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Testing Events: lifespan and startup - shutdown

When you need lifespan to run in your tests, you can use the TestClient with a with statement:

Python

from contextlib import asynccontextmanager

from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.testclient import TestClient

items = {}


@asynccontextmanager
async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
    items["foo"] = {"name": "Fighters"}
    items["bar"] = {"name": "Tenders"}
    yield
    # clean up items
    items.clear()


app = FastAPI(lifespan=lifespan)


@app.get("/items/{item_id}")
async def read_items(item_id: str):
    return items[item_id]


def test_read_items():
    # Before the lifespan starts, "items" is still empty
    assert items == {}

    with TestClient(app) as client:
        # Inside the "with TestClient" block, the lifespan starts and items added
        assert items == {"foo": {"name": "Fighters"}, "bar": {"name": "Tenders"}}

        response = client.get("/items/foo")
        assert response.status_code == 200
        assert response.json() == {"name": "Fighters"}

        # After the requests is done, the items are still there
        assert items == {"foo": {"name": "Fighters"}, "bar": {"name": "Tenders"}}

    # The end of the "with TestClient" block simulates terminating the app, so
    # the lifespan ends and items are cleaned up
    assert items == {}

You can read more details about the "Running lifespan in tests in the official Starlette documentation site."

For the deprecated startup and shutdown events, you can use the TestClient as follows:

Python

from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.testclient import TestClient

app = FastAPI()

items = {}


@app.on_event("startup")
async def startup_event():
    items["foo"] = {"name": "Fighters"}
    items["bar"] = {"name": "Tenders"}


@app.get("/items/{item_id}")
async def read_items(item_id: str):
    return items[item_id]


def test_read_items():
    with TestClient(app) as client:
        response = client.get("/items/foo")
        assert response.status_code == 200
        assert response.json() == {"name": "Fighters"}

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