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8. Robot class in Java

The Robot Class in Java is used in Selenium Automation Tests to control keyboard and mouse actions for interacting with OS pop-ups and applications that Selenium WebDriver cannot handle. It allows for simulating keyboard and mouse events, facilitating file uploads/downloads, and can be integrated into various automation frameworks. However, it has limitations, such as being dependent on the current window instance and screen resolution, making it less versatile compared to Selenium's Actions class for browser automation.

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3 views

8. Robot class in Java

The Robot Class in Java is used in Selenium Automation Tests to control keyboard and mouse actions for interacting with OS pop-ups and applications that Selenium WebDriver cannot handle. It allows for simulating keyboard and mouse events, facilitating file uploads/downloads, and can be integrated into various automation frameworks. However, it has limitations, such as being dependent on the current window instance and screen resolution, making it less versatile compared to Selenium's Actions class for browser automation.

Uploaded by

qavasutesting
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Robot Class in Java

Why Robot Class?

In certain Selenium Automation Tests, there is a need to control keyboard or mouse action to interact
with OS windows like Download pop-up, Alerts, Print Pop-ups, etc. or native Operation System applications
like Notepad, Skype, Calculator, etc.

Selenium WebDriver cannot handle these OS pop-ups / applications. In Java version 1.3 Robot Class
was introduced. Robot Class can handle OS pop-ups/applications. Robot class is present in AWT package of
JDK.

Advantages -

1. Robot Class can simulate Keyboard and Mouse Event


2. Robot Class can help in upload/download of files when using selenium web driver
3. Robot Class can easily be integrated with current automation framework (keyword, data-driven or
hybrid)

Robot Class internal methods and usage

Robot Class methods can be used to interact with keyboard / mouse events while doing browser
automation. Alternatively AutoIT can be used, but its drawback is that it generates an executable file
(exe) which will only work on windows, so it is not a good option to use.

Some usual methods of Robot Class during web automation -

Sr. No Method Description


1 keyPress() press down arrow key of Keyboard
2 mousePress() press the right click of your mouse
3 mouseMove() move mouse pointer to the specified X & Y coordinates
4 keyRelease() release down arrow key of Keyboard
5 mouseRelease() release the right click of your mouse

Sample code to automate common use cases using Robot Class –

1. Creating a Robot class Object :

Robot robo = new Robot();

2. To press Down Arrow Key of Keyboard :


robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_DOWN);

3. To press TAB key of Keyboard

robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_TAB);

4. To press Enter key of keyboard

robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);

5. To move Mouse Pointer of mouse

robo.mouseMove(630,420) ; // x & y offsets (Co-ordinates)

6. To press left Mouse Button of mouse

robo.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);

7. To release left Mouse Button of mouse

robo.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);

Disadvantages of Robot class –

1. Keyword / mouse event will only works on current instance of Window. E.g. suppose a code is
performing any robot class event, and during the code execution user has moved to some other screen then
keyword / mouse event will occur on that screen.
2. Most of the methods like mouseMove is screen resolution dependent so there might be a chance that code
working on one machine might not work on other.

Example Code –

public class demo {


public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, AWTException {

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","F:\\chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.manage().window().maximize();
driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/");

WebElement emailOrPhone = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@type='email']"));


WebElement password = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@name='pass']"));
Actions act = new Actions(driver) ;
act.sendKeys(emailOrPhone, "pqrxyz").build().perform();
act.sendKeys(password, "abcde").build().perform();

Robot robo = new Robot();


robo.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); // pressing Enter Key
robo.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); // releasing Enter Key
}
}

Selenium Actions or Java AWT Robot?

Selenium uses WebDriver API and sends commands to browser driver to perform actions (through the
"JSON wire protocol"). However, Java AWT Robot uses native system events to control keyboard and mouse
operations. If your aim is, browser automation, then technically you don't need to use Robot framework because
the Actions() functionality provided by Selenium is more than enough. But of course, there are cases when
browser or native OS popup comes up like uploading/ downloading a file. This can also be solved using Robot
framework- though generally there are selenium-specific solutions/workarounds that can help avoiding using
Robot. The key idea of these workarounds is "since we cannot control the popups, just don't let them open".

For instance, while downloading a file in Firefox, you will get a popup asking you to choose a location
and filename where it should get saved. This kind a situation cannot be manipulated using selenium. But, however
what you can do is, let Firefox know for certain file types, where to save the downloads automatically, without
handling the popup.

Robot class is a java based utility which emulates the keyboard and mouse actions. The Actions class is
selenium based utility, user-facing API for emulating complex user action events

Simply we can say that Java AWT Robot class is useful to handle OS windows like AutoIT
whereas Action class is not meant to Automate OS windows.

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