Robot Framework Testing Environment

Enterprise test automation with Robot Framework, Browser Library (Playwright), SeleniumLibrary, RequestsLibrary, data-driven testing, parallel execution, and Allure reporting.

What's Inside

Quick Start

# Run all tests
rf-run

# Run a specific test file
rf-run tests/web_tests.robot

# Run tests by tag
rf-tag smoke

# Run tests in parallel
rf-parallel

# Run + view HTML report
rf-report

# Run API tests
rf-run tests/api_tests.robot

# Show all commands
rf-help

Helper Commands

Test Execution

Reports

Tools & Scaffolding

Project Structure

workspace/
├── tests/                  # Test suites (.robot files)
│   ├── web_tests.robot     # Browser Library web tests
│   ├── api_tests.robot     # RequestsLibrary API tests
│   ├── browser_tests.robot # Additional Browser Library examples
│   └── data_driven_tests.robot  # DataDriver parameterized tests
├── resources/              # Keywords, variables, page objects
│   └── common.resource     # Shared keywords and variables
├── libraries/              # Custom Python libraries
│   └── CustomLibrary.py    # Example custom keywords
├── data/                   # Test data files
│   └── users.csv           # Sample CSV for data-driven tests
├── results/                # Test output (log.html, report.html)
├── exercises/              # Guided lab exercises
└── README.md

Browser Library (Web Testing)

Browser Library uses Playwright under the hood — fast, reliable, and supports modern web apps:

*** Settings ***
Library    Browser

*** Test Cases ***
Login Flow
    New Browser    chromium    headless=true
    New Page    https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login
    Fill Text    id=username    tomsmith
    Fill Text    id=password    SuperSecretPassword!
    Click    button[type="submit"]
    Get Text    id=flash    *=    You logged into a secure area!
    Take Screenshot
    Close Browser

Key Browser Library Keywords

API Testing (RequestsLibrary)

Test REST APIs without a browser:

*** Settings ***
Library    RequestsLibrary
Library    Collections

*** Variables ***
${API_URL}    https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

*** Test Cases ***
GET Posts Returns 200
    [Tags]    smoke    api
    ${response}=    GET    ${API_URL}/posts
    Status Should Be    200    ${response}
    ${posts}=    Set Variable    ${response.json()}
    Length Should Be Greater Than    ${posts}    0

POST Creates A New Post
    [Tags]    regression    api
    ${body}=    Create Dictionary    title=Test Post    body=Test Body    userId=1
    ${response}=    POST    ${API_URL}/posts    json=${body}
    Status Should Be    201    ${response}

Data-Driven Testing (DataDriver)

Run the same test with multiple data sets from a CSV file:

*** Settings ***
Library    DataDriver    file=../data/users.csv    dialect=unix
Library    RequestsLibrary
Test Template    Verify User Exists

*** Test Cases ***
User ${id} - ${name}
    [Tags]    data-driven

*** Keywords ***
Verify User Exists
    [Arguments]    ${id}    ${name}    ${email}
    ${response}=    GET    https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/${id}
    Status Should Be    200    ${response}

CSV file (data/users.csv):

id,name,email
1,Leanne Graham,Sincere@april.biz
2,Ervin Howell,Shanna@melissa.tv
3,Clementine Bauch,Nathan@yesenia.net

One test case is generated per CSV row.

Parallel Execution (Pabot)

Speed up test runs with parallel execution:

rf-parallel
# Runs tests across 4 parallel processes

Pabot automatically distributes test suites across processes and merges results into a single report.

Page Object Pattern

Use Robot Framework resource files as page objects:

*** Settings ***
Library    Browser

*** Keywords ***
Open Login Page
    New Page    https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/login

Login With Credentials
    [Arguments]    ${username}    ${password}
    Fill Text    id=username    ${username}
    Fill Text    id=password    ${password}
    Click    button[type="submit"]

Verify Login Success
    Get Text    id=flash    *=    You logged into a secure area!

Then use in tests:

*** Settings ***
Resource    ../resources/login.resource

*** Test Cases ***
Valid Login
    [Tags]    smoke
    Open Login Page
    Login With Credentials    tomsmith    SuperSecretPassword!
    Verify Login Success

Tagging Convention

[Tags]    smoke           # Quick validation tests
[Tags]    regression      # Full regression suite
[Tags]    api             # API-only tests
[Tags]    web             # Browser-based tests
[Tags]    data-driven     # Parameterized tests

Run by tag:

rf-tag smoke             # Run @smoke tests
rf-tag api               # Run API tests only
rf-tag "smokeANDweb"     # Combine tags

Custom Python Libraries

Extend Robot Framework with custom Python keywords:

# libraries/CustomLibrary.py
class CustomLibrary:
    def generate_test_email(self, prefix="test"):
        import time
        return f"{prefix}_{int(time.time())}@learncen.test"

    def calculate_percentage(self, value, total):
        return f"{(float(value) / float(total)) * 100:.1f}%"

Use in tests:

*** Settings ***
Library    ../libraries/CustomLibrary.py

*** Test Cases ***
Generate Test Data
    ${email}=    Generate Test Email    user
    Log    Generated email: ${email}

Watching Tests Run (noVNC)

To see Browser Library tests execute in a real browser:

1. Set headless=false in your test or run with rf-headed
2. Open the noVNC URL (port 10000) — append /vnc.html?autoconnect=true
3. Watch Chromium execute your tests in real-time

noVNC Troubleshooting

Reports

Built-in HTML Report

rf-report
# Output: results/report.html, results/log.html
# Served at port 9323

Robot Framework generates two reports:

• report.html — Summary with pass/fail statistics
• log.html — Detailed keyword-by-keyword execution log

Allure Report

robot --listener allure_robotframework --outputdir results tests/

VS Code Extensions (Pre-installed)

Keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+Shift+B — Run tests + report (default build task)
• Ctrl+Shift+T — Run all tests (default test task)

Exercises

The workspace includes guided lab exercises:

1. RF Fundamentals — Write your first test, understand keyword syntax
2. Browser Library — Navigate, click, fill forms, assert, screenshot
3. API Testing — Test REST APIs with RequestsLibrary
4. Data-Driven Testing — Parameterize with DataDriver + CSV
5. Page Object Pattern — Resource files as reusable page objects
6. Parallel Execution — Speed up with Pabot

Open the exercises/ folder to start.

Tips

• Robot Framework uses keyword-driven syntax — readable by non-developers
• Browser Library is preferred over SeleniumLibrary for new projects (faster, more reliable)
• Use resource files (.resource) to organize reusable keywords
• rf-dry validates your test structure without running anything — useful before CI
• Variables can be overridden from command line: robot --variable BASE_URL:https://staging.myapp.com
• Ctrl+Shift+B runs tests and opens the report

Security

• Root access is restricted. Use sudo apt install <package> for system packages.
• pip, python3, npm are whitelisted for sudo access.
• Python virtual environment is at /opt/learncen-venv/bin/python3.