The Robot Framework is a useful framework for writing acceptance tests using the keyword approach. Keywords are short-hand commands that are provided by various libraries and can also be user defined. This easily supports BDD-style Given-When-Then keywords. It also opens the door to third-party libraries defining custom keywords to integrate with other test tools, such as Selenium. It also means acceptance tests written using Robot Framework aren't confined to web applications.
This recipe shows all the steps needed to install the Robot Framework as well as the third party Robot Framework Selenium Library for use by later recipes.
- Be sure to activate your
virtualenvsandbox. - Install by typing:
easy_installrobotframework. - Using any type of window navigator, go to
<virtualenvroot>/build/robotframework/doc/quickstartand openquickstart.htmlwith your favorite browser. This is not only a guide but also a runnable test suite. - Switch to your virtualenv's build directory for Robot Framework:
cd<virtualenvroot>/build/robotframework/doc/quickstart. - Run the Quick Start manual through
pybotto verify installation:pybot quickstart.html.
- Inspect the generated
report.html,log.html, andoutput.xmlfiles generated by the test run. - Install the Robot Framework Selenium library to allow integration with Selenium by first downloading: http://robotframework-seleniumlibrary.googlecode.com/files/robotframework-seleniumlibrary-2.5.tar.gz.
- Unpack the tarball.
- Switch to the directory:
cd robotframework-seleniumlibrary-2.5. - Install the package:
pythonsetup.py install. - Switch to the demo directory:
cddemo. - Start up the demo web app:
pythonrundemo.pydemoappstart. - Start up the Selenium server:
pythonrundemo.pyseleniumstart. - Run the demo tests:
pybot login_tests.
- Shutdown the demo web app:
pythonrundemo.pydemoappstop. - Shutdown the Selenium server:
pythonrundemo.pyseleniumstop. - Inspect the generated
report.html,log.html,output.xml, andselenium_log.txtfiles generated by the test run.
With this recipe, we have installed the Robot Framework and one third-party library that integrates Robot with Selenium.
There are many more third-party libraries that provide enhanced functionality to the Robot Framework. The options have enough potential to fill an entire book. So we must narrow our focus to some of the core features provided by Robot Framework, including both web and non-web testing.