Using __init__.robot file with RoboSAPiens

[vadurk]

Hello again, it's me :)

I came across a strange issues: I'm trying to introduce init.robot file for initializing some stuff before each test suite (looking into minimizing duplication). So what I'm trying to do is have "login to sap" keyword in that file so it's executed before the other suites, like this:

init.robot

*** Keywords ***

Secure login
    ${log_level}       Set Log Level    NONE
    Login to SAP
    Set Log Level      ${log_level}

*** Settings ***
Resource    ./main_keywords.resource   # this is were Login to SAP comes from

Suite Setup         Secure login
Suite Teardown      Close SAP

And then under the same directory there is a Suite_A.robot

Suite_A.robot

*** Test Cases ***

TC 1
   Execute Transaction 123

So what happens when I execute the tests in tests directory (robot tests/) is that I get logged in to SAP GUI but "Execute Transaction 123" fails with:
No active SAP-Session. Call the keyword "Connect To Server" or "Connect To Running SAP" first.

So how come "Secure login" from init.robot is executed, but "Execute Transaction 123" from Suite_A.robot fails to detect that SAP is open?

[mardukbp]

The reason for this is that RoboSAPiens has scope TEST_SUITE and not GLOBAL, which means that a new instance is created for each test suite. I will fix it on Monday.

[vadurk]

The reason for this is that RoboSAPiens has scope TEST_SUITE and not GLOBAL, which means that a new instance is created for each test suite. I will fix it on Monday.

Thanks for quick reply, Also do you know how "Suite Setup" and "Suite Teardown" will work in this case? Will SAP by opened before every suite in that directory? Or will it be open only for the first suite and closed after the last?
I'm just wondering because there are also "Test Setup" and "Test Teardown" keywords, but when I tried to use those in init.robot the SAP wouldn't open. I guess this is because Suite_A.robot is treated like a Suite even though it has a test case in it. This is a little confusing to me..

[mardukbp]

In RF a test suite is a tree of test cases and trees are recursive data structures. Therefore, a .robot file is a test suite and a directory containing test suites is a test suite. Since this is a hierarchichal structure, the Suite Setup of a test suite will be executed before all test suites below it and the Suite Teardown will be executed after all test suites below it. You can visualize it using XML syntax:

<Suite Setup 1>
  <Suite Setup 1.1>
    <Suite Setup 1.1.1>
  
    </Suite Teardown 1.1.1>
  </Suite Teardown 1.1>
</Suite Teardown 1>

This may correspond to the tree:

1 Testsuite/__init__.robot
  1.1 Testsuite/__init__.robot
    1.1.1 Testsuite.robot

Test Setup and Test Teardown are executed before and after each test case. Assuming the above hierarchy, the general case would be:

Test Setup 1
Test Setup 1.1
Test Setup 1.1.1
Test Case 1.1.1.1
  [Setup] Preparation step
  Step 1
  Step 2
  Step 3
  [Teardown] Cleanup step 
Test Teardown 1.1.1
Test Teardown 1.1
Test Teardown 1

This has strong parallels with inheritance in OO programming and carries the same problems. The deeper the hierarchy, the harder it is to reason about it. Therefore, try to keep it as simple as possible.

[mardukbp]

Version 2.19.1 now has GLOBAL scope.

[vadurk]

Thanks, will test it out.