Achieving RF *keyword* concurrency with Python

[komodospider]

Hi,

Since RF does not provide (test or) keyword concurrency out of the box, I thought to write a little module that will accept a keyword and execute it a set number of times. This however does not work as I had expected with the keyword being called sequentially. Here is the python snippet that I use.

def kw(keyword, num_times, workers=10):

with concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor(workers) as executor:

for _ in range (0, num_times):

executor.submit(BuiltIn().run_keyword(keyword))

So what 'kw' is expected to do is to call this keyword a 'num_times' concurrently. However the result is purely sequential. Note that I'm only trying to run a certain keyword multiple concurrent times within one robot test.  Any ideas?

The alternatives that I can see ofc are to 

1. From RF call python and let Python run the intended function concurrently. The drawback for me is that the keyword that is already implemented in RF will need to be reimplemented in python.

2. From RF call python, then let python call the RF test with pybot concurrently.

But can I accomplish what I am trying to achieve with my original thought?

Thanks.

[komodospider]

I found this: https://github.com/Chetic/robotframework-async/tree/master/AsyncLibrary
Have not tried it myself yet. Just for anyone else looking :)

[Markus Bernhardt]

Perhaps I'm completely wrong, but I believe multi-threading robotframework is a no-go. I have almost no knowledge about python, but when I ported the selenium2library from python to java I saw a lot code, which is not thread safe. So, even when you manage to execute keywords in parallel, the keyordws will run havoc.

I believe the way to go is to run robotframwork itself multiple times (pabot.py).

Cheers,

Markus

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[Tatu Aalto]

Ugh

Threads are possible, but not in way you want and (as always with threads) you must be extra careful or you shoot your self in the foot. Using threads in Robot Framework is explained in the user guide [1].

And what Markus did say, is also true. It depends on your requirements, should you use threads, pabot or both. I am using both but I choose very careful which one to use in which case.

-Tatu
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[1] http://robotframework.org/robotframework/latest/RobotFrameworkUserGuide.html#communication-when-using-threads

[Tatu Aalto]

Ugh

Did forget to add the second link: http://robotframework.org/robotframework/latest/RobotFrameworkUserGuide.html#parallel-execution-of-keywords

-Tatu
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