How do you integrate robot framework with continuous integration tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions?

1 Why use robot framework with CI tools?

Continuous integration (CI) is a practice of merging and testing code changes frequently and automatically. CI tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions can help you run your tests, check your code quality, and deploy your software. Robot framework is a great choice for writing and executing your tests, as it offers a keyword-driven syntax, a rich set of libraries, and a flexible reporting system. By integrating robot framework with CI tools, you can benefit from faster feedback, easier debugging, and better collaboration.

2 How to use robot framework with Jenkins?

Jenkins is a popular open-source CI tool that enables you to create pipelines and jobs for your projects. To use robot framework with Jenkins, you need to install the Robot Framework plugin and configure your job settings. This includes installing the plugin from the Jenkins plugin manager, creating or selecting a freestyle project, adding a build step and selecting "Execute Robot Framework test", specifying the path to your robot test files or directories, and any additional arguments or options. Additionally, add a post-build action and select "Publish Robot Framework test results", specify the path to your output files, and any additional settings. Finally, save the project and run the job.

3 How to use robot framework with GitHub Actions?

GitHub Actions is a newer CI tool that allows you to create workflows and run them on GitHub. To use robot framework with GitHub Actions, you need to create a YAML file and configure your workflow steps. These steps include creating a new file named .github/workflows/robot.yml in your repository, defining the name, triggers, and environment of your workflow, adding a step to check out your repository using the actions/checkout@v2 action, adding a step to install robot framework and any dependencies using the pip install command, adding a step to run your robot tests using the robot command and specifying the path to your test files or directories, as well as any additional arguments or options, adding a step to upload your output files as artifacts using the actions/upload-artifact@v2 action, and pushing the file to your repository.

4 How to customize your robot reports?

Robot framework provides several advantages, such as detailed and customizable reports and logs for your tests. You can control the content and format of your reports by using options and keywords, like --name, --doc, --metadata, --suite, --report, --log, --output, and more. You can also set the title and log level of your report and log files with the --reporttitle, --logtitle, and --loglevel options. Additionally, you can pass variables, variable files, and argument files to your tests with the --variable, --variablefile, and --argumentfile options. To select which tests or suites to run or skip you can use the --include, --exclude, --test, and --suite options. Lastly, you can use BuiltIn, OperatingSystem, String, Collections libraries to perform various operations and assertions in your tests along with Set Tags, Set Suite Metadata, Set Test Message, Set Test Variable keywords to modify tags, metadata, message and variables of your tests or suites.

5 How to troubleshoot your robot tests?

Robot tests may fail or encounter errors for various reasons. To troubleshoot them, you can check the report and log files for the details and messages of your test failures or errors. You can also use the --console, --consolecolors, --consolemarkers, and --consolewidth options to control the output of your tests on the console. Additionally, the --dryrun option can be used to verify the syntax and structure of your tests without executing them. Furthermore, you can use the --debugfile option to write debug information to a separate file, and the --listener, --prerunmodifier, and --prerebotmodifier options to register listener, prerun modifier, and prerebot modifier scripts to modify or monitor your test execution. Finally, you can utilize the Debug Library to pause the test execution and enter an interactive shell for debugging.