CI and robotframework
We have run a couple of proof-of-concept projects to look at dynaTrace Continuous Integration hooks and we like the concept. I have tested the NUnit path for our .Net users and the TestNG path for our java team. I've also used the VS 2010 plugin and the Eclipse plugin so all the pieces are in place.
What i'd like to know is how I can fit the dynaTrace CI hooks into our existing use of Robot Framework. Has anyone tried this? If so, what do I need to enable my automation team who are heavily into this framework and not very likely to switch over to JUnit or TestNG?
Hi Dan
Do you use Robot to test your Web Applications through browsers? I am not familiar with the Robot Framework but it looks like it is using Selenium under the hood. I further assume that Robot allows you to inject JavaScript calls into the running Application as this is a feature provided by Selenium. If that is the case you can get this integration working by injecting JavaScript calls to our _dt_setTimerName methods. That allows you to tell dynaTrace about the individual test steps you are executing. More information on these Timer Names: User-defined Timers
Out of the box you can use the Automatic Timers. Its a checkbox in the Test Automation Settings in your System Profile. With this option on you should get automatic testing support for every URL your are testing with Robot.
Hope this helps as a start. One thing you need to figure out is how to set our DT_XXX envirfonment variables to the launched browser
Well we're not using the selenium hook for robot framework(RF) - at the moment - but that could happen. RF is similar to cucumber from what I'm told.....
Specifically, we use the RF capability of writing a test specification using plain text files that are then mapped into our test java classes during test execution. So there is no browser but we do make http calls to our search url from our test java classes.
Thanks for the explanation. Now - your Java Test Classes - are these tests following any standard, e.g.: implement JUnit Interfaces or use JUnit Annotations? If so - dynaTrace could automatically pick them up.
If thats not the case we may find a way to extend our "Java Tests" Sensor Pack to also pick up your Test Classes. An example of such a test class would help here. As I assume you dont want to share this data in public you can send it to my via email.
