Development

This section is a guide for writing new test cases.

General guidelines

Test names should describe what a test proves (or disproves). Try to use clear and descriptive language when naming tests and test suites.

Test cases must be independent. Every test case must have it’s own setup and teardown, and tests should not rely on an order of execution.

Test cases should be written in a declarative style, not imperative. A typical test case is in the style Given X, When Y, Then Z.

Become familiar with the Robot Framework standard libraries and the OpenAFSLibrary.

Required reading

Read the Robot Framework User Guide.

Read how to write good test cases for Robot Framework.

Tips

  • What specifically should this test prove or disprove?

  • Keep the test cases independent.

  • Test suite and test case names should be short, but as descriptive as possible.

  • If a test case exceeds many lines consider creating new keywords.

  • When writing tests, pay attention to the number of spaces.

Verifying a new test

Once the test is written and saved, there are two ways to test it. The first way is to run all of the tests. The second way is to only run the test suite that the new test is in. The first method is best to make sure the tests outside of the suite remain error free.

Common errors

  • Incorrect spaces between arguments

    The spacing is incorrect. Most often, there are to few spaces between command inputs. For instance, the first command below has one space in between the two inputs and throws an error. The second command has two spaces between the inputs and is accepted by AFS and RoboTest.

Should Not Contain    ${output}<SPACE>volume
Should Not Contain    ${output}<SPACE><SPACE>volume

  • Incorrect command arguments

    If there are required parts to an OpenAFS specific command missing, or there are parts missing for a keyword, Robot Framework will throw an error.

Creating keywords in Python

Consider adding new keywords to the OpenAFSLibrary. The OpenAFSLibrary is maintained in a separate git repository from the test cases.