Robot Framework CI Demo

This project demonstrates how to setup Continous Integration for Robot Framework tests using GitHub Actions.

Use Cases

Demo covers these use cases:

Run Robot Framework tests:
- when new commits are pushed to the main branch
- when new commits are pushed to a Pull request
- run tests with a pre-defined schedule
- Trigger tests manually. Input variables for a test run.
Reporting:
- Store Robot Framework reports from test runs
- Post summary of results as a comment to a commit. The comment is posted only to the main (master) branch.

In other words, a separate CI server (such as Jenkins) is not needed to run Robot Framework tests.

Why use Actions for CI?

Using GitHub Actions for setup CI is almost better than sourdough bread 🍞🎉 Setup is straightforward and usage is free for public repositories (see pricing for other types of repositories).

Setup described here is very simple for demo purposes. It is possible to add more bells and whistles if needed.

Description of the setup

CI Workflows are configured in YAML files in a folder .github/workflows. When Job is run, it is visible in the Actions tab in the repository.

This repository has two workflows for demo purposes:

run_robot_framework_tests.yml
- runs test for push events, pull requests and scheduled
- steps in this file are documented in detail
trigger_robot_framework_tests_manually.yml
- triggers tests manually with the given parameters

Docker container used in this demo is ppodgorsek/robot-framework. The container has many pre-installed libraries and tools (it is even possible to run Selenium Browser tests).

Workflow fails if Robot Framework tests fail. Robot Framework results reports are stored in a zip file.

The next chapter describes how to modify example workflows for your project.

To configure example setup to your own project

Configure docker run command according to your project:
- Place your tests to the test folder
- Modify line -e ROBOT_OPTIONS="--variable DINOSAUR:Achillobator --variable NOT_DINOSAUR:kissa" \ according to your project or remove it completely

docker run \
    -v ${PWD}/reports:/opt/robotframework/reports:Z \
    -v ${PWD}/tests:/opt/robotframework/tests:Z \
    -e ROBOT_OPTIONS="--variable DINOSAUR:Achillobator --variable NOT_DINOSAUR:kissa" \
    --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    ppodgorsek/robot-framework:latest

All other configurations, such as changing the cron schedule are optional.

Things to consider:

If workflow needs secrets, those can be stored in repository settings. Secret is used in the flow like this ${{ secrets.MY_SECRET_NAME }}
Docker image ppodgorsek/robot-framework:latest is not versioned. latest tag can contain any version of the Robot Framework and other libraries. It is strongly advised to use some other version controlled image for running tests.

Acknowledgments

List of dinosaur names used in tests (it would be actually possible to configure updating list of dinosaur names using Actions 🦕🦖): https://www.npmjs.com/package/dinosaurs
Docker container used to run Robot Framework tests: ppodgorsek/robot-framework Docker container

sayedtenkanen / robot_docker_demo