Pytest mock / patch of an api call

I am trying to understand patching, but I seem to be failing to do so.

Currently I am trying to patch an api call inside of the tested function:

# function being tested
def tested_function():
   response = call_to_api()
   status = response["status"]
   if status == "something":
   # some more logic to test

In the test_file.py I attempt to do the following:

@patch("import_from_same_file.call_to_api")
def test_tested_function(my_mock):
    my_mock.return_value = {"status":"COMPLETE"}

All I've been able to achieve so far is Got error: list indices must be integers or slices, not str error with no clue where is it actually coming from. Please help, already spent so many hours on this.

I have also tried to supply an object as a return value of the mock.

class Response():
   status = "COMPLETE"

With no luck though. Apparently I am missing something about how the patching works.

Solution

It's hard to say exactly what is going wrong, without seeing the call stack, but the following general pattern works.

foo.py

def foo():
    pass


def bar():
    result = foo()
    return result["status"]

The with test_foo.py as

import mock

from foo import bar


@mock.patch("foo.foo", return_value={"status": "PASSED"})
def test_add(mock_foo):
    assert bar() == "PASSED"

This general pattern works with pytest test_foo.py in the same directory.