add test data and pytest action to repository

.github/workflows/unit_tests.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+name: Unit Testing
+
+on:
+  push:
+      branches:
+        - master
+  pull_request:
+
+  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: [3.8, 3.9, '3.10', '3.11', '3.12']
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install pytest
+          if [ -f requirements_dev.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements_dev.txt; fi
+
+      - name: Test with pytest
+        run: |
+          cd tests
+          pytest --pyargs .