How to create table during Django tests with managed = False

Execute raw SQL to create the table in the test setup:

from django.db import connection

class MyTest(unittest.TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        connection.cursor().execute("CREATE TABLE ...")

    def tearDown(self):
        connection.cursor().execute("DROP TABLE ...")

Nice plug and play solution. Just paste this before your test class definition. (note: django 1.8 used)

from django.db.models.loading import get_models

def change_managed_settings_just_for_tests():
  """django model managed bit needs to be switched for tests."""    

  unmanaged_models = [m for m in get_models() if not m._meta.managed]
  for m in unmanaged_models:
    m._meta.managed = True

change_managed_settings_just_for_tests()

You can use SchemaEditor in TestCase.setUp method to explicitly create models with managed = False.

# models.py

from django.db import models


class Unmanaged(models.Model):
    foo = models.TextField()

    class Meta:
        # This model is not managed by Django
        managed = False
        db_table = 'unmanaged_table'

And in your tests:

# tests.py

from django.db import connection
from django.test import TestCase

from myapp.models import Unmanaged


class ModelsTestCase(TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        super().setUp()

        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.create_model(Unmanaged)

            if (
                Unmanaged._meta.db_table
                not in connection.introspection.table_names()
            ):
                raise ValueError(
                    "Table `{table_name}` is missing in test database.".format(
                        table_name=Unmanaged._meta.db_table
                    )
                )

    def tearDown(self):
        super().tearDown()

        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.delete_model(Unmanaged)

    def test_unmanaged_model(self):
        with self.assertNumQueries(num=3):
            self.assertEqual(0, Unmanaged.objects.all().count())
            Unmanaged.objects.create()
            self.assertEqual(1, Unmanaged.objects.all().count())

Check out this blog post: http://www.caktusgroup.com/blog/2010/09/24/simplifying-the-testing-of-unmanaged-database-models-in-django/ It describes in detail the creation of a test runner for unmanaged models.

from django.test.simple import DjangoTestSuiteRunner


class ManagedModelTestRunner(DjangoTestSuiteRunner):
    """
    Test runner that automatically makes all unmanaged models in your Django
    project managed for the duration of the test run, so that one doesn't need
    to execute the SQL manually to create them.
    """
    def setup_test_environment(self, *args, **kwargs):
        from django.db.models.loading import get_models
        self.unmanaged_models = [m for m in get_models()
                                 if not m._meta.managed]
        for m in self.unmanaged_models:
            m._meta.managed = True
        super(ManagedModelTestRunner, self).setup_test_environment(*args,
                                                                   **kwargs)

    def teardown_test_environment(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(ManagedModelTestRunner, self).teardown_test_environment(*args,
                                                                      **kwargs)
        # reset unmanaged models
        for m in self.unmanaged_models:
            m._meta.managed = False