Why shouldn’t I use Swanson?

This is a very early version.

Non-Django use is not supported, and might never be. You’re better off with another tool.

Why should I use Swanson?

Swanson is designed for Django. This gives us:

• Improved speed through test reordering.
• Database setup and teardown, including fixtures. Data doesn’t persist between tests.
• Ability to test against a “live” web server.
• Third-party app extensions - South, Jenkins, etc.

By using unit tests, it couldn’t be easier to share code. Other tools use Python modules, making code re-use more difficult.

Alternative options

Behave / Lettuce

The best known Python projects. Each has decent community support, including IDE integration. They both implement their own test infrastructure.

Behave is a fantastic option. It’s mature, with a well thought-out design. Django integration isn’t included, though Django Behave seems a popular choice.

Lettuce comes with Django integration out of the box - it’s very easy to get started. Unfortunately it stores much of it’s state in a global namespace, which isn’t cleared between tests. BDD tests start to silently conflict, making it difficult to add new features.