A Beginner’s Guide to Selenium Robot Testing

Struggling to use Selenium Python for implementing Selenium Robot testing? Don’t worry! We are here for you. We will help you understand the basics of Selenium and Robot framework. During our discussion, we will also discuss their integrations and provide a step-by-step approach for beginners to get started with this process.

Recently the integration of Selenium and Robot framework is becoming very popular due to its flexibility, ease of use, and the ability to write readable test cases. The proper implementation of this integration will also have a major role in improving the overall testing experience while working on complex app projects.

What is Selenium

Before we start getting into the complex details, we must clarify our basics to remove any unwanted obstacles. Does Selenium require any introduction? It is possibly one of the longest dominators in the segment of automated web app testing.

Instead of being a standalone tool or framework, it comes as an umbrella suite that consists of multiple tools which aims to assist you at different stages of the automation testing process. It can automate various tasks like clicking buttons, entering text, navigating pages, and verifying the overall content.

Another beneficial feature of this suite is that it supports multiple programming languages for writing the automation test scripts. This means you do not have to go through the hassle of learning a separate programming language just for the sake of one tool.

Let us now divert our attention towards some of the major tools that come under the Selenium test suite:

• We must begin our discussion with the Selenium WebDriver. Why? This is the most important component which is responsible for initiating and executing the test suite. This tool will also allow you to execute the test cases in the native environment of the browser without any dedicated test engine.
• Let us now move on to the Selenium integrated development environment which comes as a browser plugin to record actions and create test cases without going through the hassle of writing a dedicated automation test script. This makes it the most ideal option for beginners who are trying to get the hang of Selenium.
• The Selenium Grid grabs the limelight for being able to run the test cases on multiple browser and device combinations. Moreover, this tool will also allow you to run the test cases in a parallel configuration so that you can reduce the overall test execution time.

What is Robot Framework?

Now that we have finished understanding the Selenium basics, let us move our attention towards the Robot framework. It is also an open-source framework which helps you to implement keyword-driven testing.

A very interesting fact about this framework is that it was originally created to perform acceptance testing but has since expanded its scope to other wide range of automation tasks. Some of the most important inclusions include API testing, web testing, and mobile application testing.

Why bother about using the Robot framework? It provides a readable syntax which will allow even the non-programmers to create the automation test scripts.

To further improve our knowledge about the usefulness of Robot framework, let us divert our attention towards some of its major features:

• This framework will help you to write the test scripts using keywords which will, in turn, make the tests more human readable and easy to maintain.
• The Robot framework can be extended using libraries like the SeleniumLibrary. These extensions will allow you to access all the necessary keywords to interact with multiple web applications.
• The Robot framework also comes with native cross-platform support. This means that you can run it on multiple platforms and integrate it with a variety of tools like Appium or Selenium and even REST API libraries.

Why Combine Selenium with Robot Framework?

Although we have explained the basics of the Selenium and Robot framework, you might have a question in the back of your mind about the reasons for combining both these frameworks.

It is true that Selenium has a robust browser automation engine, but it can be quite complex to write the automation test scripts with multiple programming languages, especially when you’re working on large projects. The test script creation process often acts as a gatekeeper forbidding newcomers into the industry.

The inclusion of the Robot framework removes this complexity by allowing even the non-programmers to write their test scripts using a keyword-driven format which makes it readable, maintainable,  and extendable.

To further improve our understanding of this process, let us go through some of the major advantages of this integration:

• The syntax of the Robot framework is human readable, which makes it easy for non-developers to participate in a test creation process.
• By using predetermined keywords that come from the SeleniumLibrary, testers can quickly create test cases without writing extensive code for every dedicated test case.
• The combination of Selenium and Robot framework will make the test cases more modular to improve the overall maintainability and scalability.
• This integration also allows the testers to utilize Selenium’s capabilities to run tests on multiple browsers using cross browser testing.

Setting Up Selenium Robot Framework

Want to begin executing your automation test scripts with the Selenium Robot framework? Follow the steps below to set up the testing environment:

Prerequisites:

Before you can use the main components, you must have all the following software including the latest versions installed on your system:

• Since the Robot framework is built on Python, you need to install Python on your system.
• Don’t forget about pip, Python’s package installer. This will help you to install all the libraries and required dependencies for the testing process.
• Selenium requires dedicated drivers like ChromeDriver or GeckoDriver to communicate with respective browsers. So, based on your target browsers, you must have these drivers installed on your system.

Install Robot Framework and SeleniumLibrary

To install the Robot framework and Selenium, you can use pip to perform this process. You simply have to enter the following command in the terminal window:

pip install Robotframework

pip install Robotframework-Seleniumlibrary

The above code will install both Robot framework and the SeleniumLibrary required to interact with the target browsers.

Writing Your First Selenium Test with Robot Framework

Now that you’ve finished setting up the testing environment, you are ready to write your first automation test script with Selenium Python using the Robot framework:

• The first step is to create a directory for that project and, inside it, create a new file with the “.robot” extension.
• Finished creating the root directory? You should familiarize yourself with the test case structure of the Robot framework. To further help you in this process, we have mentioned a sample test case:

In the above test script the “library” keyword will import SeleniumLibrary to provide the Selenium commands which you will be using to interact with the web browser. On the other hand, the variables section will define the variables that you can use throughout the test execution process.

Finally, the test cases section will contain the specifics of all the testing steps. Here, these steps include opening the browser, inputting the required text and pressing the validation key. After this, the system will verify whether the page contains the entered text and close the browser to display the test result.

Running Your First Test

Now that you have finished writing your test script using the Robot framework, you are ready to execute it using the terminal window of Selenium. To perform the execution process, you simply have to navigate to the folder where the file is located and enter the following command:

Robot google_search.Robot

After this, you simply have to wait for the system to complete all the mentioned steps in the test script and display the final test results.

Advanced Features and Best Practices

After understanding the basics of this process, we strongly recommend the testers to familiarize themselves with the following best practices and advanced features to further improve the efficiency of this process:

Using Page Object Model (POM)

With the growth of your test suite, it will become very challenging to maintain the test cases. You can adapt Page Object Models to separate the test logic from the page structure. This approach will make the tests more maintainable and modular. Using this approach, you can also create separate files for different pages. Each of these files will contain specific keywords that will relate to the page interactions.

Parallel Test Execution

Robot framework natively supports the inclusion of parallel test execution. Just for the basics, it is the process of running multiple test cases on different configurations at the same time. You can use tools like Pabot to run multiple tests simultaneously and reduce the overall testing time.

To install Pabot with Selenium Python And Robot framework, simply add the following command in the terminal window:

pip install Robotframework-pabot

After installing Pabot, you can enter the following command to start executing the test cases in a parallel configuration:

pabot google_search.Robot

Using Cloud Testing

Although the inclusion of Robot framework almost eliminates the hassle of creating automation test scripts, you must not ignore the importance of real device testing. considering the expense and headache of setting up an in-house device lab, you can completely eliminate this process using cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest.

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets you perform manual and automation testing at scale with over 3000 real devices, browsers, and OS combinations. Using this massive device farm, you can also perform automated cross-browser testing on your web applications.

Using Variables and Data-Driven Tests

The robot framework also comes with built-in support for data-driven testing. This support will allow you to run the same test case with different sets of input data. You can easily perform this process by navigating to the variable section or by reading data from external files.

To further shed more light over this segment, we have mentioned a sample code snippet that will help you to execute data-driven testing with Selenium Robot framework:

The Bottom Line

Based on all the factors that we have analyzed in this article, we can safely say that Selenium and Robot framework will together provide a powerful and flexible platform for web app testing. By combining Selenium’s robust automation capabilities with Robot framework’s human readable syntax, teams with minimal coding experience can create effective test suites.

So, whether you are a beginner in this industry or an experienced tester, you should combine Selenium with the Robot framework to open up many other possibilities for enhancing your overall automation testing efforts.