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up vote 3 down vote favorite

I am trying to do do a simple Django test using a tests.py file in a Django App directory (mysite/polls/tests.py), but every time I run 'python manage.py test polls', I get the error:

C:\Python27\python.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\PyCharm 3.0\helpers\pycharm\django_test_manage.py" test polls "C:\Users\<myname>\PycharmProjects\mysite"
Testing started at 8:40 PM ...
Creating test database for alias 'default'...
Type 'yes' if you would like to try deleting the test database 'test_<database>', or 'no' to cancel: Got an error creating the test database: permission denied to create database

From what I've read, apparently Heroku PG uses a shared database, so I do not have the permission to create/destroy databases, which is necessary for testing. Is there an obvious solution to this? I am still developing on my local drive, so any workarounds would be appreciated. I know that testing is an important part of programming, so I would like to be able to implement a testing method as soon as possible.

I am trying to test using the TestCase django class.

What I am using:
1) Heroku Postgres Hobby Dev Plan
2) Postgres 9.3.3
3) Python 2.7.6
4) Django 1.6.1


EDIT: So after doing a bit more research, I found out that I can override my DATABASES dict variable in settings.py to use SQLite to test locally (when 'test' is an argument in shell), but I would still prefer a PostgreSQL implementation, since from what I read, PostgreSQL is more strict (which I am a fan of).

For anyone interested in the semi-solution I have found (courtesy of another member of Stackoverflow):

if 'test' in sys.argv:
    DATABASES['default'] = {'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3'}

Don't forget to import sys.

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up vote -1 down vote

There's no reason for you to need to create a database with your tests. Instead, change your tests to access the local database, if a DATABASE_URL environment variable is undefined. Here's what I do in Node.js, where I have local test and dev databases, and a Heroku-provided production db:

if (typeof(process.env.DATABASE_URL) !== 'undefined') {
  dbUrl = url.parse(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
}
else if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {
  dbUrl = url.parse('tcp://postgres:[email protected]:5432/test');
}
else {
  dbUrl = url.parse('tcp://postgres:[email protected]:5432/db');
}
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