How to use IronPython with RF?

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 5, 2010, 7:40:56 AM11/5/10

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Hi All,
Today I was going through IronPython (URL: http://www.ironpython.net).
I would like to know anybody using IronPython with Robot Framework.

How one can create RF Library with combination of CSharp application
and IronPython? Anybody tried so far?

Thanks,
Palani.

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 6, 2010, 12:24:38 PM11/6/10

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2010/11/5 tmpalaniselvam <palani...@gmail.com>:

Robot Framework isn't "officially" supported on IronPython, but the
enhancement request related to it [1] contains steps needed to get
started. I don't know can you write libraries using C# directly, but
you should at least be able to write a Python library and interact
with C# APIs through it.

The main reason IronPython isn't yet supported better is that Nokia
Siemens Networks, the company that sponsors most of the RF
development, doesn't use .NET. Our team is definitely willing to help,
though, if someone is interested to enhance the support.

[1] http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154

Cheers,
.peke
--
Agile Tester/Developer/Consultant :: http://eliga.fi
Lead Developer of Robot Framework :: http://robotframework.org

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 9, 2010, 1:19:32 AM11/9/10

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Hi All,

. I was trying to execute existing tests as per [1] with IPYBOT. But
I’m getting error like ‘ImportError: No module named unicodedata’ How
can I solve this issue?

[1] http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154

Thanks,
Palani.

Jussi Malinen

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Nov 9, 2010, 4:00:13 AM11/9/10

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Hi Palani,

Using unicodedata is already avoided on Jython because it is too slow
there. Could you try changing the code slightly to see if simply
removing unicodedata is enough?

in file "robot/utils/unic.py"

you have the following bit:

else:
# importing unicodedata on jython takes a very long time, and does not seem
# necessary as java probably already handles normalization. Furthermore
# java 1.5 does not even have unicodedata.normalize
from unicodedata import normalize

def unic(item, *args):
return normalize('NFC', _unic(item, *args))

Change that to:

else:
def unic(item, *args):
return _unic(item, *args)

That should do the trick. Unicodedata is only used for unicode
normalization and most likely(?) it's not even needed on ironpython.
(Even on regular python it is only needed on very specific conditions,
mostly with Mac filesystems containing diacritics.)

I guess the real way to fix this would be to add a separate check for
sys.platform == 'cli' (as we do for Jython there) and then define unic
as above only for ironpython.

Best regards,
Jussi

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tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 9, 2010, 4:48:48 AM11/9/10

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Hi Jussi,

On Nov 9, 2:00 pm, Jussi Malinen <jussi.ao.mali...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Palani,
>
> Using unicodedata is already avoided on Jython because it is too slow
> there. Could you try changing the code slightly to see if simply
> removing unicodedata is enough?

Thanks for your reply.

For past two days, I'm trying to run on IronPython. I have commented
unicodedata.py like below:
try:
unicodedata
except NameError:
pass

In unic.py, I have commented like below:
# Commented below line as per Jussi's suggestion
#from unicodedata import normalize

def unic(item, *args):
#return normalize('NFC', _unic(item, *args))
return _unic(item, *args)

Now I'm getting error like ==> 'LightException' object has no
attribute 'ElementTree'
My environment:
OS - WinXP SP2 (32bit)
Python - 2.6
IronPython - IronPython 2.7 Alpha 1 (2.7.0.1) on .NET 4.0.30319.1
DotNet Framework: 4.0
Robot Framework 2.5.3 (Python 2.6.6 on win32)

My command line error:
D:\MDM_Scripts\Phase1>ipybot --test CVG_TC012 CVG.html
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\runner.py", line 307, in
<module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\__init__.py", line 23,
in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\__init__.py",
line 16, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\output.py", line
18, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\common\__init__.py",
line 16, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\common\model.py", line
17, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\common\statistics.py",
line 17, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils\__init__.py", line
17, in <module>
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils\domwrapper.py",
line 25, in <module>
AttributeError: 'LightException' object has no attribute 'ElementTree'

I sent a mail to wolfram (wol...@wstanger.de) yesterday. Awaiting for
his reply.

Please do the needful.

Thanks,
Palani.

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 9, 2010, 5:20:04 AM11/9/10

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Hi All,

I hope the issues might be due to Java classes.. So far, the errors
are thrown only for java calls.

Any other ideas / suggestions?

Thanks,
Palani.

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 9, 2010, 8:14:35 AM11/9/10

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Hi All,

I tried as per Wolfram and Janne given the steps in [1] with lower
versions in other machine and script is started to run.

Robot Framework 2.1.2 (Python 2.6.4 on win32)
robotframework-seleniumlibrary-2.2.win32.exe
IronPython 2.6.1 (2.6.10920.0) on .NET 4.0.30319.1

[1] http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154

But it is failing in the updated environment. First of all, IPYBOT is
unable to run with following environment.

Robot Framework 2.5.3 (Python 2.6.6 on win32)

IronPython 2.7 Alpha 1 (2.7.0.1) on .NET 4.0.30319.1

I hope, we can solve this issue for IronPython...

Thanks,
Palani.

William Kouda

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Nov 9, 2010, 7:37:46 AM11/9/10

to robotframework-users, palani...@gmail.com

Hi all,

I myself have been working on implementing IronPython with the Robot Framework too, for the past week.
For this, I followed the early steps mentioned on discussion http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154
I have experienced the same symptoms described by other users.
I've managed to solve some of the early issues (the first two I ran into) although there might be better ways of doing it:

1- the unicodedata issue, I actually solved after a bit of research by downloading a copy of a unicodedata.py from http://fepy.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/fepy/trunk/lib and copying it to the IronPythonxxx\Lib folder.

2- the AttributeError: 'LightException' object has no attribute 'ElementTree' issue was solved by copying ElementTreePath.py from Pythonxxx\Lib\xml\etree to IronPythonxxx\Lib\xml\etree. I think, depending on the version of IronPython installed, this file might or might not be there (might be in IronPython 2.6 but missing from IronPython 2.7).

Those errors disappeared but were immediately replaced by a new error (which I would expect other people to get):

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\runner.py", line 307, in <module>
File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\__init__.py", line 41, in <module>
File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\__init__.py", line 16, in <module>
File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\output.py", line 18, in <module>
File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\common\__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
ImportError: Cannot import name BaseKeyword

After looking around, I found that BaseKeyword is a class found in PythonXXX\Lib\site-packages\robot\common\keyword.py. It is being ignored.
But there also is a keyword.py file in PythonXXX\Lib, which I suspect is the one being used. It does not contain that class, hence the error.

This is how far I've gone.

Both keyword.py modules are needed so it seems like a conflict. I am relatively new to Python but I assume whichever keyword.py module is picked up is dictated by the contents of the PYTHONPATH environment variable but if this is the case, I would be interested in knowing how to work around this issue.
There might still be other issues further down but I won't find out until I can fix this one.

Any feedback much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

William

Hi Jussi,

Thanks for your reply.

Please do the needful.

Thanks,
Palani.

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WilliamK

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Nov 9, 2010, 9:07:27 AM11/9/10

to robotframework-users

Hi all,

Apologies if I replied earlier to Palani's report using my mail
system. I'm sending this again but via the website for better
tracking.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I myself have been working on implementing IronPython with the Robot
Framework too, for the past week.
For this, I followed the early steps mentioned on discussion
http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154
I have experienced the same symptoms described by other users.
I've managed to solve some of the early issues (the first two I ran
into) although there might be better ways of doing it:

1- the unicodedata issue, I actually solved after a bit of research
by downloading a copy of a unicodedata.py from
http://fepy.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/fepy/trunk/lib and copying it
to the IronPythonxxx\Lib folder.

2- the AttributeError: 'LightException' object has no attribute
'ElementTree' issue was solved by copying ElementTreePath.py from
Pythonxxx\Lib\xml\etree to IronPythonxxx\Lib\xml\etree. I think,
depending on the version of IronPython installed, this file might or
might not be there (might be in IronPython 2.6 but missing from
IronPython 2.7).

Those errors disappeared but were immediately replaced by a new error
(which I would expect other people to get):

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\runner.py", line 307, in
<module>

File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\__init__.py", line 41, in
<module>

File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\__init__.py", line
16, in <module>
File "c:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\output.py", line
18, in <module>

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 10, 2010, 4:46:51 AM11/10/10

to robotframework-users

Hi,

I have uninstalled IronPython 2.7 Alpha 1 and installed IronPython
2.6.2 (2.6.10920.0) on .NET 4.0.30319.1. Now the import problem
('ImportError: Cannot import name BaseKeyword') is solved.

I'm getting the error as 'ImportError: No module named signal'. Also
I read the page [1] and came to know, we can not import signal.py
module in IronPython. How can I solve it now?

[1] http://ironpython.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=IPy1.0.xCPyDifferences&ProjectName=ironpython

Thanks,
Palani.

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 10, 2010, 7:45:50 AM11/10/10

to robotframework-users

Hi All,
I got a dummy signal.py from [1]. After that I'm getting error for
parsing HTML data file.

D:\IronPy_Robot>ipy UIATest.html
File "UIATest.html", line 2
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

^
SyntaxError: unexpected token '<'

[1] - http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?159782-Replacement-for-signal-module

Looking for helping hands.

Thanks,
Palani.

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 10, 2010, 9:37:12 AM11/10/10

to palani...@gmail.com, robotframework-users

2010/11/10 tmpalaniselvam <palani...@gmail.com>:

>
> I have uninstalled IronPython 2.7 Alpha 1 and installed IronPython
> 2.6.2 (2.6.10920.0) on .NET 4.0.30319.1. Now the import problem
> ('ImportError: Cannot import name BaseKeyword') is solved.

It's probably safest to use the IronPython 2.6 version at this point.

> I'm getting the error as 'ImportError: No module named signal'. Also
> I read the page [1] and came to know, we can not import signal.py
> module in IronPython. How can I solve it now?
>
> [1] http://ironpython.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=IPy1.0.xCPyDifferences&ProjectName=ironpython

2010/11/10 tmpalaniselvam <palani...@gmail.com>:
> I got a dummy signal.py from [2].
>
> [2] - http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?159782-Replacement-for-signal-module

The signal module is used only for handling stopping execution
gracefully with Ctrl-C (and signals, but that's not so relevant on
Windows). This could be handled in the framework so that if importing
the module fails, the support for Ctrl-C is not enabled. If you then
install the signal module manually, the support is enabled. Please
submit a separate enhancement request about this to the issue tracker
and I'll take a look at implementing it.

> After that I'm getting error for parsing HTML data file.
> D:\IronPy_Robot>ipy UIATest.html
> File "UIATest.html", line 2
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
>
> ^
> SyntaxError: unexpected token '<'

Now you try to execute the test data file directly with IronPython
(i.e. same as running `python tests.html` instead of `pybot
tests.html`). I don't know how you have installed Robot for IronPython
-- making the installation easier is one of the biggest part in
Robot's IronPython support -- so I don't know how you should start it.

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 11, 2010, 12:00:08 AM11/11/10

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Hi Pekka

On Nov 10, 7:37 pm, Pekka Klärck <p...@iki.fi> wrote:
> 2010/11/10 tmpalaniselvam <palani.sel...@gmail.com>:

>
> Now you try to execute the test data file directly with IronPython
> (i.e. same as running `python tests.html` instead of `pybot
> tests.html`). I don't know how you have installed Robot for IronPython
> -- making the installation easier is one of the biggest part in
> Robot's IronPython support -- so I don't know how you should start it.
>

I have copied all RobotFramework libraries from python installation to
IronPython as per [1]. I have created the IronPython and executed the
same test created by Wolfram in [1]. I was able to run the same case
successfully in lower version of RF (2.1.2) libraries. But the same
case is unable to run in latest version RF (2.5.3).

Any help would be much helpful...Looking forward..

[1] - http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154

Thanks,
Palani.

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 11, 2010, 2:35:03 AM11/11/10

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2010/11/11 tmpalaniselvam <palani...@gmail.com>:

> On Nov 10, 7:37 pm, Pekka Klärck <p...@iki.fi> wrote:
>>
>> Now you try to execute the test data file directly with IronPython
>> (i.e. same as running `python tests.html` instead of `pybot
>> tests.html`). I don't know how you have installed Robot for IronPython
>> -- making the installation easier is one of the biggest part in
>> Robot's IronPython support -- so I don't know how you should start it.
>>
>
> I have copied all RobotFramework libraries from python installation to
> IronPython as per [1]. I have created the IronPython and executed the
> same test created by Wolfram in [1]. I was able to run the same case
> successfully in lower version of RF (2.1.2) libraries. But the same
> case is unable to run in latest version RF (2.5.3).

How did you execute tests when using RF 2.1.2? In your earlier mail
you tried to execute tests like

ipy UIATest.html

which just cannot work. This `ipy` is the IronPython itself and it
alone cannot execute Robot tests. I got pretty much same syntax error
if I run a test case file with `python`:

python tests.html
File "tests.html", line 3
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Runnint tests with like `pybot tests.html` obviously works.

You probably should use something like

ipy path/to/rf/installation/robot/runner.py UIATests.html

or have special start-up script which you can use like

ipybot UIATest.html

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 11, 2010, 3:58:59 AM11/11/10

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Hi Pekka,
I'm getting error like below with RobotFramework 2.5.3

D:\IronPy_Robot>ipybot UIATest.html
==============================================================================
Uiatest
==============================================================================
[ ERROR ] Unexpected error: ValueError: Index was out of range. Must
be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: startIndex

But the same case is running fine on Robot2.1.2

Thanks,
Palani.

tmpalaniselvam

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Nov 11, 2010, 8:15:14 AM11/11/10

to robotframework-users

was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the
collection.
Parameter name: startIndex

20101111 18:38:52.433 | INFO | Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\__init__.py", line 78,
in _run_or_rebot_from_cli
suite = method(*datasources, **options)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\__init__.py", line 118,
in run
suite.run(output)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\running\model.py", line
114, in run
context = self._start_run(output, parent, errors)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\running\model.py", line
133, in _start_run
output.start_suite(self)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\output.py", line
62, in start_suite
LOGGER.start_suite(suite)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\logger.py", line
125, in start_suite
logger.start_suite(suite)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\xmllogger.py",
line 103, in start_suite
self._writer = self._get_writer(*self._writer_args)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\output\xmllogger.py",
line 45, in _get_writer
writer.start('robot', attrs)
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils\pyxmlwriter.py",
line 35, in start
self.content('\n')
File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils\pyxmlwriter.py",
line 39, in content
self._writer.characters(self._encode(content))

File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils

\abstractxmlwriter.py", line 46, in _encode
message = message.replace(char, '')

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 11, 2010, 9:09:27 AM11/11/10

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2010/11/11 tmpalaniselvam <palani...@gmail.com>:

> Hi Pekka
>
> Syslog - contents are posted here:
>
> -----

[snip]

> 20101111 18:38:52.433 | ERROR | Unexpected error: ValueError: Index
> was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the
> collection.
> Parameter name: startIndex
> 20101111 18:38:52.433 | INFO | Traceback (most recent call last):

[snip]

> File "C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils
> \abstractxmlwriter.py", line 46, in _encode
> message = message.replace(char, '')

This looks like a bug in IronPython to me. Could you try changing
lines close to line 46 in
C:\IronPython\Lib\site-packages\robot\utils\abstractxmlwriter.py from

for char in _ILLEGAL_CHARS_IN_XML:
message = message.replace(char, '')

to

for char in _ILLEGAL_CHARS_IN_XML:
if char in message:
message = message.replace(char, '')

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 11, 2010, 9:55:54 AM11/11/10

to Palani Selvam, robotframework-users

2010/11/11 Palani Selvam <palani...@gmail.com>:
> Hi Pekka,
> It is worked for me. Thanks a lot... I tried a sample. It worked fine..

Great. I investigated this a bit more and confirmed that it was a bug
in IronPython:
http://ironpython.codeplex.com/workitem/29402

We can workaround this problem and probably do also other changes
necessary to get Robot to at least run on IronPython already in RF
2.5.5.

> I just heard that Microsoft has stopped funding for Iron* languages. How do
> you feel about spending time on IronPython is worth for my project or not?
>
> Pls have a look at ->
> http://www.tikalk.com/net/future-ironruby-and-ironpython

Microsoft not anymore actively supporting IronPython isn't obviously
that good news for the project. It shouldn't be a disaster, though, as
Jython or even Python itself isn't backed by only one big corporation.
It remains seen how well the IronPython community can maintain the
project, but at least I'm pretty confident.

Pekka Klärck

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Nov 11, 2010, 12:13:56 PM11/11/10

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Hi all,

I implemented the fixes/workarounds discussed in this mail thread and
now running Robot Framework on IronPython 2.6 is relatively
straightforward. Basically you just need to install elementree module
in addition to the IronPython 2.6(.1) and running tests should work
fine. Because the changes I did are not yet in any released version
(they will be included to RF 2.5.5) you also need to checkout the
latest Robot source code yourself. For more detailed instructions with
download links see
http://code.google.com/p/robotframework/issues/detail?id=154#c16

I'm looking forward for feedback how well Robot now actually works on
IronPython. If further enhancements are needed, including them to RF
2.5.5 is possible. The biggest missing piece I see is automatically
creating ipybot start-up script or otherwise handling start-up nicely.

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