rpadriver 1.0.0a1

RPADriver package.

The goal of RPADriver is to make Robot Framework a true RPA tool. This is a RPA helper library built on the TOS model using task-object-storage package.

Requirements

• MongoDB

• Python >3.6

• robotframework >3

• task-object-storage

Overview

TOS model has the concept of stages - every RPA process can usually be divided to at least two stages:

• Producer

• Consumer

There is always one producer, but there might be many consumers (1… n). The naming convention is as follows:

Type	Name
Producer	stage_0
Consumer 1	stage_1
Consumer 2	stage_2
Consumer n	stage_n

Producer creates task objects, and consumers fetch them from the DB and do their processing.

Here are two packages: RPADriver and RPALibrary.

RPALibrary

RPALibrary is the classic library originally included as a helper with TOSLibrary. With this you create robot stage definition in Python code, but still have support for Robot Framework keywords.

Conventional project structure

Conventional project structure looks like this

.
├── keywords
├── libraries
├── pipelines
│   ├── Jenkinsfile
│   ├── consumer.groovy
│   └── producer.groovy
├── resources
│   └── settings.py
├── stages
├── tasks
│   └── main.robot
└── run.py

where

• keywords: Robot Framework keyword files.

• libraries: module for all the Python library code.

• pipelines: Jenkins pipelines.

• resources: place to store all miscellaneous files: settings, configs, templates.

• stages: module for the stage definitions (in Python code).

• tasks: Robot Framework suites.

• run.py: startup script for the robot.

The robot control flow is run.py -> tasks/main.robot -> stages.StageN.

Producer

To build a Producer stage, you need to create a new file stages/Stage0.py with a class called Stage0 inside. This class should inherit from Producer. The class needs at least one method: process_data(self). This method is the main action to do for every data item that will become task object payload. Optionally, if you need to first prefetch the data into memory (e.g., into a list), you will need to define a method called preloop_action. This will then feed process_data with data items one at a time. When prelooping, you will need to define process_data like this: process_data(self, item), where item is one of the pre-prepared data items.

Call Stage0.Main Loop from Robot Framework to start the loop action (your defined Python methods will be called automatically inside the library).

By inheriting from Producer you get:

• Automatic task object creation.

• Automatic looping of the data.

• Automatic error handling.

• Every software robot you and your team builds will follow the same conventions.

Consumer

To build a Consumer stage, you need to create a new file stages/Stage1.py with a class called Stage1 inside (the number depending on your stage number). This class should inherit from Consumer. The class needs at least one method: main_action(self, to), where to is a task object fetched by the library from your MongoDB database. All you need to do is to define what to do for every task object.

Call Stage1.Main Loop from Robot Framework to start the loop action (your defined Python methods will be called automatically inside the library).

By inheriting from Consumer you get:

• Automatic task object fetching.

• Automatic error handling.

• Every software robot you and your team builds will follow the same conventions.

Example usage

Note that the examples here are overly simplified.

Startup script (run.py):

def main():
    return robot.run("tasks")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.exit(main())

Main Robot file definition (tasks/main.robot):

*** Settings ***
Library             TOSLibrary    ${db_server}:${db_port}  ${db_name}
Library             ../stages/Stage0.py
Library             ../stages/Stage1.py

*** Tasks ***
Create task objects from raw data
    [Tags]                      stage_0
    Stage0.Main Loop            no_screenshots=True

Do action on the task objects
    [Tags]                      stage_1
    Stage1.Main Loop

Producer stage definition (stages/Stage0.py):

from RPALibrary import Producer


class Stage0(Producer):

    def preloop_action(self):
        """Read and preprocess an Excel worksheet."""
        data = self.read_excel()
        data = self.filter_rows(data)
        return data

    def process_data(self, item):
        """
        Do some some operations for every data item (e.g.
        Excel row). This should return a dictionary.
        The return value will be used as the payload for the task object.
        The task objects are created automatically in ``Producer`` object.

        Having ``item`` parameter in the method signature is important.
        """
        item = self.reader.clean_item(item)
        return item

Consumer stage definition (stages/Stage1.py)

from RPALibrary import Consumer

from .errors import SYSTEM_OFFLINE


class Stage1(Consumer):
    def main_action(self, to):
        """The library will pass created task objects to this method."""
        self.do_some_complex_action_on_the_task_object(to)

    def action_on_fail(self, to):
        if to["last_error"] == SYSTEM_OFFLINE:
            self.handle_system_offline()
        self.return_to_main_screen()

You can also call your stage methods as Robot Framework keywords with run_keyword:

from robot.libraries.BuiltIn import BuiltIn

run = BuiltIn().run_keyword


class Stage1(Consumer):
    def main_action(self, to):
        run("Do Some Complex Action On The Task Object", to)

    def action_on_fail(self, to):
        if to["last_error"] == SYSTEM_OFFLINE:
            run("Handle System Offline")
        run("Return To Main Screen")

RPADdriver

RPADriver is a reimplementation of RPALibrary using Robot Framework listeners. With RPADriver you can write pure Robot Framework script and don’t necessarily need Python code at all. The robot control flow is run.py -> tasks/main.robot.

Available keywords/methods

See the full API documentation.

For developers

Package and deploy code with

scripts/build_and_deploy_to_pypi.sh

You can also install the whl package found in the dist directory with

pip install <package-name>.whl