Added UNIT_TESTING module variable

This variable is True if we are running unittests. This should avoid the creation of too many UrlHelp instances. The latter spawns processes that are not properly closed by PyQt and as such remain in memory causing potentially large overheads.

Author: Chilipp

psyplot_gui/__init__.py

@@ -362,6 +362,11 @@ def get_parser(create=True):
     return parser
 
 
+#: A boolean variable to check if the GUI is tested. This is set automatically
+#: true on CI services
+UNIT_TESTING = os.getenv('CI')
+
+
 #: Disable the default for the ListGuiPluginsAction on RTD, because it looks
 #: better in the docs
 _on_rtd = os.environ.get('READTHEDOCS', None) == 'True'

psyplot_gui/common.py

@@ -19,6 +19,14 @@
     import io
 
 
+def is_running_tests():
+    """Check if there are any GUI tests running
+
+    This function returns the :attr:`psyplot_gui.UNIT_TESTING` variable"""
+    import psyplot_gui
+    return psyplot_gui.UNIT_TESTING
+
+
 def get_module_path(modname):
     """Return module `modname` base path"""
 

psyplot_gui/help_explorer.py

@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@
 from psyplot_gui.common import get_icon, DockMixin, PyErrorMessage
 from IPython.core.oinspect import signature, getdoc
 import logging
-from psyplot_gui.common import get_module_path, StreamToLogger
+from psyplot_gui.common import get_module_path, StreamToLogger, \
+    is_running_tests
 from tempfile import mkdtemp
 try:
     from sphinx.application import Sphinx
@@ -62,6 +63,9 @@ def html2file(url):
                                 p.path[int(sys.platform == 'win32'):]))
 
 
+_viewers = OrderedDict()
+
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -917,9 +921,20 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         self.vbox = vbox = QVBoxLayout()
         self.combo = QComboBox(parent=self)
         vbox.addWidget(self.combo)
-        self.viewers = OrderedDict(
-            [(key, cls(parent=self)) for key, cls in six.iteritems(
-                self.viewers)])
+        if _viewers:
+            self.viewers = _viewers
+            for w in self.viewers.values():
+                w.setParent(self)
+        else:
+            self.viewers = OrderedDict(
+                [(key, cls(parent=self)) for key, cls in six.iteritems(
+                    self.viewers)])
+            # save the UrlHelp because QWebEngineView creates child processes
+            # that are not properly closed by PyQt and as such use too much
+            # memory
+            if is_running_tests():
+                for key, val in self.viewers.items():
+                    _viewers[key] = val
         for key, ini in six.iteritems(self.viewers):
             self.combo.addItem(key)
             ini.hide()

tests/_base_testing.py

@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ def setUpClass(cls):
         cls._close_app = mainwindow is None
         cls._app = QApplication.instance()
         if not running_in_gui:
+            import psyplot_gui
+            psyplot_gui.UNIT_TESTING = True
             if cls._app is None:
                 cls._app = QApplication([])
             cls._app.setQuitOnLastWindowClosed(False)