• Download & install Python 3 (Python 2 support stops in 2020)
• Download & install pip

pip install robot framework - https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/blob/master/INSTALL.rst

pip install robotframework-requests - https://github.com/bulkan/robotframework-requests

pip install robotframework-httplibrary - https://github.com/peritus/robotframework-httplibrary

pip install robotframework-selenium2library - https://github.com/robotframework/Selenium2Library

pip install robotframework-appiumlibrary - https://github.com/serhatbolsu/robotframework-appiumlibrary

Using appium to run mobile tests with Robot Framework.

• Tests can be run over wifi to a device (must be on same network) or via USB debugging: https://blog.usejournal.com/run-your-appium-tests-on-real-devices-over-wifi-d70b7e7f6aeb
• To inspect:
  • Using appium desktop, start a server
  • Start a new session with capabiltities for an emulator or physical device (same as test capabilities)
  • Starg session
• Loading an app
  • If it's not installed, include app=fullPathToApk + fullReset capabilites
  • If it's already installed, find fill out the respective values for appActivity & appPackage (check appium server logs if unsure)

• Screens are stored as separate files, with variables and methods created to represent actions on that specific screen
• This method of creating 'Page Objects' can be used for APIs, Web UIs and Mobile UI
• No assertions on content or data, unless required
• The tests themselves utilize the Page Object methods as test steps, using assertions as part of the test cases based on available Page Object data

• Keywords wrap methods and code, allowing user-friendly tests instructions to be used instead
• Assists in debugging, troubleshooting and test reports
• Useful when involving people with minimal coding & test automation experience to create test case

• Adds a simpler plain English abstraction layer over test code, abstracting keywords even more
• This can lead to over-abstraction. Essentially, covering code with so many layers its now become more difficult to update methods or add new code
• Useful when involving people with basic, if any, coding & test automation experience to create or review test cases

• Read in data (inputs, values, urls) form an Excel sheet using http://navinet.github.io/robotframework-excellibrary/
• Keywords read/write Excel file in http://navinet.github.io/robotframework-excellibrary/ExcelLibrary-KeywordDocumentation.html

• Use tabs to auto complete statements
• Ensure double spaces placed within, not tabs
• Double spaces are vital to running tests
• Implement design patterns to reduce test file size
• Promote abstraction within tests to create modular keywords and variables
• Double spaces after equals, between arguments
• Single space after Library and test case names
• Add tags to test cases underneath the test case name
• When testing APIs, will need to register a HTTP certificate on the machine
• Ensure browser drivers are up-to date or in-sync with libraries used. If one (e.g. driver) is older than the other(e.g. SeleniumLibrary), some functionality may be impacted

• Can add in parameters into CLI for test result location, files, suites, tags and more
• Doesn't run on GitBash CLI. Works on cmd + powershell.
• Run single test file: robot Tests/test.robot
• Run single test case: robot -t testCaseName Tests/test.robot
• Run whole test suite (based on parent directory): robot Tests./
• Run single test on ff: Add Open Browser ${BROWSER} in file and in CLI use robot -i Smoke -v BROWSER:browserName .\Tests\Udemy\test-homepage.robot. Browsers include gc, ff, ie, edge
• Run test case with custom parameters, use the following examples:

*** Keywords ***
Enter email 
	[Arguments]  ${email}
	Input Text  css=#id_email  ${email}

*** Test Case ***
Test form
    Enter email  customEmailParameter

• Easy to start writing acceptance, e2e and API tests
• Mobile requires external software + hardware, additional steps required before test creation
• Can easily be integrated into build servers such as Jenkins
• Single log + report pages for each test suite, can keep refreshing page OR read in XML report data into another system (charts)
• Seems like extra work to wrap already wrapped keywords. Must be consistent across all various keywords used (there are many variations of a similar action)
• Test cases can become full Resource references
• Resource keywords end up having same name as test cases
• No history of tests run by default, as the Log + Report files are always replaced with latest

• https://www.python.org/downloads/ - Python 2.7
• https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/ - Install python first then run this file
• https://bangladroid.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/how-to-install-python-pip-selenium-chrome-driver/ - Follow to modify system environment variables + downloading selenium browser drivers
• http://robotframework.org/ - Main site
• https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework - Open source repo
• https://packagecontrol.io/installation#st2 - Package control installer for Sublime 2
• https://github.com/shellderp/sublime-robot-plugin - Install this one
• https://github.com/andriyko/sublime-robot-framework-assistant/wiki/How-to - Steps on using sublime package
• https://packagecontrol.io/packages/SublimeREPL - Resolves issues with new packages
• https://wiki.jenkins.io/display/jenkins/robot+framework+plugin - Plugin to Jenkins
• http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/quickstart/ - API docs for Requests
• http://robotframework.org/Selenium2Library/Selenium2Library.html - Selenium library keywords
• http://serhatbolsu.github.io/robotframework-appiumlibrary/AppiumLibrary.html#Switch%20Application - Appium keywords
• https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/writing-running-appium/caps.md - Appium capabilities
• http://robotframework.org/robotframework/latest/RobotFrameworkUserGuide.html#user-keyword-name-and-documentation - Built in RF keywords