Generating test cases in Robot framework data-driven approach

Question

I have a question on how to avoid hard-coding test data into Robot framework test cases when using test templates.

I have test cases such as:

Test template     Invalid Login
*** Test Cases ***    LOGIN             PASSWORD
Login admin           admin             ${INVALID_PWD}
Login student         student           ${INVALID_PWD}
Login learner         learner           ${INVALID_PWD}
Login staff           staff             ${INVALID_PWD}

and so on...

I like this approach as long as I don't have 100 or so logins and passwords. Then I'd need to hard-code it here, which seems like a bit too much work to me.

Another what I've tried is:

*** Test Cases ***
Mahara Invalid Login
[Template]    Invalid ${login} with ${password}
admin      aa
student    aa

which makes it a bit simpler, but I don't like it either because it's just one test case with several different steps, each one using a different test data.

What I'd like to have is, say, a list of logins and passwords, or a dict in Python and make Robot framework use these to generate such test cases. However, I have no idea if it's possible.

I've searched a bit and, among other things, found this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25206407/10401931 that doesn't look promising.

Then, I've found several ways how to read .csv. I can achieve that in Python, but it doesn't answer my question, how to load what I read in .csv, into this data-driven approach in Python. Basically, what I think it comes down to is how to force test template to loop over a given list/dict given to it. Since Test template is basically a for loop, there might be a way to change this loop a bit. Or isn't there?

Another approach could be to generate the whole .robot test suite as a file in Python. Again, I know how to make this, but it seems like overengineering it a lot, I'd like to find an easier way to do so.

I'd appreciate a little nudge in the right direction.

Thank you

"a list of logins and passwords, or a dict in Python and make Robot framework use these to generate such test cases. However, I have no idea if it's possible." this is possible, but there after we don't know whats your requirements you have to modify according to your needs,possibly one test case should do your job — Dev
I see, so I can load test data from .csv or something and let Robot loop over it in one test case. Definitely one option, and probably not a bad one since had-coding many test-data into separate test cases seems like a worse option to me. On the other hand, if I wanted no hard-coding and separate test cases, how would you do it? — pavelsaman

pavelsaman pavelsaman · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-12T12:06:20

Just to make this complete here, I'll answer my question.

The following test case does the job I wanted:

*** Test Cases ***
Mahara Invalid Login
[Template]    Invalid ${login} with ${password}
:FOR    ${login}    IN    @{invalid_logins.keys()}
\    ${login}    ${invalid_logins['${login}']}

In this case, I'm loading test data from a Python dictionary where the key is a login and a value a password.

Or I can use a .csv file and do something like:

Mahara Invalid Login      
${all_rows}=    Get All Rows    ${invalid_login_file}    ${DELIMITER}    ${HEADER}
:FOR    ${row}    IN    @{all_rows} 
\    ${login}=    Set Variable    ${row[0]}
\    ${password}=    Set Variable    ${row[1]}
\    Invalid ${login} with ${password}

Get All Rows would be a custom keyword that I use to load data from a .csv file.

In both examples, I don't need to write much, just prepare test data and write one for loop in Python.

Generating test cases in Robot framework data-driven approach

1 Answers