How to skip a testcase if a link is not present and go to next link in Robot framework

Question

Scenario: There are 5 Links in the Home page: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 Link 5

Each of the above links are separate test cases, so there are a total of 5 test cases.

All the links may not present in all the sites, according to the requirements.

So I need to write a Robot framework test case which works dynamically for all the sites, Like 1 site may have 3 links only some has all the 5 links. So its like SKIPPING a particular Test case if that lisk is not present.

*** Keywords ***
Go to Manage Client Reports
Click Link    link:Manage Client Reports

Can anyone help.

Answer 1

There is an advanced solution where you can generate your test cases run-time. To do so you have to implement a small library that also acts as a listener. This way it can have a start_suite method that will be invoked and it will get the suite(s) as Python object(s), robot.running.model.TestSuite. Then you could use this object along with Robot Framework's API to create new test cases. The idea below was inspired by and it is based on this blog post: Dynamically create test cases with Robot Framework.

DynamicTestLibrary.py:

from robot.running.model import TestSuite

class DynamicTestLibrary(object):
    ROBOT_LISTENER_API_VERSION = 3
    ROBOT_LIBRARY_SCOPE = 'GLOBAL'
    ROBOT_LIBRARY_VERSION = 0.1

    def __init__(self):
        self.ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER = self
        self.top_suite = None

    def _start_suite(self, suite, result):
        self.top_suite = suite
        self.top_suite.tests.clear() # remove placeholder test

    def add_test_case(self, keyword, *args):
        tc = self.top_suite.tests.create(name=keyword)
        tc.keywords.create(name=keyword, args=args)

globals()[__name__] = DynamicTestLibrary

UPDATE for Robot Framework 4.0

Due to the backward incompatible changes (Running and result models have been changed) made in the 4.0 release the add_test_case function should be change as below if you are using version above 4.0.

def add_test_case(self, name, keyword, *args):
    tc = self.top_suite.tests.create(name=name)
     tc.body.create_keyword(name=keyword, args=args)

---

You can utilize this library in a suite setup, in which you check which links are present and add test cases for the ones that are available.

test.robot

*** Settings ***
Library    DynamicTestLibrary
Suite Setup    Check Links And Generate Test Cases

*** Variables ***
#@{LINKS}    Manage Clients                                                              # test input 1
@{LINKS}    Manage Clients       Manage Client Hardware                                 # test input 2
#@{LINKS}    Manage Clients       Manage Client Hardware      Manage Client Reports      # test input 3

*** Test Cases ***
Placeholder
    [Documentation]    Placeholder test that will be removed during execution.
    No Operation
    
*** Keywords ***
Check Links And Generate Test Cases
    FOR    ${link}    IN    @{LINKS}
        DynamicTestLibrary.Add Test Case    Go to ${link}
    END

Go to Manage Client Reports
    Log Many   Click Link    link:Manage Client Reports
    
Go to Manage Client Hardware
    Log Many   Click Link    link:Manage Client Hardware
    
Go to Manage Clients
    Log Many   Click Link    link:Manage Clients

Go to ${link} will give the appropriate keyword name that will be called in a test case with the same name. You can check with each example input list that the number of executed tests will be equal with the length of the list.

Here is the output:

# robot --pythonpath . test.robot
==============================================================================
Test
==============================================================================
Go to Manage Clients                                                  | PASS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go to Manage Client Hardware                                          | PASS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test                                                                  | PASS |
2 critical tests, 2 passed, 0 failed
2 tests total, 2 passed, 0 failed
==============================================================================

Answer 2

In the upcoming Robot Framework Release 4.0 a new test status skipped will be introduced. Here is a brief status about the release:

Past due by 27 days 87% complete

Major release concentrating on adding the skip status (#3622), IF/ELSE (#3074) and enhancing the listener API (#3296 and #3538). Last major release to support Python 2.

So it can be ready any time soon now.

This is what you can have New SKIP status #3622. There will be a Skip If and a Skip keywords and more to be used.

How to skip tests

There are going to be multiple ways:

• A special exception that library keywords can use to mark a single test to be skipped. See also #3685.
• BuiltIn keyword Skip (or Skip Test and Skip Task) that utilizes the aforementioned exception.
• BuiltIn keyowrd Skip If to skip based on condition.
• When the skipping exception is used in a suite setup, all tests in the suite are skipped.
• Command line option --skip to unconditionally skip tests based on tags. Similar to --exclude but skipped tests are shown in logs/reports with a skip status and not dropped from execution altogether.
• Command line option --skiponfailure to skip tests if they fail. Similar effect than with the current --noncritical.

What about criticality

As already discussed in #2087, the skip status is very similar feature than Robot's current criticality concept. There are many people who would like to have both, but I don't think that's a good idea and believe it's better to remove criticality when skipping is added. Separate issue #3624 covers removing criticality and explains this in more detail. Colors

Skip status needs a specific color to match current pass (green) and fail (red). Yellow feels like a good candidate with a traffic light metaphor, but I'm open for other ideas and we could possibly change other colors as well. Probably should make colors configurable too -- currently only report background colors support it.

Report background color mentioned above needs some thinking as well. Currently it's either green or red, but with the added skip status we could use also yellow or whatever skip color we decide to use. Different scenarios where different colors could be used are listed below (assuming green/yellow/red scheme):

• All tests pass. This is naturally green.
• Any test fails. This is naturally red.
• Any test is skipped (no failures). This probably should be green but could also be yellow.
• All tests skipped. This could be yellow. Could also be green but that's a bit odd if all tests are yellow.

Depending on your deadlines you might won't be able to wait this release, nevertheless it is a good to know thing.