api/user(locked-out).GET.423.json'

screenshot the app and pixel diff it

  PATCH /select

  'api/user.GET.200.json'

screenshot…

[leosanchez]

> I use a browser extension for scraping actual backend responses

Can you tell the name of the extension ?

[efortis]

https://github.com/ericfortis/download-http-requests-browser...

[Izkata]

You can automate it with the right libraries, such as https://github.com/kevin1024/vcrpy

This one runs the real request and saves the response, faking it later by returning what it saved instead of making the request again.