Robot Framework

Hands-on workshop 11.9.2019

 Trainers
Henrik Vesterinen (M.Sc.)

Software and RPA developer with specialization in Python and Robot

Framework. Background in the physical sciences from the University of
Helsinki and CERN.

Sanna Elomaa (M.Sc.)

RPA developer with a focus on Python and Robot Framework.

Background in mathematics and the insurance industry.

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 Trainers
Siili Solutions

Siili Solutions specializes in design, technology and data.

Software development, test automation, robotic process automation
Offices in Finland, Germany, Poland, USA
Siili Intelligent Automation offers open source RPA solutions with
Robot Framework.

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 Introduction
Welcome to the course!

Introduction: What is Robot Framework?

Getting started
Best Practices
Automating the Web

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 What is Robot Framework?
Keyword-driven test automation framework
Tests written using natural language
Open source, Apache License 2.0
Implemented with Python

https://robotframework.org/

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 What is Robot Framework?
The first version was developed at Nokia Networks in 2005 (by
Pekka Klärck)
Version 2.0 was released as open source in 2008
Nowadays sponsored by Robot Framework Foundation
A non-profit consortium of approximately 30 member companies

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 Users of Robot Framework
Nokia
Cisco
ABB
Kone
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
...and more

Active development and a growing community!

https://robotframework.org/#users

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Getting started
 Basic tools
We'll be working with the command line and an editor.

Install Python 3 (newest version)

https://www.python.org/downloads/

NB: On Windows, add Python scripts directory to PATH.

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 Good code editor
Recommended:

PyCharm
Atom
Sublime Text
VSCode

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 Development environment
You should always use a virtual environment when developing Python
software. Python 3 has built in venv:

Linux/MacOS: Windows:

python3 -m venv venv python -m venv venv

. venv/bin/activate call venv\Scripts\activate.bat

For more sophisticated usage, see virtualenvwrapper:

https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

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 Installing Robot Framework
Robot Framework is a Python library so you can install it with pip:

pip install robotframework

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 Exercise
Set up your Python environment

1. Make sure your editor is set up

2. Create a project directory
3. Create a new virtual environment and activate it
4. Install Robot Framework with pip into your virtual environment
5. Test your installation by running
robot --version

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Basics of Robot Framework
 Terminology
Test Suite
Test Case
Keyword
Libraries
Resources

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 Syntax
Plain text
File extension .robot
Space separated (min. 2)
Keyword and test case blocks are defined with indents
Code editor support

Open Login Page

Log Variables
Open Browser www.example.com chrome

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 Syntax: suite example
*** Settings ***
Library SeleniumLibrary

*** Variables ***

${USERNAME} admin
${PASSWORD} nimda
${URL} http://www.example.com

*** Test Cases ***

Valid Login
Open Login Page
Input Username ${USERNAME}
Input Password ${PASSWORD}

*** Keywords ***

Open Login Page
Open Browser ${URL} chrome

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 Available libraries

Standard libraries, e.g. External libraries, e.g.

BuiltIn AppiumLibrary
Collections SapGuiLibrary
Dialogs SeleniumLibrary
Screenshot WhiteLibrary
String TOSLibrary

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 BuiltIn library
The BuiltIn library includes some often needed keywords, e.g.

Log
Set Variable
Should Be Equal
Sleep
Run Keyword If
Fail
Convert To Integer

Always available without importing.

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 About the Robot Framework parser
The keyword libraries are not magic, they are Python code!

The following Python function

def print_sum(a, b):

print(a + b)

can be called from Robot Framework like:

Print Sum 1 5

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 Exercise
We'll build a simple test suite in the project directory.

1. Create a new file my_first_test_suite.robot

2. Import the Screenshot library
3. Create a keyword Take A Screenshot And Log Text that
uses the following standard library keywords:
Take Screenshot
Log
4. Create a test case Logging Test which calls your own keyword

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 Exercise
Your solution should look something like this:

*** Settings ***

Library Screenshot

*** Test Cases ***

Logging Test
Take Screenshot And Log Text

*** Keywords ***

Take Screenshot And Log Text
Take Screenshot
Log Something worth logging...

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 Running Robot Framework tests
robot <test_suite_file>

Running the tests generates three output files:

report.html
log.html
output.xml

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 Exercise
Run your previously created test suite and look at the output files.

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 Exercise
Run your previously created test suite and look at the output files.

Once the run has completed you should be seeing something like this:

==============================================================================
First Test Suite
==============================================================================
Logging Test | PASS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First Test Suite | PASS |
1 critical test, 1 passed, 0 failed
1 test total, 1 passed, 0 failed
==============================================================================
Output: C:\exercise\output.xml
Log: C:\exercise\log.html
Report: C:\exercise\report.html

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 Variables
String: ${MY_VARIABLE}
List: @{MY_VARIABLES}
Dictionary: &{MY_MAPPING}

*** Variables ***

${VARIABLE} An example string
${ANOTHER VARIABLE} Another example string
${INTEGER} ${42}
@{STRINGS} one two three four
@{NUMBERS} ${1} ${INTEGER} ${3.14}
&{MAPPING} one=${1} two=${2} three=${3}
&{FINNISH} cat=kissa dog=koira

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 Keyword arguments
Defining arguments for user keywords:

*** Keywords ***

Input Username
[Arguments] ${username}
Input Text username_field ${username}

You can then pass variables as arguments when calling the keyword:

Input Username ${VALID_USER_ID}

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 Exercise
Modify your previous test suite:

1. Create a variable for your text in the Variables table

2. Define an argument for the keyword Take A Screenshot And
Log Text
3. Pass the variable as an argument when calling the keyword in your
test case
4. Run your tests and check the log

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Best practices
 Ideal project structure
├── libraries
│ └── DemoLibrary.py
├── resources
│ ├── demo_keywords.robot
│ └── settings.py
├── test_cases
│ └── main_test_suite.robot
└── README

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 Ideal project structure
├── test_cases
│ └── main_test_suite.robot

This is the high level test suite:

*** Settings ***

Variables ../resources/settings.py
Library ../libraries/DemoLibrary.py
Resource ../resources/demo_keywords.robot

*** Test Cases ***

Assert Input Data Valid
Read Excel File

There should be no 'coding' on this level of abstraction.

Test cases should be atomic!

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 Robot Framework Keywords
├── resources
│ ├── demo_keywords.robot

*** Settings ***

Library ../libraries/InputExcelReader.py

*** Keywords ***

Read Excel File
Read Excel ${excel_path}
Load Worksheet ${sheet_name}
${raw_data}= Extract Data
Set Suite Variable ${RAW_DATA} ${raw_data}

Name the keywords with natural language.

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 Configuration
├── resources
│ ├── settings.py

Put configurable settings inside resources/settings.py:

db_server = "lolcathost"
db_port = 27017
db_name = "demorobot"

excel_path = "test_input.xlsx"
sheet_name = "Sheet1"

And import them like

*** Settings ***

Variables ../resources/settings.py

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 Python libraries
├── libraries
│ └── InputExcelReader.py

More complex keywords should be written in Python:

import openpyxl

class InputExcelReader:

def read_excel_file(self, excel_path):

self.wb = openpyxl.load_workbook(excel_path, data_only=True)

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 Debugging in Robot Framework
There is no real working debugger for Robot Framework. However, you
can pause the execution with Pause Execution keyword. For this
to work, you have to import library Dialogs:

*** Settings ***

Library Dialogs

*** Test Cases ***

Test Dialogs
Pause Execution Personalized popup message

And you can use Log Variables to log all variable values to RF log.

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Automating the Web
 SeleniumLibrary
Web automation is the most common and best supported by Robot
Framework.

Install SeleniumLibrary into your virtual environment:

pip install robotframework-seleniumlibrary

For keyword documentation, see

http://robotframework.org/SeleniumLibrary/SeleniumLibrary.html

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 Webdrivers
You also need a browser and a web driver. Recommended are Google
Chrome and chromedriver.

Use webdrivermanager to install the driver inside the virtualenv:

pip install webdrivermanager

and then

webdrivermanager chrome

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 Locators
Locators specify the GUI elements used in keywords.

In Chrome you can find locators for elements by right clicking on them
and selecting Inspect.

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 Locators
Locators specify the GUI elements used in keywords.

In Chrome you can find locators for elements by right clicking on them
and selecting Inspect.

Different locator strategies:

id
name
class
xpath
...
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 Exercise
Create a test case which does the following using SeleniumLibrary:

Perform a search on DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) for

"Robot Framework"
Verify that the first search result is for robotframework.org

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 Exercise: Example solution (1/2)
*** Settings ***
Documentation SeleniumLibrary demo
Library SeleniumLibrary

*** Variables ***

${rf_url}= robotframework.org
${duck_url}= https://duckduckgo.com/

*** Test Cases ***

Test RF on search engine
[Setup] Open duckduckgo
Search For Robot Framework
Assert First Result is RF Homepage
[Teardown] Close all browsers

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 Exercise: Example solution (2/2)
*** Keywords ***
Open duckduckgo
[Documentation] Open Duck Duck Go Search engine
... with Chrome browser.
Open Browser ${duck_url} gc

Search For Robot Framework

Input query
Click Search

Input query
Input text id:search_form_input_homepage Robot Framework

Click Search
Click Element id:search_button_homepage

Assert First Result is RF Homepage

Wait Until Page Contains Element id:r1-0
${url}= Get Element Attribute id:r1-0 data-hostname
Should Be Equal ${url} ${rf_url}

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More Robot Framework
 Setup & Teardown
Setup specifies the actions to be performed before test execution, and
teardown specifies the actions after the test execution.

Two possible levels:

Test Suite: executed once per test run

Test Case: executed once per test case

Teardown is executed despite the test result (pass, fail, interrupted, ...)

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 Setup & Teardown
*** Settings ***
Suite Teardown Clean Up

*** Test Cases ***

Test Something
[Setup] Open Application
Do Something
[Teardown] Close Application

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 Tags
Test cases can be labeled with tags:

*** Test Cases ***

First Example
[Tags] smoke
Do Something

Second Example
[Tags] smoke not_ready
Do Something Else

Third Example
[Tags] dummy
Do Something Completely Different

Tags can be used to include or exclude cases when running the tests:

robot --include smoke --exclude not_ready tests.robot

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 Data Driver Testing
Robot Framework supports test templates which provide an easy way
to move from keyword-driven test cases to data-driven tests.

*** Test Cases ***

Templated test case
[Template] Example keyword
<situation_1__arg_1> <situation_1__arg_2>
<situation_2__arg_1> <situation_2__arg_2>

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 And much more...
https://robotframework.org/
Robot Framework User Guide

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 And much more...
https://robotframework.org/
Robot Framework User Guide

Robot Framework Conference: https://robocon.io/

Meetups all over the world
Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm, San Francisco, Sydney, Utrecht...

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Thanks!