Robot Framework
===============

.. contents::
   :local:

Introduction
------------

`Robot Framework <http://robotframework.org>`_ |r| is a generic open source
automation framework for acceptance testing, acceptance test driven
development (ATDD), and robotic process automation (RPA). It has simple plain
text syntax and it can be extended easily with generic and custom libraries.

Robot Framework is operating system and application independent. It is
implemented using `Python <http://python.org>`_ which is also the primary
language to extend it. The framework has a rich ecosystem around it consisting
of various generic libraries and tools that are developed as separate projects.
For more information about Robot Framework and the ecosystem, see
http://robotframework.org.

Robot Framework project is hosted on GitHub_ where you can find source code,
an issue tracker, and some further documentation. Downloads are hosted on PyPI_.

Robot Framework development is sponsored by non-profit `Robot Framework Foundation
<http://robotframework.org/foundation>`_. If you are using the framework
and benefiting from it, consider joining the foundation to help maintaining
the framework and developing it further.

.. _GitHub: https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework
.. _PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/robotframework

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/robotframework.svg?label=version
   :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/robotframework
   :alt: Latest version

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/l/robotframework.svg
   :target: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html
   :alt: License

Installation
------------

If you already have Python_ with `pip <https://pip.pypa.io>`_ installed,
you can simply run::

    pip install robotframework

For more detailed installation instructions, including installing Python, see
`<INSTALL.rst>`__.

Robot Framework requires Python 3.6 or newer and runs also on `PyPy <http://pypy.org>`_.
If you need to use Python 2, `Jython <http://jython.org>`_ or
`IronPython <http://ironpython.net>`_, you can use `Robot Framework 4.1.3`__.

__ https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/tree/v4.1.3#readme

Example
-------

Below is a simple example test case for testing login to some system.
You can find more examples with links to related demo projects from
http://robotframework.org.

.. code:: robotframework

    *** Settings ***
    Documentation     A test suite with a single test for valid login.
    ...
    ...               This test has a workflow that is created using keywords in
    ...               the imported resource file.
    Resource          login.resource

    *** Test Cases ***
    Valid Login
        Open Browser To Login Page
        Input Username    demo
        Input Password    mode
        Submit Credentials
        Welcome Page Should Be Open
        [Teardown]    Close Browser

Usage
-----

Tests (or tasks) are executed from the command line using the ``robot``
command or by executing the ``robot`` module directly like ``python -m robot`` .

The basic usage is giving a path to a test (or task) file or directory as an
argument with possible command line options before the path::

    robot tests.robot
    robot --variable BROWSER:Firefox --outputdir results path/to/tests/

Additionally, there is the ``rebot`` tool for combining results and otherwise
post-processing outputs::

    rebot --name Example output1.xml output2.xml

Run ``robot --help`` and ``rebot --help`` for more information about the command
line usage. For a complete reference manual see `Robot Framework User Guide`_.

Documentation
-------------

- `Robot Framework User Guide
  <http://robotframework.org/robotframework/#user-guide>`_
- `Standard libraries
  <http://robotframework.org/robotframework/#standard-libraries>`_
- `API documentation <http://robot-framework.readthedocs.org>`_
- `General documentation <http://robotframework.org/>`_

Support and Contact
-------------------

- `Slack <http://slack.robotframework.org/>`_
- `Forum <https://forum.robotframework.org/>`_
- `robotframework-users
  <https://groups.google.com/group/robotframework-users/>`_ mailing list
- `@robotframework <https://twitter.com/robotframework>`_ on Twitter

Contributing
------------

Interested to contribute to Robot Framework? Great! In that case it is a good
start by looking at the `<CONTRIBUTING.rst>`__. If you
do not already have an issue you would like to work on, you can check
issues with `good new issue`__ and `help wanted`__ labels.

Remember also that there are many other tools and libraries in the wider
`Robot Framework ecosystem <http://robotframework.org>`_ that you can
contribute to!

__ https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22
__ https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22help+wanted%22

License and Trademark
---------------------

Robot Framework is open source software provided under the `Apache License 2.0`__.
Robot Framework documentation and other similar content use the
`Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported`__ license. Most libraries and tools
in the ecosystem are also open source, but they may use different licenses.

Robot Framework trademark is owned by `Robot Framework Foundation`_.

__ http://apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
__ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

.. |r| unicode:: U+00AE
