Python Remote Server for Robot Framework

Introduction

Robot Framework remote servers allow hosting test libraries on different processes or machines than Robot Framework itself is running on. This version is implemented in Python and supports also Jython (JVM) and IronPython (.NET). See remote library interface documentation for more information about the remote interface in general as well as for a list of remote server implementations in other programming languages.

This project is hosted in GitHub and downloads are available in PyPI.

Supported Python versions

As already mentioned, this remote server officially supports Python, Jython, and IronPython, but it should work also with PyPY. The server has been tested on Linux, OSX, and Windows, but should work also on other operating systems.

Remote server 1.0 series ought to support all Python, Jython, and IronPython versions between 2.2 and 2.7, but not all combinations have been thoroughly tested. Support for versions prior and possibly including 2.5 will likely be dropped in the future when we target Python 3 compatibility.

Installation

The easiest installation approach is using pip:

$ pip install robotremoteserver

Alternatively you can download the source distribution, extract it, and install it using:

$ python setup.py install

Change python above to jython or ipy to install using Jython or IronPython, respectively, instead of Python.

Starting

The remote server can be started by simply creating an instance of the server and passing a test library instance or module to it:

from robotremoteserver import RobotRemoteServer
from mylibrary import MyLibrary

RobotRemoteServer(MyLibrary())

By default the server listens to address 127.0.0.1 and port 8270. See the next section for information about configuring the server.

Configuration

The remote server accepts following configuration parameters:

Argument	Default	Explanation
library		Test library instance or module to host. Mandatory argument.
host	'127.0.0.1'	Address to listen. Use '0.0.0.0' to listen to all available interfaces.
port	8270	Port to listen. Use 0 to select a free port automatically. Can be given as an integer or as a string.
port_file	None	File to write port that is used. None means no such file is written.
allow_stop	True	Allow/disallow stopping the server using Stop Remote Server keyword.

Address and port that are used are printed to the console where the server is started. Writing port to a file by using port_file argument is especially useful when the server selects a free port automatically. Other tools can then easily read the active port from the file. If the file is removed prior to starting the server, tools can also wait until the file exists to know that the server is up and running.

Example:

from robotremoteserver import RobotRemoteServer
from mylibrary import MyLibrary

RobotRemoteServer(MyLibrary(), host='10.0.0.42', port=0,
                  port_file='/tmp/remote-port.txt', allow_stop=False)

Testing is server running

Starting from version 1.0.1 , robotremoteserver module supports testing is a remote server running. This can be accomplished by running the module as a script with test argument and an optional URI:

$ python -m robotremoteserver test
Remote server running at http://127.0.0.1:8270.
$ python -m robotremoteserver test http://10.0.0.42:57347
No remote server running at http://10.0.0.42:57347.

Tip

As discussed below, using stop instead of test allows stopping the server. Both testing and stopping works also against other Robot Framework remote server implementations.

Stopping

The remote server can be gracefully stopped using three different methods:

• Hitting Ctrl-C on the console where the server is running. Starting from version 1.0.1 this ought to work regardless the operating system and Python interpreter. Python 2.5 and Jython 2.5 on Windows are known exceptions, though.
• Sending the process SIGINT, SIGTERM, or SIGHUP signal. Does not work on Windows. Notice that with Jython you need to send the signal to the started Java process, not to the shell typically started by jython command.
• Using Stop Remote Server keyword. This can be disabled by using allow_stop=False when starting the server.
• Running python -m robotremoteserver stop [uri] similarly as when testing is server running. Also this can be disabled using allow_stop=False. New in version 1.0.1.

Example

The remote server project contains an example that can be studied and also executed once the library is installed. The example is also included in the source distribution.