Instantiating a class in Robot Framework

Question

I have a python API wrapper that I can use like so:

from api.MyApi import *

client = MyApi(server)

users = client.user.get_users()

I would like to write a Test Library that uses it which I can use within Robot Framework, but I'm having trouble getting it to work the way I want. I have tried the following ways:

test.robot

*** Settings ***
Library  api.MyApi  ${SERVER}  WITH NAME  client

*** Variables ***

*** Keywords ***
Get users
    ${response}=  client.user.get_users()
    Log  ${response.content}   

*** Test Cases ***
Test: Test 1
    Get users

Which results in

No keyword with name 'client.user.get_users()' found.

how can I create and use an instance of my API client?

Answer 1

You shouldn't try to directly use your api library in a robot test since it wasn't designed to work as a keyword library.

Instead, create your own keyword library that can call the api to do the work. Then, instead of creating a get keywords keyword in your test, you do it in the library.

For example, create a file named "APIKeywords.py" which will establish a connection to your server. In it, create a keyword named get_users which uses the connection to get the users:

from api.MyApi import *

class APIKeywords() :
    ROBOT_LIBRARY_SCOPE = 'GLOBAL'

    def __init__(self, server):
        self.server = server
        self.client = MyAPI(self.server)

    def get_users(self):
        return self.client.user.get_users()

You can use this keyword library like any other library. For example:

*** Variable ***
${SERVER}  localhost

*** Settings ***
Library  APIKeywords.py  ${SERVER}  WITH NAME  client

*** Test cases ***
Example 
    ${users}=  get users

If you want to explicitly use client when calling the keyword, you can change that last line to:

${users}=  client.get_users

or

${users}=  client.get users

Answer 2

You can have keyword file and a Library file.

To have an library file you need to create a class and then call it within robot framework script, Then in your test library you should created methods that will act as Keywords in robot framework

example:

HelloWorld.py

class HelloWorld():
    def Keyword_Robot(hello, world):
        print(hello + " " + world)

Keyword.robot

*** Settings ***       
Library         HelloWorld.py

*** Test Cases ***

First custom Keyword
    Keyword Robot  "Hello"  "World"

Output:

Hello World

Note

that this keyword is taking arguments which needs to be passed inside of robot framework just after the custom keyword.