Written in Python | Operating system | |
Developer(s) Pekka Klärck, Janne Härkönen et al. Initial release 2.0 June 24, 2008 (2008-06-24) Stable release 3.0.2 / February 13, 2017 (2017-02-13) Type Software testing framework / Test tool | ||
The Robot Framework is a generic test automation framework for acceptance testing and acceptance test-driven development (ATDD). It is a keyword-driven testing framework that uses tabular test data syntax.
Contents
History
The basic ideas for the Robot Framework were shaped in the Pekka Klärck's masters thesis in 2005. The first version was developed at Nokia Networks the same year. Version 2.0 was released as open source software June 24, 2008 and version 2.8.4 was released February 7, 2014.
The framework is written using the Python programming language and has an active community of contributors. It is released under Apache License 2.0 and can be downloaded from robotframework.org.
Description
Test cases are written using keyword testing methodology written in a tabular format. These tables can be written in plain text, HTML, tab-separated values (TSV), or reStructuredText (reST) formats files in any text editor or using the Robot Integrated Development Environment (RIDE). RIDE simplifies writing test cases by providing framework specific code completion, syntax highlighting, etc.
Examples
The following test case implements a Hello World example:
This can be written as follows:
Log is a built-in keyword that logs the given parameter to the test report generated by the Robot Framework.
With the help of the SeleniumLibrary, writing tests for web applications is very easy too:
This test opens a new Internet Explorer browser window and performs an internet search.
Add-ons
These libraries are best implemented in Python, but using Java or .Net is also possible.
Other languages such as Perl, Javascript and PHP can be used for libraries as well, using the remote library interface, see Robot Framework User Guide and documentation for more information.