is there a faster way to write similar test cases for Django views?

I guess what you want is "parameterized tests", standard unittest could do this with parameterized package:

import unittest
from parameterized import parameterized

class SomeModelApiTests(unittest.TestCase):

    @parameterized.expand([
        ('case1', 'm1', 'f1', 'nf1'),
        ('case1', 'm2', 'f2', 'nf2'),
    ])
    def test_update_with_only_1_field(self, dummy_subtest_name, model_name, field_name, new_field_value):
        print(model_name, field_name, new_field_value)

will yields:

test_update_with_only_1_field_0_case1 (t.SomeModelApiTests) ... m1 f1 nf1
ok
test_update_with_only_1_field_1_case1 (t.SomeModelApiTests) ... m2 f2 nf2
ok

pytest testing framework has better support builtin on parameterized tests, worth looking at.

You could create a list / dict of "some_model" to test, and use subtest (https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.html#distinguishing-test-iterations-using-subtests) for each of your "some_model" items.

my_list_of_model = [FirstModel, SecondModel]

for my_model in my_list_of_model:
    with subTest(model=mymodel):
        # Testing model here

If you want a different TestCase for each of your model, I think the multiple inheritance is the way to go:

class BaseApiTestCase(TestCase):
    def setUp():
        # Setup stuff

class RepetitiveTestCaseMixin:
    # Class to do the repetitive stuff
    def test_update_should_work(self):
        # Do some thing with self.model and self.field here

class ModelTestCase(BaseApiTestCase, RepetitiveTestCaseMixin):
    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
       super().setUpClass()

       cls.model = MyModel
       cls.field = 'some_field'

Projects I work on we sometimes use mixin + "customization hooks" when a test needs to repeated. (and endpoints like the "shape-list-create" is subject to change/refactored)

Example for question:

class TestUpdateWithOnly1FieldMixin(object):
    some_model = None
    some_field = None
    some_model2 = None

    def get_some_model(self):
        return self.some_model

    def get_some_field(self):
        return self.some_field

    def get_some_model2(self):
        return self.some_model2

    def test_update_with_only_1_field(self):
        some_model = self.get_some_model()
        # represents some-model in example
        some_model2 = self.get_some_model2()
        some_field = self.get_some_field()

        shape_data = {
            'name': 'test shape',
            'name_en': 'test shape en',
            'name_zh_hans': 'test shape zh hans',
            'serial_number': 'test shape serial number',
            'model_name': {
                some_field: '123'
            }
        }

      data = json.dumps(shape_data)
      response = self.client.post(reverse('shape-list-create'), data, 'application/json')
      self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)

      some_model_data = response.data[some_model]



class SomeModelApiTests(base_tests.BaseApiTest, TestUpdateWithOnly1FieldMixin):
    some_model = 'choose your model'
    some_field = 'some_field'
    some_model2 = 'some-model'

    def get_some_field(self):
        # Do customization
        return 'some-field after customize'

How to split the customization hooks and what to put in mixin etc is based on the situation. In my opinion the goal is to have the actual test case easy to follow. (Maybe move the "post shape-list-create" into a separate function as it might not really be relevant for that test case)

Another example, going a bit overboard with customizations but just to give an idea.

class TestWithGoodNameMixin(object):
    some_model = None
    some_field = None

    # "Customization hooks"

    def get_shape_data(self):
        return {self.some_field: 'x'}

    def create_model(self, shape_data):
        response = self.client.post(reverse('shape-list-create'), shape_data,
                                    'application/json')
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        return response[self.some_model]

    def create_put_data(self, some_model_data):
        # Add default implementation
        pass

    # .....

    def test_update_with_only_1_field(self):
        shape_data = self.get_shape_data()
        some_model_data = self.create_model(shape_data)

        data = self.create_put_data(some_model_data)
        response = self.put_data(data)

        self.assert_put_response(response)

You can use pytest package for unit testing. It is very simple and easy to use.

@pytest.mark.parametrize() decorator can be used to achieve that functionality.

An example for parametrized test cases is as follows:

import pytest
class SampleTesting(object):
    data_for_test = [
                      ('{inputdata1:value1}','output1'),
                      ('{inputdata1:value2}','output2')
                     ]
   @pytest.mark.parametrized('input_data, expected_output', data_for_test)
   def test_sample_function(self, input_data, expected_output):
       response = function_to_be_tested(input_data)
       assert response == expected_output

You can read more about this decorator in the docs'

You can also use the @pytest.fixture() decorator to setup the test function.