Robot Framework 4.0.3 fixes few regressions, including a critical regression using TypedDict in type hints introduced by earlier RF 4.0.x releases. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0.2 is the second and the last planned bug fix release in the Robot Framework 4.0.x series. It fixes some problems in the earlier Robot Framework 4.0 and 4.0.1 releases. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0.1 is the first bug fix release in the Robot Framework 4.0.x series. It fixes several severe and not so severe issues reported since Robot Framework 4.0 was released. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0.1 is the first bug fix release in the Robot Framework 4.0.x series. This beta release contains fixes to all issues that have been reported so far, but if more problems are encountered they can still be fixed before the final Robot Framework 4.0.1 release. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0 is a new major release with lot of big new features. Highlights include the SKIP status and native IF/ELSE support as well as enhancements to, for example, type conversion and Libdoc. For more details see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0 is a new major release with lot of big new features such as the SKIP status and native IF/ELSE support as well as enhancements to, for example, type conversion and Libdoc. Robot Framework rc 2 contains all planned changes, and changes compared to the earlier rc 1 a minimal. The final version is planned to be released on Thursday Match 11, 2021.

For more information about Robot Framework 4.0 rc 2 see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0 is a new major release with lot of big new features such as the SKIP status and native IF/ELSE support as well as enhancements to, for example, type conversion and Libdoc. Robot Framework rc 1 contains all planned changes and if no problems are found the final version will be released on Thursday Match 11, 2021.

For more information about Robot Framework 4.0 rc 1 see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0 is a new major release with lot of big new features such as the SKIP status and native IF/ELSE support as well as enhancements to, for example, type conversion and Libdoc. Robot Framework beta 3 contains all planned new features but small changes are still possible before the first release candidate.

For more information about Robot Framework 4.0 beta 3 see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 4.0 is a new major release with lot of big new features such as the SKIP status and native IF/ELSE support as well as enhancements to, for example, type conversion and Libdoc. Robot Framework beta 1 already contains most of the planned new features and internal changes.

For more information about Robot Framework 4.0 beta 1 see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2.2 is a new minor release with some bug fixes, Libdoc enhancements and official Python 3.9 support. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2.1 fixes two high priority regressions in Robot Framework 3.2. It was released on Monday May 4, 2020. For more details see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with an enhanced test data parser, handy @library and @not_keyword decorators, enhanced Libdoc spec files for external tools, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and lot of bug fixes.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with an enhanced test data parser, handy @library and @not_keyword decorators, enhanced Libdoc spec files for external tools, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and lot of bug fixes. Robot Framework 3.2 rc 2 contains all changes planned to the final release. It has few smallish fixes compared to the first release candidata. Users are highly recommended to test it in their environments and report possible problems.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with an enhanced test data parser, handy @library and @not_keyword decorators, enhanced Libdoc spec files for external tools, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and lot of bug fixes. Robot Framework 3.2 rc 1 contains all changes planned to the final release. Users are highly recommended to test it in their environments and report possible problems.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with new, enhanced test data parser, handy @library and @not_keyword decorators, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and bug fixes. RF 3.2 beta 2 is its third preview release and the last planned release before release candidates.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with new, enhanced test data parser, handy @library decorator, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and bug fixes. RF 3.2 beta 1 is its second preview release and it already contains majority of the planned new features and fixes, including the new parser.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.2 is a new major release with new, enhanced test data parser, inline Python evaluation support, and many other interesting new features and bug fixes. RF 3.2 alpha 1 is its first preview release and it already contains majority of the planned new features and fixes, including the new parser.

For more information see the full release notes.

RF 3.1.2 contains few important bug fixes and some nice enhancements. It also contains several minor deprecations related to the test data syntax that pave the way towards Robot Framework 3.2 which will contain a new test data parser. For details see the full release notes at https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/blob/master/doc/releasenotes/rf-3.1.2.rst

RF 3.1.2 rc 1 contains few important bug fixes and some nice enhancements. It also contains several minor deprecations related to the test data syntax that pave the way towards Robot Framework 3.2 which will contain a new test data parser. For details see the full release notes at https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/blob/master/doc/releasenotes/rf-3.1.2.rst

Robot Framework 3.1.1 fixes few regressions in the recent Robot Framework 3.1 release. For more details see the full release notes at https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/blob/master/doc/releasenotes/rf-3.1.1.rst

RF 3.1.1 rc 1 fixes few regressions in the recent RF 3.1 release. For more details see the full release notes at https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/blob/master/doc/releasenotes/rf-3.1.1.rst

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new major release with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) support, automatic argument type conversion, support for named-only arguments, for loop enhancements, fix for intermittent corruption of output.xml files when using timeouts, and several other interesting new features and as various bug fixes. It also starts the deprecation process to remove the support of using test data in HTML format and making test data parsing more strict also otherwise.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new major release with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) support, automatic argument type conversion, support for named-only arguments, for loop enhancements, fix for intermittent corruption of output.xml files when using timeouts, and several other interesting new features and as various bug fixes. It also starts the deprecation process to remove the support of using test data in HTML format and making test data parsing more strict also otherwise.

Release candidate 2 only has one small bug fix and few documentation enhancements compared to release candidate 1. For more information about the release see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new major release with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) support, automatic argument type conversion, support for named-only arguments, for loop enhancements, fix for intermittent corruption of output.xml files when using timeouts, and several other interesting new features and as various bug fixes. It also starts the deprecation process to remove the support of using test data in HTML format and making test data parsing more strict also otherwise.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new major release with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) support, automatic type conversion for arguments, support for named-only arguments, fix for intermittent corruption of output.xml files when using timeouts, and several other interesting new features and as various bug fixes. It also starts the deprecation process to remove the support of using test data in HTML format and making test data parsing more strict also otherwise. Robot Framework 3.1 beta 1 is the third preview release and contains most of the features and fixes the final release is going to have.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new major release with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) support, automatic type conversion for arguments, support for named-only arguments, and several other interesting new features as well as various bug fixes. It also starts the deprecation process to remove the support of using test data in HTML format and making test data parsing more strict also otherwise. Robot Framework 3.1 alpha 2 is the second preview and already contains most of the features and fixes the final release is going to have.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.1 is a new release with terminology configuration to support Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and several other nice planned features. RF 3.1 alpha 1 is the first preview release which only contains initial RPA support as well as enhancements to installation.

For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.0.4 is a new minor release fixing regressions in Robot Framework 3.0.3 related to using dictionary variables. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.0.4 is a new minor release fixing regressions in Robot Framework 3.0.3 related to using dictionary variables. This release candidate contains all the planned changes. For more information see the full release notes.

Robot Framework 3.0.3 is a new release containing mainly bug fixes but also few nice enhancements. See the full release notes for more details.

Robot Framework 3.0.3 is a new release containing mainly bug fixes but also few nice enhancements. This release candidate is its first and also last planned preview release. See the full release notes for more details.

Robot Framework 3.0.2 is the second minor release in the Robot Framework 3.0.x series. The main motivation for this releases is fixing a performance regression with evaluating expressions using some BuiltIn keywords occurring since RF 2.9 (#2523), but there are also few other fixes and several nice enhancements. For more details about the features and fixes see the full release notes.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install the latest release or pip install robotframework==3.0.2 to install exactly this version.

This release has been sponsored by the Robot Framework Foundation. Additionally Nokia Networks has been sponsoring the work related to performance enhancements.

Robot Framework 3.0.2 was released on Monday February 13, 2017.

Robot Framework 3.0.1 fixes several higher and lower level bugs in the earlier releases, and also adds some really nice enhancements. The most important new features are the ability to limit parsing of test case files to a certain file type (e.g. --extension robot, #2365) and case-insensitivity support added to most comparison keywords in the BuiltIn library (#2439). Robot Framework also now officially supports PyPy, an alternative and in some contexts faster and more memory efficient implementation of the Python language (#2513). For more details about the features and fixes see the full release notes.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==3.0.1 to install exactly this version.

This release has been sponsored by the Robot Framework Foundation and would not have been possible with this scope otherwise. Big thanks for all the member companies of the foundation for your support!

Robot Framework 3.0.1 was released on Friday January 6, 2017.

Robot Framework 3.0 is a new major release with Python 3 support and a new powerful listener interface that allows modifying executed tests as well as execution results. Also start-up scripts have been enhanced and it is now possible to run tests with new robot command and like python -m robot. See the full release notes for more information about new features, bug fixes, backwards incompatible changes and deprecated features.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release.

The standalone JAR distribution with Jython 2.7 is available at Maven central. As discussed in issue #2218, separate Windows installers are not created anymore.

Robot Framework 3.0 was released on Thursday December 31, 2015.

Robot Framework 3.0 beta 1 is the last planned preview release before release candidates and the final 3.0 release. The biggest enhancements in Robot Framework 3.0 are Python 3 support and a new listener interface that allows modifying executed tests as well as execution results. Also start-up scripts have been enhanced and it is now possible to run tests with robot command and like python -m robot. See the full release notes for more information about new features, bug fixes, backwards incompatible changes and deprecated features in Robot Framework 3.0.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==3.0b1 to install exactly this version.

Separate Windows installers are not created and the plan is not to create them even for final releases in the future (#2218). The standalone jar distribution can be created and added here if there are requests, but we only upload final releases to the Maven central.

Robot Framework 3.0 beta 1 was released on Wednesday December 23, 2015.

Robot Framework 3.0 alpha 2 is the second preview of the next Robot Framework major version. The biggest enhancement it contains is Python 3 support, but also new generic robot start-up script have been introduced.

Biggest change in alpha 2 over alpha 1 is improvement in the execution speed when using listeners. The issue list at the end of full release notes mentions for each issue whether it came in alpha 1 or 2.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==3.0a2 to install exactly this version.

Separate Windows installers are not created and the plan is not to create them even for final releases in the future (#2218). The standalone jar distribution can be created and added here if there are requests, but we only upload final releases to the Maven central.

Robot Framework 3.0 alpha 2 was released on Thursday December 10, 2015.

Robot Framework 3.0 alpha 1 is the first preview of the next Robot Framework major version. The biggest enhancement it contains is Python 3 support, but also new generic robot start-up script have been introduced. For more details see the full release notes.

Source distribution is available at PyPI and pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==3.0a1 to install exactly this version.

Separate Windows installers are not created and the plan is not to create them even for final releases in the future (#2218). The standalone jar distribution can be created and added here if there are requests, but we only upload final releases to the Maven central.

Robot Framework 3.0 alpha 1 was released on Thursday November 19, 2015.

Robot Framework 2.9.2 fixes broken AutoItLibrary support, adds IronPython support to the Dialogs library, and contains several other fixes and enhancements. For more details see the full release notes.

Source distribution and Windows installers are available at PyPI and the standalone JAR with Jython 2.7 at Maven central. Pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==2.9.2 to install exactly this version.

Robot Framework 2.9.2 was released on Friday October 9, 2015.

Robot Framework 2.9.1 is a bug fix release that fixes few high priority bugs in Robot Framework 2.9. For more details see the full release notes.

Source distribution and Windows installers are available at PyPI and the standalone JAR with Jython 2.7 at Maven central. Pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==2.9.1 to install exactly this version.

Robot Framework 2.9.1 was released on Friday August 28, 2015.

Robot Framework 2.9 is a new major version with nearly 100 fixed issues. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables, support for creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries, and possibility to tag keywords. The most visible enhancement is the new fresh look in logs and reports. For more details see the full release notes.

Source distribution and Windows installers are available at PyPI and the standalone JAR with Jython 2.7 at Maven central. Pip users can simply run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest release or pip install robotframework==2.9 to install exactly this version.

Robot Framework 2.9 was released on Friday July 31, 2015.

Release notes

Robot Framework 2.9 rc 1 is the sixth and hopefully last preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

This release ought to be very stable, and we hope that it gets as much real life testing as possible. We especially hope that library and tool developers would test how well this new version works with their projects. If no issues are found from the rc 1 release in a week, RF 2.9 final will be be released based on it. If problems arise, rc 2 will be created as soon as possible.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated Windows installers for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI and the standalone jar with Jython 2.7 can be found from downloads below these release notes.

If you have pip just run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9rc1 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 rc 1 was released on Wednesday July 15, 2015.

Compatibility with other projects

Robot Framework 2.9 should, for most parts, be compatible with other projects in the larger Robot Framework ecosystem. It may, however, take some time before tools support new syntax like dictionary variables or keyword tags. Additionally, big internal changes may affect tools that have used internal APIs. Libraries and tools know not to be compatible with Robot Framework 2.9 will be listed here.

• RIDE 1.4 and older is not compatible with new syntax added in Robot Framework 2.9. Updated version is to be released shortly.
• Selenium2Library 1.7 and older use an internal API that was removed in Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1. Selenium2Library 1.7.1 and newer are compatible with Robot Framework 2.9.
• Also RemoteSwingLibrary 2.0.2 and older use a removed internal API. A fixed version is to be released shortly.
• Robot Framework Jenkins plugin 1.6.0 and older can not parse the new output.xml. Jenkins plugin 1.6.1 and newer are compatible with Robot Framework 2.9.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section in the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE 1.4 and older do not support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support

Keywords can now have tags (#925). The tags can be added to user keywords either by new [Tags] setting, or by adding them to the last line of documentation.

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    [Tags]    tag1    tag2
    No Operation
My other keyword
    [Documentation]    Tags can also be added as last line of documentation.
    ...                Tags: tag1, tag2
    No Operation

Library keywords can also use documentation to specify their tags or they can be added to robot_tagsattribute for each method. The keyword decorator provides a handy shortcut for specifying tags for each method.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(tags=['tag1', 'tag2'])
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

Libdoc will show keywords by tags (#1840) and tags can also be used to specify keywords for --removekeywords and --flattenkeywords commandline options (#1935).

Programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution

It is now possible to specify modifiers to preprocess the test data before the test run and to modify the results before generation of log and report. The modifiers can be taken into use with --prerunmodifier and --prerebotmodifier. See the issue #1976 for an example and more details.

Lighter and more neutral colors for logs and reports (#1943)

Logs and reports have a new fresh look. Go run some tests and see yourself!

Less verbose and quiet console outputs (#317)

New option --console allows changing the console output type. Possible values are verbose (default), dotted (x-unit like output where each passing test prints only a dot), quiet (no output except warnings and errors) and none (no output whatsoever). Dotted output has a shortcut --dotted or -. as a short option.

Variables are added to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, etc. (#2040)

Robot´s variables are now available with a $ prefix as Python variables in evaluation namespace of various BuiltIn library keywords.

The two rows below are now equivalent (assuming value of ${my var} is a string):

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Run keyword if    "${my var}" != "Foo"   ...   # old syntax
    Run keyword if     $my_var != "Foo"    ...   # new syntax in 2.9

FOR ... IN ZIP ... and FOR ... IN ENUMERATE (#1952)

New for loop syntax allows use of for-in-zip and for-in-enumarete loops.

*** Keywords ***
For in zip example    # take elements from both lists
    :FOR    ${number}    ${name}    IN ZIP    ${NUMBERS}    ${NAMES}
        \     Number Should Be Named    ${number}    ${name}
For in enumerate example    # take an item and an increasing index number
    :FOR    ${index}    ${item}    IN ENUMERATE    @{LIST}
     \     My Keyword    ${index}    ${item}

See the userguide for more details.

Contribution guidelines (#1805)

We have written guidelines helping to submit issue and contribute code. A link to them appears when submitting and issue or creating a pull request, and they are also directly available. We plan to enhance the guidelines in the future, so all kind of comments and enhancement ideas are highly appreciated.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)
• --ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails (#2004)
• Support YAML files as first class variable files (#1965)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) will detect failure in teardown (#1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

Variables no longer leak to lower level keywords (#532)

Local variables used to leak from test to keywords and from keywords to lower level keywords. The example below shows variable leaking from test to keyword:

*** Test Case ***
Example
    ${x}=    Set Variable    hello
    My keyword

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Should be equal    ${x}    hello

This behaviour was never intended, but fixing the bug can break tests where this was used either intentionally or by accident.

Python and Jython 2.5 support dropped (#1928)

With the official Jython 2.7 version out, we dropped the support for Python and Jython 2.5 series. The standalone JAR distribution contains Jython 2.7 from now on.

Empty elements or attributes are not written to output.xml (#2020)

For example, every suite, test and keyword used to have <doc></doc> element even if they did not have any documentation.Nowadays such empty elements are not written to the output.xml at all. This change may affect tools processing output.xml files, but it also reduced output.xml size up to 10% in our tests.

PYTHONPATH environment variable is not processed with Jython or IronPython anymore (#1983)

Robot Framework used to add PYTHONPATH to JYTHONPATH for Jython and to IRONPYTHONPATH for IronPython. In RF 2.9 Jython and IronPython will ignore PYTHONPATH and you need to use the correct path environment variable for your executor.

Execution directory not added automatically to module search path (#2019)

The directory where execution is started from is not anymore added to the module search path. If it is needed, PYTHONPATH, JYTHONPATH or IRONPYTHONPATH environment variable can be explicitly set to . before execution.

Standard libraries not importable in Python without the robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore (#1865)

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead. If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped (#1603)

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed (#1924)

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Variable assignment is not anymore be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs (#1611)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) detects failures also in teardown (#1270)
• DateTime: DST fixes when calculating with dates (#2018)
• FAIL is no longer usable as a normal log level (#2016)
• Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value (#2031)
• OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself (#2039)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See the issues below for more details:

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• Using same setting multiple times deprecated (#2063)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)
• Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx (#2027)

Acknowledgements

Robot Framework 2.9 got more contributions than any earlier release. Big thanks for the following contributors as wells for anyone who has tested the preview releases, submitted issues, or otherwise helped to make RF 2.9 a great release!

• Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) implemented support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it.
• Vinicius K. Ruoso (@vkruoso) implemented support for adding support for multiple listeners per library (#1970).
• Joseph Lorenzini (@jaloren) exposed ERROR log level for keywords (#1916).
• Guillaume Grossetie (@Mogztter) contributed initial versions of log and report styles (#1943).
• Ed Brannin (@edbrannin) implemented FOR ... IN ZIP, FOR ... IN ENUMERATE syntax (#1954).
• Moon SungHoon (@MoonSungHoon) added new Get Regexp Matches keyword to the String library (#1985).
• Hélio Guilherme (@HelioGuilherme66) added support for partial match for Get Lines Matching Regexp also in the String library (#1836).
• Guy Kisel (@guykisel) wrote the initial contribution guidelines (#1805).

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary	Added In
#532	bug	critical	Variables should not leak to lower level keywords	alpha 3
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type	alpha 1
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax	alpha 1
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace	alpha 1
#925	enhancement	critical	Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support	alpha 2
#1270	bug	high	Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) does not detect failure in teardown	alpha 3
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix	alpha 1
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython	alpha 1
#2004	bug	high	--ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails	alpha 2
#2018	bug	high	DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates	alpha 3
#1805	enhancement	high	Contribution instructions	rc 1
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries	alpha 1
#1840	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Show keywords by tags	alpha 2
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3	alpha 1
#1943	enhancement	high	Use lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page	beta 1
#1952	enhancement	high	FOR ... IN ZIP ... and FOR ... IN ENUMERATE	beta 2
#1965	enhancement	high	Support yaml files as first class variable file	alpha 2
#1976	enhancement	high	Support programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution	alpha 2
#1991	enhancement	high	Include Jython 2.7 in standalone jar	alpha 2
#2040	enhancement	high	Add variables to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, ...	beta 2
#293	enhancement	high	Support reloading library	alpha 2
#317	enhancement	high	Less verbose and quiet console outputs	alpha 3
#1611	bug	medium	Variable assignment should not be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs	alpha 2
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries	alpha 1
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop	alpha 1
#1992	bug	medium	Listeners are not unregistered when using TestSuite.run API	alpha 2
#2062	bug	medium	Not possible to print to stdout/stderr by listeners or otherwise inside Run Keyword variants	rc 1
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8	alpha 1
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords	alpha 1
#1728	enhancement	medium	Support setting child suite variables with Set Suite Variable	beta 1
#1743	enhancement	medium	Make keyword prefix (library name) less visible than keywords in HTML reports	alpha 2
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword	alpha 1
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem	alpha 1
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)	alpha 1
#1834	enhancement	medium	String: Support partial match with Get Lines Matching RegExp	beta 2
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs	alpha 1
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API	alpha 1
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)	alpha 1
#1869	enhancement	medium	Variable errors should not exit Wait Until Keyword Succeeds, Run Keyword And Expect Error, etc.	rc 1
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables	alpha 1
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables	alpha 1
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.	alpha 1
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table	alpha 1
#1916	enhancement	medium	Expose ERROR log level to custom libraries	alpha 3
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access	alpha 1
#1935	enhancement	medium	Support keyword tags with --flattenkeywords and --removekeywords	alpha 2
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items	alpha 1
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry	alpha 1
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords	alpha 1
#1969	enhancement	medium	Allow giving listener and model modifier instances to robot.run and TestSuite.run	alpha 3
#1970	enhancement	medium	Enhance ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER to accept a list of listeners	alpha 2
#1972	enhancement	medium	User Guide: Switch examples to use plain text format instead of HTML format	rc 1
#1983	enhancement	medium	PYTHONPATH environment variable should not be processed with Jython or IronPython	alpha 2
#1985	enhancement	medium	String: New Get Regexp Matches keyword	beta 2
#1990	enhancement	medium	Avoid Python 3 incompatible type checks	beta 2
#1998	enhancement	medium	Pass keyword and library names separately to listeners	alpha 2
#2020	enhancement	medium	Do not write empty elements or attributes to output.xml	alpha 3
#2027	enhancement	medium	Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx	alpha 3
#2028	enhancement	medium	Tag patterns starting with NOT	alpha 3
#2029	enhancement	medium	When exiting gracefully, skipped tests should get automatic robot-exit tag	alpha 3
#2030	enhancement	medium	Notify listeners about library, resource and variable file imports	beta 2
#2032	enhancement	medium	Document that test and keyword tags with robot- prefix are reserved	alpha 3
#2036	enhancement	medium	BuiltIn.Get Variables: Support getting variables without ${} decoration	beta 1
#2038	enhancement	medium	Consistent usage of Boolean arguments in standard libraries	beta 1
#2063	enhancement	medium	Deprecate using same setting multiple times	rc 1
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning	alpha 1
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes	alpha 1
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x	alpha 1
#1997	bug	low	User Guide has outdated links to test templates	beta 2
#2002	bug	low	Keyword and test names with urls or quotes create invalid html on log and report	alpha 2
#2003	bug	low	Checking is stdout/stderr stream terminal causes exception if stream's buffer is detached	alpha 2
#2016	bug	low	FAIL should not be useable as a normal log level	alpha 3
#2019	bug	low	Execution directory should not be added to module search path (PYTHONPATH)	alpha 2
#2043	bug	low	BuiltIn: Some Should keyword only consider Python True true and other values false	beta 1
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options	alpha 1
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword	alpha 1
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation	alpha 1
#1898	enhancement	low	Improve error message for "Else" instead of "ELSE"	alpha 3
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata	alpha 1
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword	alpha 1
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords	alpha 1
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option	alpha 1
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.	alpha 1
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option	alpha 1
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators	alpha 1
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values	alpha 1
#2021	enhancement	low	Update XSD schemas	alpha 3
#2022	enhancement	low	Document that preformatted text with spaces in Robot data requires escaping	beta 1
#2031	enhancement	low	Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value	alpha 3
#2033	enhancement	low	Use setuptools for installation when available	beta 1
#2037	enhancement	low	BuiltIn.Evaluate: Support any mapping as a custom namespace	beta 1
#2039	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself	beta 1
#2041	enhancement	low	Collections: New keyword Convert To Dictionary	beta 1
#2045	enhancement	low	BuiltIn: Log argument types in DEBUG level not INFO	beta 1

Altogether 94 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.9 beta 2

RF 2.9 beta 2 is the fifth preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. After this release the work continues with the first release candidate. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

Most important new features in beta 2 over beta 1 are the new for-in-zip and for-in-enumerate loops (#1952) and change in syntax to adding variables to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, and other built-in keywords (#2040). The issue list at the end of this release note mentions for each feature in which preview it came, but otherwise the notes here describe the changes in 2.9 over 2.8.7, therefore containing also previous preview changes.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated windows installers for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI and the standalone jar with Jython 2.7 can be found from downloads below these release notes.

If you have pip just run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9b2 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 beta 2 was released on Thursday July 2, 2015.

Compatibility with other projects

Robot Framework 2.9 should, for most parts, be compatible with other projects in the larger Robot Framework ecosystem. It may, however, take some time before tools support new syntax like dictionary variables or keyword tags. Additionally, big internal changes may affect tools that have used internal APIs. Libraries and tools know not to be compatible with Robot Framework 2.9 will be listed here.

• RIDE 1.4 and older is not compatible with new syntax added in Robot Framework 2.9.
• Selenium2Library 1.7 and older use an internal API that was removed in Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1. Selenium2Library 1.7.1 is fully compatible with Robot Framework 2.9.
• Robot Framework Jenkins plugin 1.6.0 and older can not parse the new output.xml A new version of Jenkins plugin with fixed output parsing should be released shortly after beta 2 is out.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section in the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE editor does not currently support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support

Keywords can now have tags (#925). The tags can be added to user keywords either by new [Tags] setting, or by adding them to the last line of documentation.

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    [Tags]    tag1    tag2
    No Operation
My other keyword
    [Documentation]    Tags can also be added as last line of documentation.
    ...                Tags: tag1, tag2
    No Operation

Library keywords can also use documentation to specify their tags or they can be added to robot_tagsattribute for each method. The keyword decorator provides a handy shortcut for specifying tags for each method.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(tags=['tag1', 'tag2'])
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

Libdoc will show keywords by tags (#1840) and tags can also be used to specify keywords for --removekeywords and --flattenkeywords commandline options (#1935).

Programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution

It is now possible to specify modifiers to preprocess the test data before the test run and to modify the results before generation of log and report. The modifiers can be taken into use with --prerunmodifier and --prerebotmodifier. See the issue #1976 for an example and more details.

Less verbose and quiet console outputs (#317)

New option --console allows changing the console output type. Possible values are verbose (default), dotted (x-unit like output where each passing test prints only a dot), quiet (no output except warnings and errors) and none (no output whatsoever). Dotted output has a shortcut --dotted or -. as a short option.

Variables are added to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, ... (#2040)

Robot´s variables are now available with $-prefix as Python variables in evaluation namespace of BuiltIn library keywords.

The two rows below are now equivalent (assuming value of ${my var} is a string):

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Run keyword if    "${my var}" != "Foo"   ...   # old syntax
    Run keyword if     $my_var != "Foo"    ...   # new syntax in 2.9

NOTE: The syntax was changed in beta 2 to require the $ prefix.

FOR ... IN ZIP ... and FOR ... IN ENUMERATE (#1952)

New for loop syntax allows use of for-in-zip and for-in-enumarete loops.

*** Keywords ***
For in zip example    # take elements from both lists
    :FOR    ${number}    ${name}    IN ZIP    ${NUMBERS}    ${NAMES}
        \     Number Should Be Named    ${number}    ${name}
For in enumerate example    # take an item and an increasing index number
    :FOR    ${index}    ${item}    IN ENUMERATE    @{LIST}
     \     My Keyword    ${index}    ${item}

See the userguide for more details.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)
• --ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails (#2004)
• Support yaml files as first class variable file (#1965)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) will detect failure in teardown ( #1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)
• Use lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page (#1943)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

Variables no longer leak to lower level keywords (#532)

Local variables used to leak from test to keywords and from keywords to lower level keywords. The example below shows variable leaking from test to keyword:

*** Test Case ***
Example
    ${x}=    Set Variable    hello
    My keyword

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Should be equal    ${x}    hello

This behaviour was never intended, but fixing the bug can break tests where this was used either intentionally or by accident.

Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support (#1928)

With the official Jython 2.7 version out, we dropped the support for Python and Jython 2.5 series. The standalone jar contains Jython 2.7 from now on.

PYTHONPATH environment variable is not processed with Jython or IronPython anymore (#1983)

Robot Framework used to add PYTHONPATH to JYTHONPATH for Jython and to IRONPYTHONPATH for IronPython. In RF 2.9 Jython and IronPython will ignore PYTHONPATH and you need to use the correct path environment variable for your executor.

Execution directory not added automatically to module search path (#2019)

The directory where execution is started from is not anymore added to the module search path. If it is needed, PYTHONPATH, JYTHONPATH or IRONPYTHONPATH environment variable can be explicitly set to . before execution.

Standard libraries not importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead (#1865). If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags (#1603) and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Empty elements or attributes are not written to output.xml (#2020)
• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Variable assignment is not anymore be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs (#1611)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) did not detect failure in teardown (#1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)
• FAIL is no longer useable as a normal log level (#2016)
• Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value (#2031)
• OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself (#2039)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See linked issues for more details.

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)
• Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx (#2027)

Acknowledgements

Big thanks for all following contributors. Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) implemented both support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it. Vinicius K. Ruoso (@vkruoso) implemented support for adding support for multiple listeners per library (#1970). Joseph Lorenzini exposed ERROR log level for keywords (#1916). Guillaume Grossetie contributed new styles for logs and report (#1943). Ed Brannin implemented FOR ... IN ZIP, FOR ... IN ENUMERATE syntax (#1954). Moon SungHoon did new Get Regexp Matches keyword to String library (#1985). Hélio Guilherme did the support for partial match with Get Lines Matching Regexp also in String library (#1836).

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary	Added In
#532	bug	critical	Variables should not leak to lower level keywords	alpha 3
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type	alpha 1
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax	alpha 1
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace	alpha 1
#925	enhancement	critical	Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support	alpha 2
#1270	bug	high	Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) does not detect failure in teardown	alpha 3
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix	alpha 1
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython	alpha 1
#2004	bug	high	--ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails	alpha 2
#2018	bug	high	DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates	alpha 3
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries	alpha 1
#1840	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Show keywords by tags	alpha 2
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3	alpha 1
#1943	enhancement	high	Use lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page	beta 1
#1952	enhancement	high	FOR ... IN ZIP ... and FOR ... IN ENUMERATE	beta 2
#1965	enhancement	high	Support yaml files as first class variable file	alpha 2
#1976	enhancement	high	Support programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution	alpha 2
#1991	enhancement	high	Include Jython 2.7 in standalone jar	alpha 2
#2040	enhancement	high	Add variables to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, ...	beta 2
#293	enhancement	high	Support reloading library	alpha 2
#317	enhancement	high	Less verbose and quiet console outputs	alpha 3
#1611	bug	medium	Variable assignment should not be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs	alpha 2
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries	alpha 1
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop	alpha 1
#1992	bug	medium	Listeners are not unregistered when using TestSuite.run API	alpha 2
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8	alpha 1
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords	alpha 1
#1728	enhancement	medium	Support setting child suite variables with Set Suite Variable	beta 1
#1743	enhancement	medium	Make keyword prefix (library name) less visible than keywords in HTML reports	alpha 2
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword	alpha 1
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem	alpha 1
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)	alpha 1
#1834	enhancement	medium	String: Support partial match with Get Lines Matching RegExp	beta 2
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs	alpha 1
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API	alpha 1
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)	alpha 1
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables	alpha 1
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables	alpha 1
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.	alpha 1
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table	alpha 1
#1916	enhancement	medium	Expose ERROR log level to custom libraries	alpha 3
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access	alpha 1
#1935	enhancement	medium	Support keyword tags with --flattenkeywords and --removekeywords	alpha 2
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items	alpha 1
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry	alpha 1
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords	alpha 1
#1969	enhancement	medium	Allow giving listener and model modifier instances to robot.run and TestSuite.run	alpha 3
#1970	enhancement	medium	Enhance ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER to accept a list of listeners	alpha 2
#1983	enhancement	medium	PYTHONPATH environment variable should not be processed with Jython or IronPython	alpha 2
#1985	enhancement	medium	String: New Get Regexp Matches keyword	beta 2
#1990	enhancement	medium	Avoid Python 3 incompatible type checks	beta 2
#1998	enhancement	medium	Pass keyword and library names separately to listeners	alpha 2
#2020	enhancement	medium	Do not write empty elements or attributes to output.xml	alpha 3
#2027	enhancement	medium	Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx	alpha 3
#2028	enhancement	medium	Tag patterns starting with NOT	alpha 3
#2029	enhancement	medium	When exiting gracefully, skipped tests should get automatic robot-exit tag	alpha 3
#2030	enhancement	medium	Notify listeners about library, resource and variable file imports	beta 2
#2032	enhancement	medium	Document that test and keyword tags with robot- prefix are reserved	alpha 3
#2036	enhancement	medium	BuiltIn.Get Variables: Support getting variables without ${} decoration	beta 1
#2038	enhancement	medium	Consistent usage of Boolean arguments in standard libraries	beta 1
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning	alpha 1
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes	alpha 1
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x	alpha 1
#1997	bug	low	User Guide has outdated links to test templates	beta 2
#2002	bug	low	Keyword and test names with urls or quotes create invalid html on log and report	alpha 2
#2003	bug	low	Checking is stdout/stderr stream terminal causes exception if stream's buffer is detached	alpha 2
#2016	bug	low	FAIL should not be useable as a normal log level	alpha 3
#2019	bug	low	Execution directory should not be added to module search path (PYTHONPATH)	alpha 2
#2043	bug	low	BuiltIn: Some Should keyword only consider Python True true and other values false	beta 1
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options	alpha 1
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword	alpha 1
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation	alpha 1
#1898	enhancement	low	Improve error message for "Else" instead of "ELSE"	alpha 3
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata	alpha 1
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword	alpha 1
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords	alpha 1
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option	alpha 1
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.	alpha 1
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option	alpha 1
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators	alpha 1
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values	alpha 1
#2021	enhancement	low	Update XSD schemas	alpha 3
#2022	enhancement	low	Document that preformatted text with spaces in Robot data requires escaping	beta 1
#2031	enhancement	low	Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value	alpha 3
#2033	enhancement	low	Use setuptools for installation when available	beta 1
#2037	enhancement	low	BuiltIn.Evaluate: Support any mapping as a custom namespace	beta 1
#2039	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself	beta 1
#2041	enhancement	low	Collections: New keyword Convert To Dictionary	beta 1
#2045	enhancement	low	BuiltIn: Log argument types in DEBUG level not INFO	beta 1

Altogether 89 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1

RF 2.9 beta 1 is the fourth preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. After this release the work continues with the first release candidate. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

Most important new features in beta 1 over alpha 3 are lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page (#1943) and adding variables to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, and other built-in keywords (#2040). The issue list at the end of this release note mentions for each feature in which preview it came, but otherwise the notes here describe the changes in 2.9 over 2.8.7, therefore containing also previous preview changes.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated windows installers for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI and the standalone jar with Jython 2.7 can be found from downloads below these release notes.

If you have pip just run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9b1 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1 was released on Friday June 26, 2015.

Compatibility with other projects

Robot Framework 2.9 should, for most parts, be compatible with other projects in the larger Robot Framework ecosystem. It may, however, take some time before tools support new syntax like dictionary variables or keyword tags. Additionally, big internal changes may affect tools that have used internal APIs. Libraries and tools know not to be compatible with Robot Framework 2.9 will be listed here.

• RIDE 1.4 and older is not compatible with new syntax added in Robot Framework 2.9.
• Selenium2Library 1.7 and older use an internal API that was removed in Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1. Selenium2Library 1.7.1 is fully compatible with Robot Framework 2.9.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section in the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE editor does not currently support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support

Keywords can now have tags (#925). The tags can be added to user keywords either by new [Tags] setting, or by adding them to the last line of documentation.

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    [Tags]    tag1    tag2
    No Operation
My other keyword
    [Documentation]    Tags can also be added as last line of documentation.
    ...                Tags: tag1, tag2
    No Operation

Library keywords can also use documentation to specify their tags or they can be added to robot_tagsattribute for each method. The keyword decorator provides a handy shortcut for specifying tags for each method.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(tags=['tag1', 'tag2'])
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

Libdoc will show keywords by tags (#1840) and tags can also be used to specify keywords for --removekeywords and --flattenkeywords commandline options (#1935).

Programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution

It is now possible to specify modifiers to preprocess the test data before the test run and to modify the results before generation of log and report. The modifiers can be taken into use with --prerunmodifier and --prerebotmodifier. See the issue #1976 for an example and more details.

Less verbose and quiet console outputs (#317)

New option --console allows changing the console output type. Possible values are verbose (default), dotted (x-unit like output where each passing test prints only a dot), quiet (no output except warnings and errors) and none (no output whatsoever). Dotted output has a shortcut --dotted or -. as a short option.

Variables are added to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, ... (#2040)

Robot´s variables are now available as Python variables in evaluation namespace of BuiltIn library keywords.

The two rows below are now equivalent (assuming value of ${my var} is a string):

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Run keyword if    "${my var}" != "Foo"   ...   # old syntax
    Run keyword if     my_var != "Foo"    ...   # new syntax in 2.9

NOTE: The syntax will be changed in beta 2 so that a $ prefix is required like in $my_var.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)
• --ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails (#2004)
• Support yaml files as first class variable file (#1965)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) will detect failure in teardown ( #1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)
• Use lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page (#1943)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

Variables no longer leak to lower level keywords (#532)

Local variables used to leak from test to keywords and from keywords to lower level keywords. The example below shows variable leaking from test to keyword:

*** Test Case ***
Example
    ${x}=    Set Variable    hello
    My keyword

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Should be equal    ${x}    hello

This behaviour was never intended, but fixing the bug can break tests where this was used either intentionally or by accident.

Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support (#1928)

With the official Jython 2.7 version out, we dropped the support for Python and Jython 2.5 series. The standalone jar contains Jython 2.7 from now on.

PYTHONPATH environment variable is not processed with Jython or IronPython anymore (#1983)

Robot Framework used to add PYTHONPATH to JYTHONPATH for Jython and to IRONPYTHONPATH for IronPython. In RF 2.9 Jython and IronPython will ignore PYTHONPATH and you need to use the correct path environment variable for your executor.

Execution directory not added automatically to module search path (#2019)

The directory where execution is started from is not anymore added to the module search path. If it is needed, PYTHONPATH, JYTHONPATH or IRONPYTHONPATH environment variable can be explicitly set to . before execution.

Standard libraries not importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead (#1865). If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags (#1603) and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Empty elements or attributes are not written to output.xml (#2020)
• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Variable assignment is not anymore be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs (#1611)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) did not detect failure in teardown (#1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)
• FAIL is no longer useable as a normal log level (#2016)
• Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value (#2031)
• OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself (#2039)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See linked issues for more details.

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)
• Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx (#2027)

Acknowledgements

Big thanks for all following contributors. Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) implemented both support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it. Vinicius K. Ruoso (@vkruoso) implemented support for adding support for multiple listeners per library (#1970). Joseph Lorenzini exposed ERROR log level for keywords (#1916). Guillaume Grossetie contributed new styles for logs and report (#1943).

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary	Added In
#532	bug	critical	Variables should not leak to lower level keywords	alpha 3
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type	alpha 1
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax	alpha 1
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace	alpha 1
#925	enhancement	critical	Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support	alpha 2
#1270	bug	high	Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) does not detect failure in teardown	alpha 3
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix	alpha 1
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython	alpha 1
#2004	bug	high	--ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails	alpha 2
#2018	bug	high	DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates	alpha 3
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries	alpha 1
#1840	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Show keywords by tags	alpha 2
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3	alpha 1
#1943	enhancement	high	Use lighter and more neutral colors for report and log html page	beta 1
#1965	enhancement	high	Support yaml files as first class variable file	alpha 2
#1976	enhancement	high	Support programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution	alpha 2
#1991	enhancement	high	Include Jython 2.7 in standalone jar	alpha 2
#2040	enhancement	high	Add variables to evaluation namespace of Evaluate, Run Keyword If, ...	beta 1
#293	enhancement	high	Support reloading library	alpha 2
#317	enhancement	high	Less verbose and quiet console outputs	alpha 3
#1611	bug	medium	Variable assignment should not be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs	alpha 2
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries	alpha 1
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop	alpha 1
#1992	bug	medium	Listeners are not unregistered when using TestSuite.run API	alpha 2
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8	alpha 1
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords	alpha 1
#1728	enhancement	medium	Support setting child suite variables with Set Suite Variable	beta 1
#1743	enhancement	medium	Make keyword prefix (library name) less visible than keywords in HTML reports	alpha 2
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword	alpha 1
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem	alpha 1
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)	alpha 1
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs	alpha 1
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API	alpha 1
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)	alpha 1
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables	alpha 1
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables	alpha 1
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.	alpha 1
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table	alpha 1
#1916	enhancement	medium	Expose ERROR log level to custom libraries	alpha 3
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access	alpha 1
#1935	enhancement	medium	Support keyword tags with --flattenkeywords and --removekeywords	alpha 2
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items	alpha 1
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry	alpha 1
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords	alpha 1
#1969	enhancement	medium	Allow giving listener and model modifier instances to robot.run and TestSuite.run	alpha 3
#1970	enhancement	medium	Enhance ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER to accept a list of listeners	alpha 2
#1983	enhancement	medium	PYTHONPATH environment variable should not be processed with Jython or IronPython	alpha 2
#1998	enhancement	medium	Pass keyword and library names separately to listeners	alpha 2
#2020	enhancement	medium	Do not write empty elements or attributes to output.xml	alpha 3
#2027	enhancement	medium	Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx	alpha 3
#2028	enhancement	medium	Tag patterns starting with NOT	alpha 3
#2029	enhancement	medium	When exiting gracefully, skipped tests should get automatic robot-exit tag	alpha 3
#2032	enhancement	medium	Document that test and keyword tags with robot- prefix are reserved	alpha 3
#2036	enhancement	medium	BuiltIn.Get Variables: Support getting variables without ${} decoration	beta 1
#2038	enhancement	medium	Consistent usage of Boolean arguments in standard libraries	beta 1
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning	alpha 1
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes	alpha 1
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x	alpha 1
#2002	bug	low	Keyword and test names with urls or quotes create invalid html on log and report	alpha 2
#2003	bug	low	Checking is stdout/stderr stream terminal causes exception if stream's buffer is detached	alpha 2
#2016	bug	low	FAIL should not be useable as a normal log level	alpha 3
#2019	bug	low	Execution directory should not be added to module search path (PYTHONPATH)	alpha 2
#2043	bug	low	BuiltIn: Some Should keyword only consider Python True true and other values false	beta 1
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options	alpha 1
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword	alpha 1
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation	alpha 1
#1898	enhancement	low	Improve error message for "Else" instead of "ELSE"	alpha 3
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata	alpha 1
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword	alpha 1
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords	alpha 1
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option	alpha 1
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.	alpha 1
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option	alpha 1
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators	alpha 1
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values	alpha 1
#2021	enhancement	low	Update XSD schemas	alpha 3
#2022	enhancement	low	Document that preformatted text with spaces in Robot data requires escaping	beta 1
#2031	enhancement	low	Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value	alpha 3
#2033	enhancement	low	Use setuptools for installation when available	beta 1
#2037	enhancement	low	BuiltIn.Evaluate: Support any mapping as a custom namespace	beta 1
#2039	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem and Dialogs: Remove partial support for running without Robot Framework itself	beta 1
#2041	enhancement	low	Collections: New keyword Convert To Dictionary	beta 1
#2045	enhancement	low	BuiltIn: Log argument types in DEBUG level not INFO	beta 1

Altogether 83 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 3

RF 2.9 alpha 3 is the third preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. After this release the work continues with beta 1. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

Most important new features in alpha 3 over alpha 2 are that the variables no longer leak to lower level keywords (#532) and the new less verbose console output (#317). The issue list at the end of this release note mentions for each feature in which preview it came, but otherwise the notes here describe the changes in 2.9 over 2.8.7, therefore containing also the alpha 1 and 2 changes.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated windows installers for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI and the standalone jar with Jython 2.7 can be found from downloads below these release notes.

If you have pip just run pip install --upgrade --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9a3 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 3 was released on Thursday June 18, 2015.

Compatibility with other projects

Robot Framework 2.9 should, for most parts, be compatible with other projects in the larger Robot Framework ecosystem. It may, however, take some time before tools support new syntax like dictionary variables or keyword tags. Additionally, big internal changes may affect tools that have used internal APIs. Libraries and tools know not to be compatible with Robot Framework 2.9 will be listed here.

• RIDE 1.4 and older is not compatible with new syntax added in Robot Framework 2.9.
• Selenium2Library 1.7 and older use an internal API that was removed in Robot Framework 2.9 beta 1. Selenium2Library 1.7.1 is fully compatible with Robot Framework 2.9.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section in the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE editor does not currently support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support

Keywords can now have tags (#925). The tags can be added to user keywords either by new [Tags] setting, or by adding them to the last line of documentation.

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    [Tags]    tag1    tag2
    No Operation
My other keyword
    [Documentation]    Tags can also be added as last line of documentation.
    ...                Tags: tag1, tag2
    No Operation

Library keywords can also use documentation to specify their tags or they can be added to robot_tagsattribute for each method. The keyword decorator provides a handy shortcut for specifying tags for each method.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(tags=['tag1', 'tag2'])
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

Libdoc will show keywords by tags (#1840) and tags can also be used to specify keywords for --removekeywords and --flattenkeywords commandline options (#1935).

Programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution

It is now possible to specify modifiers to preprocess the test data before the test run and to modify the results before generation of log and report. The modifiers can be taken into use with --prerunmodifier and --prerebotmodifier. See the issue #1976 for an example and more details.

Less verbose and quiet console outputs (#317)

New option --console allows changing the console output type. Possible values are verbose (default), dotted (x-unit like output where each passing test prints only a dot), quiet (no output except warnings and errors) and none (no output whatsoever). Dotted output has a shortcut --dotted or -. as a short option.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)
• --ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails (#2004)
• Support yaml files as first class variable file (#1965)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) will detect failure in teardown ( #1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

Variables no longer leak to lower level keywords (#532)

Local variables used to leak from test to keywords and from keywords to lower level keywords. The example below shows variable leaking from test to keyword:

*** Test Case ***
Example
    ${x}=    Set Variable    hello
    My keyword

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    Should be equal    ${x}    hello

This behaviour was never intended, but fixing the bug can break tests where this was used either intentionally or by accident.

Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support (#1928)

With the official Jython 2.7 version out, we dropped the support for Python and Jython 2.5 series. The standalone jar contains Jython 2.7 from now on.

PYTHONPATH environment variable is not processed with Jython or IronPython anymore (#1983)

Robot Framework used to add PYTHONPATH to JYTHONPATH for Jython and to IRONPYTHONPATH for IronPython. In RF 2.9 Jython and IronPython will ignore PYTHONPATH and you need to use the correct path environment variable for your executor.

Execution directory not added automatically to module search path (#2019)

The directory where execution is started from is not anymore added to the module search path. If it is needed, PYTHONPATH, JYTHONPATH or IRONPYTHONPATH environment variable can be explicitly set to . before execution.

Standard libraries not importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead (#1865). If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags (#1603) and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Empty elements or attributes are not written to output.xml (#2020)
• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Variable assignment is not anymore be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs (#1611)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)
• Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) did not detect failure in teardown (#1270)
• DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates (#2018)
• FAIL is no longer useable as a normal log level (#2016)
• Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value (#2031)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See linked issues for more details.

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)
• Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx (#2027)

Acknowledgements

Big thanks for all following contributors. Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) implemented both support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it. Vinicius K. Ruoso (@vkruoso) implemented support for adding support for multiple listeners per library (#1970). Joseph Lorenzini exposed ERROR log level for keywords (#1916).

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary	Added In
#532	bug	critical	Variables should not leak to lower level keywords	alpha 3
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type	alpha 1
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax	alpha 1
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace	alpha 1
#925	enhancement	critical	Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support	alpha 2
#1270	bug	high	Run Keyword If Test (Failed / Passed) does not detect failure in teardown	alpha 3
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix	alpha 1
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython	alpha 1
#2004	bug	high	--ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails	alpha 2
#2018	bug	high	DateTime: DST problems when calculating with dates	alpha 3
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries	alpha 1
#1840	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Show keywords by tags	alpha 2
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3	alpha 1
#1965	enhancement	high	Support yaml files as first class variable file	alpha 2
#1976	enhancement	high	Support programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution	alpha 2
#1991	enhancement	high	Include Jython 2.7 in standalone jar	alpha 2
#293	enhancement	high	Support reloading library	alpha 2
#317	enhancement	high	Less verbose and quiet console outputs	alpha 3
#1611	bug	medium	Variable assignment should not be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs	alpha 2
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries	alpha 1
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop	alpha 1
#1992	bug	medium	Listeners are not unregistered when using TestSuite.run API	alpha 2
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8	alpha 1
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords	alpha 1
#1743	enhancement	medium	Make keyword prefix (library name) less visible than keywords in HTML reports	alpha 2
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword	alpha 1
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem	alpha 1
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)	alpha 1
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs	alpha 1
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API	alpha 1
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)	alpha 1
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables	alpha 1
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables	alpha 1
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.	alpha 1
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table	alpha 1
#1916	enhancement	medium	Expose ERROR log level to custom libraries	alpha 3
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access	alpha 1
#1935	enhancement	medium	Support keyword tags with --flattenkeywords and --removekeywords	alpha 2
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items	alpha 1
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry	alpha 1
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords	alpha 1
#1969	enhancement	medium	Allow giving listener and model modifier instances to robot.run and TestSuite.run	alpha 3
#1970	enhancement	medium	Enhance ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER to accept a list of listeners	alpha 2
#1983	enhancement	medium	PYTHONPATH environment variable should not be processed with Jython or IronPython	alpha 2
#1998	enhancement	medium	Pass keyword and library names separately to listeners	alpha 2
#2020	enhancement	medium	Do not write empty elements or attributes to output.xml	alpha 3
#2027	enhancement	medium	Deprecate --monitorxxx options in favor of --consolexxx	alpha 3
#2029	enhancement	medium	When exiting gracefully, skipped tests should get automatic robot-exit tag	alpha 3
#2032	enhancement	medium	Document that test and keyword tags with robot- prefix are reserved	alpha 3
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning	alpha 1
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes	alpha 1
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x	alpha 1
#2002	bug	low	Keyword and test names with urls or quotes create invalid html on log and report	alpha 2
#2003	bug	low	Checking is stdout/stderr stream terminal causes exception if stream's buffer is detached	alpha 2
#2016	bug	low	FAIL should not be useable as a normal log level	alpha 3
#2019	bug	low	Execution directory should not be added to module search path (PYTHONPATH)	alpha 2
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options	alpha 1
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword	alpha 1
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation	alpha 1
#1898	enhancement	low	Improve error message for "Else" instead of "ELSE"	alpha 3
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata	alpha 1
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword	alpha 1
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords	alpha 1
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option	alpha 1
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.	alpha 1
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option	alpha 1
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators	alpha 1
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values	alpha 1
#2021	enhancement	low	Update XSD schemas	alpha 3
#2028	enhancement	low	Tag patterns starting with NOT	alpha 3
#2031	enhancement	low	Console colors and markers: Fail if given value is invalid and remove outdated FORCE color value	alpha 3

Altogether 71 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 2

RF 2.9 alpha 2 is the second preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. After this release the work continues with alpha 3. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

Most important new feature in alpha 2 over alpha 1 is the keyword tags support (#925). The issue list at the end of this release note mentions for each feature whether it came in alpha 1 or 2, but otherwise the notes here describe the changes in 2.9 over 2.8.7, therefore containing also the alpha 1 changes.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated windows installers for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI and the standalone jar with Jython 2.7 can be found from downloads below these release notes.

If you have pip just run pip install --update --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9a2 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 2 was released on Friday June 05, 2015.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE editor does not currently support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support

Keywords can now have tags (#925). The tags can be added to user keywords either by new [Tags] setting, or by adding them to the last line of documentation.

*** Keywords ***
My keyword
    [Tags]    tag1    tag2
    No Operation
My other keyword
    [Documentation]    Tags can also be added as last line of documentation.
    ...                Tags: tag1, tag2
    No Operation

Library keywords can also use documentation to specify their tags or they can be added to robot_tagsattribute for each method. The keyword decorator provides a handy shortcut for specifying tags for each method.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(tags=['tag1', 'tag2'])
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

Libdoc will show keywords by tags (#1840) and tags can also be used to specify keywords for --removekeywords and --flattenkeywords commandline options (#1935).

Programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution

It is now possible to specify modifiers to preprocess the test data before the test run and to modify the results before generation of log and report. The modifiers can be taken into use with --prerunmodifier and --prerebotmodifier. See the issue #1976 for an example and more details.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)
• --ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails (#2004)
• Support yaml files as first class variable file (#1965)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

PYTHONPATH environment variable is not processed with Jython or IronPython anymore (#1983)

Robot Framework used to add PYTHONPATH to JYTHONPATH for Jython and to IRONPYTHONPATH for IronPython. In RF 2.9 Jython and IronPython will ignore PYTHONPATH and you need to use the correct path environment variable for your executor.

Execution directory not added automatically to module search path (#2019)

The directory where execution is started from is not anymore added to the module search path. If it is needed, PYTHONPATH, JYTHONPATH or IRONPYTHONPATH environment variable can be explicitly set to . before execution.

Standard libraries not importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead (#1865). If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags (#1603) and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Variable assignment is not anymore be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs (#1611)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See linked issues for more details.

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)

Acknowledgements

Big thanks for all following contributors. Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) implemented both support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it. Vinicius K. Ruoso (@vkruoso) implemented support for adding support for multiple listeners per library (#1970).

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary	Added In
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type	alpha 1
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax	alpha 1
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace	alpha 1
#925	enhancement	critical	Keyword categorization (i.e. tagging) support	alpha 2
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix	alpha 1
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython	alpha 1
#2004	bug	high	--ExitOnFailure does not work if test/suite setup/teardown fails	alpha 2
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries	alpha 1
#1840	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Show keywords by tags	alpha 2
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3	alpha 1
#1965	enhancement	high	Support yaml files as first class variable file	alpha 2
#1976	enhancement	high	Support programmatic modifications of test data and results as part of normal execution	alpha 2
#1991	enhancement	high	Include Jython 2.7 in standalone jar	alpha 2
#293	enhancement	high	Support reloading library	alpha 2
#1611	bug	medium	Variable assignment should not be part of keyword name with --removekeywords, in logs, in listener interface, or in other APIs	alpha 2
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries	alpha 1
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop	alpha 1
#1992	bug	medium	Listeners are not unregistered when using TestSuite.run API	alpha 2
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8	alpha 1
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords	alpha 1
#1743	enhancement	medium	Make keyword prefix (library name) less visible than keywords in HTML reports	alpha 2
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword	alpha 1
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem	alpha 1
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)	alpha 1
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs	alpha 1
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API	alpha 1
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)	alpha 1
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables	alpha 1
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables	alpha 1
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.	alpha 1
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table	alpha 1
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access	alpha 1
#1935	enhancement	medium	Support keyword tags with --flattenkeywords and --removekeywords	alpha 2
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items	alpha 1
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry	alpha 1
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords	alpha 1
#1970	enhancement	medium	Enhance ROBOT_LIBRARY_LISTENER to accept a list of listeners	alpha 2
#1983	enhancement	medium	PYTHONPATH environment variable should not be processed with Jython or IronPython	alpha 2
#1998	enhancement	medium	Pass keyword and library names separately to listeners	alpha 2
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning	alpha 1
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes	alpha 1
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x	alpha 1
#2002	bug	low	Keyword and test names with urls or quotes create invalid html on log and report	alpha 2
#2003	bug	low	Checking is stdout/stderr stream terminal causes exception if stream's buffer is detached	alpha 2
#2019	bug	low	Execution directory should not be added to module search path (PYTHONPATH)	alpha 2
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options	alpha 1
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword	alpha 1
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation	alpha 1
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata	alpha 1
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword	alpha 1
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords	alpha 1
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option	alpha 1
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.	alpha 1
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option	alpha 1
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators	alpha 1
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values	alpha 1

Altogether 56 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 1

RF 2.9 alpha 1 is the first preview version of the forthcoming RF 2.9 release. It contains, for example, high priority enhancements related to variables and supports creating keywords with embedded arguments in test libraries. After this release the work continues with alpha 2 with keyword tagging and other interesting new features. All issues targeted for RF 2.9 can be found from the issue tracker.

Questions and comments related to this release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

We have not generated windows installers or standalone jar for this preview, but the source distribution is available from PyPI.

If you have pip just run pip install --update --pre robotframework to install or upgrade to the latest version or use pip install robotframework==2.9a1 to install exactly this version. For more details and other installation approaches see installation instructions.

Robot Framework 2.9 alpha 1 was released on Friday April 10, 2015.

Most important enhancements

Dictionary variable type (#1450)

The most noticeable feature in RF 2.9 is the new syntax to create and use dictionary (a.k.a map or hashtable) variables. Dictionaries can be returned from keywords or created in variable files, but they can also be created in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
&{DICT}    key=value    second=2    third=${3}

The above example will create a dictionary variable &{DICT} with Python dictionary {'key': 'value', 'second': '2', 'third': 3} as the value. If a dictionary variable is used as a scalar variable like ${DICT}, it will be passed forward as a single argument containing the whole dictionary. If it used like &{DICT}, individual items are passed as named arguments. For example, these two examples are equivalent:

*** Test Cases ***
Example 1
    My Keyword    key=value    second=2    third=${3}
Example 2
    My Keyword    &{DICT}

Individual dictionary variable items can be accessed either using special &{DICT}[key] syntax similarly as individual list variable items can be accessed like @{LIST}[0]. As a special feature, dictionary variables are ordered and allow accessing values also using attribute access like ${DICT.key}. For more information about dictionary variables, see Variables section the User Guide.

NOTE: RIDE editor does not currently support dictionary variables.

Python style **kwargs support with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax (#1561)

New dictionary variable syntax can be used with user keywords to accept free keyword arguments similarly as Python based keywords can accept **kwargs. This can be accomplished simply by having a dictionary variable like &{kwargs} as the last argument in user keyword argument specification:

*** Keywords ***
Run My Process
    [Arguments]    @{arguments}    &{configuration}
    Run Process    myproc.exe    @{arguments}    &{configuration}

Also this new functionality is explained with further examples in the User Guide.

Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries (#1818)

User keywords have supported embedded arguments since RF 2.1.1 (#370), and finally this functionality is supported also by library keywords. This is accomplished by giving a custom name to a keyword by setting robot_name attribute manually or by using robot.api.deco.keyword' decorator (#1835), and using${args}` in the name similarly as with user keywords. The implementing method or function must also accept same number of arguments as there are embedded argument.

from robot.api.deco import keyword

@keyword(name='User "${user}" selects "${item}" from webshop')
def select_item(user, item):
    # ...

The User Guide is, again, the place where to find more information and examples.

Other high priority enhancements and fixes

• Scalar and list variables stored in same namespace (#1905)
• Standard libraries do not mask third party Python modules (#1737)
• Fixed sporadic failures with timeouts on IronPython (#1931)

Backwards incompatible changes

Being a major release, RF 2.9 contains lot of changes and some of them are backwards incompatible.

List and scalar variables stored in same namespace (#1905)

It has been possible to use a list variable @{list} as a scalar variable ${list} since RF 2.0.3 (#117), and scalar variables containing lists have been usable as list variables since RF 2.8 (#483). It has, however, been possible to also create scalar and list variables with same base name, for example, in the variable table:

*** Variables ***
${VAR}    Scalar variable
@{VAR}    List    variable

This caused a lot of confusion, and the addition of &{dictionary} variables (#1450) would have made situation even more complicated. As a result it was decided to store all variables in the same namespace (#1905) and decide how they are used depending on the format (e.g. ${var} for scalar, @{var} for list, and &{var} for dictionary).

As a result of this change, tests using scalar and list variables with same base name will need to be updated. Unfortunately there is no other good way to detect these problems than running tests with the new version and seeing does anything break.

Standard libraries not importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix (#1737)

It used to be possible to import Robot Framework's standard libraries in Python code by just using the library name like import DateTime. This caused problems in with standard libraries having same name as third party Python modules like DateTime.

To avoid these problems, standard libraries are not anymore directly importable in Python code. They are still importable with the robot.libraries prefix like from robot.libraries import DateTime. This has also always been the recommended way and the one used in examples in the User Guide.

Disabling command line options accepting no values by using same option again not supported anymore

Earlier it was possible to disable options accepting no values like --dryrun by giving the option again like --dryrun --other options --dryrun. This was rather confusing, and nowadays it is possible to do that by using the same option with no prefix like --nodryrun instead (#1865). If option is used with and without the no prefix, the last used value has precedence. Having same option multiple times has no special functionality anymore.

Possible equal signs in arguments to BuiltIn.Call Method need to be escaped

Call Method nowadays supports **kwags (#1603) and thus possible equal signs in normal arguments need to be escaped with a backslash like hello\=world.

Unused internal functions, classes, etc. removed

See issue #1924 for a detailed list of changes to internal APIs. These changes should not affect libraries or tools using Robot Framework's public APIs.

Other backwards incompatible changes

These changes should generally not cause problems in real life. See linked issues for more details if you think you may be affected.

• Not possible to use keyword with embedded arguments as a normal keyword (#1962)
• When assigning keyword return values to multiple scalar variables, an exact number of values is required (#1910)
• Create Dictionary keyword moved from Collections to BuiltIn (#1913)
• Keyword name conflict involving Remote library keyword causes failure and not warning (#1815)
• Possibility to set scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword removed (#1919)
• Deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword removed (#1775)
• Deprecated --runmode option removed (#1923)
• Deprecated --xunitfile option removed in favor of --xunit (#1925)
• Deprecated way to exit for loops using custom exception with ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP attribute has been removed (#1440)

Deprecated features

Robot Framework 2.9 also deprecates some features that will be removed in the future releases. See linked issues for more details.

• OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword deprecated in favor of much more flexible Process.Start Process (#1773)
• Listener interface version 1.0 deprecated (#1841)
• --runfailed and --rerunmerge options deprecated in favor of --rerunfailed and --merge, respectively (#1642)
• Old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata deprecated (#1918)
• DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem officially deprecated (#1774)

Acknowledgements

Big thanks for Jared Hellman (@hellmanj) for implementing both support for embedded arguments with library keywords (#1818) and custom library keyword names (#1835) required by it.

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary
#1450	enhancement	critical	Dictionary variable type
#1561	enhancement	critical	Support Python style **kwargs with user keywords using &{kwargs} syntax
#1905	enhancement	critical	Store list and scalar variables in same namespace
#1737	bug	high	Standard libraries should not be importable in Python w/o robot.libraries prefix
#1931	bug	high	Timeouts can cause sporadic failures with IronPython
#1818	enhancement	high	Embedded arguments in keywords defined in test libraries
#1928	enhancement	high	Drop Python/Jython 2.5 support to ease adding support for Python 3
#1900	bug	medium	Log messages lost if library __init__ imports or initializes other libraries
#1908	bug	medium	Telnet option negotiation loop
#1440	enhancement	medium	Remove attribute ROBOT_EXIT_FOR_LOOP depracated in 2.8
#1603	enhancement	medium	Support **kwargs with BuiltIn.Call Method keywords
#1773	enhancement	medium	Deprecate OperatingSystem.Start Process keyword
#1774	enhancement	medium	Officially deprecate DeprecatedBuiltIn and DeprecatedOperatingSystem
#1826	enhancement	medium	Process: Better support on Jython 2.7 (termination, signals, pid)
#1835	enhancement	medium	Allow giving a custom name to keywords implemented using the static and the hybrid APIs
#1841	enhancement	medium	Deprecate old listener API
#1865	enhancement	medium	Support disabling command line options accepting no values using no prefix (e.g. --dryrun -> --nodryrun)
#1910	enhancement	medium	Require exact number of keyword return value when assigning multiple scalar variables
#1911	enhancement	medium	Accept list variable as a wildcard anywhere when assigning variables
#1913	enhancement	medium	Move Create Dictionary to BuiltIn and enhance to preserve order, allow accessing keys as attributes, etc.
#1914	enhancement	medium	Catenate cell values when creating scalar variable in variable table
#1927	enhancement	medium	Remote: Support accessing keys of returned dicts using attribute access
#1958	enhancement	medium	Log Many: Support logging &{dictionary} variable items
#1959	enhancement	medium	Wait Until Keyword Succeeds: Support giving wait time as number of times to retry
#1962	enhancement	medium	Disallow using keyword with embedded arguments as normal keywords
#1815	bug	low	Keyword name conflict involving Remote keyword should cause failure, not warning
#1906	bug	low	Free keyword arguments (**kwargs) names cannot contain equal signs or trailing backslashes
#1922	bug	low	Screenshot library causes deprecation warning with wxPython 3.x
#1642	enhancement	low	Deprecate --runfailed and --rerunmerge options
#1775	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated syntax for repeating single keyword
#1897	enhancement	low	Clean-up reference to RF 2.6 and older from User Guide and other documentation
#1918	enhancement	low	Deprecate old Meta: Name syntax for specifying test suite metadata
#1919	enhancement	low	Remove possibility to setting scalar variables with lists value using Set Test/Suite/Global Variable keyword
#1921	enhancement	low	More flexible syntax to deprecate keywords
#1923	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --runmode option
#1924	enhancement	low	Remove unused internal functions, classes, etc.
#1925	enhancement	low	Remove deprecated --xunitfile option
#1929	enhancement	low	OperatingSystem: Enhance documentation about path separators
#1945	enhancement	low	Enhance documentation of Run Keyword If return values

Altogether 39 issues. See on issue tracker.

Robot Framework 2.8.7

Robot Framework 2.8.7 is a new minor release with lots of enhancements and bug fixes. It was released on Friday January 16, 2015.

Installation packages are on PyPI. If you have pip available, just run pip install --upgrade robotframework to install the latest version. Otherwise see installation instructions.

Questions and comments related to the release can be sent to the robotframework-users and possible bugs submitted to the issue tracker.

Most important bug fixes

• Installation on Jython/Python 2.5 broken (#1842)
• Running Robot on thread failed (#1848)
• Testdoc broken (#1862)
• Failures in suite teardown ignored with --rerunfailed and when generating only report with Rebot (#1873)

Most important enhancements

• Libdoc: Support searching keywords by name, arguments, and keywords (#1872). See latest standard library docs for an example.
• Support floats in FOR IN RANGE loop (#1850)

Acknowledgements

This release has the biggest number of external contributions ever! Many thanks to Michael Walle for contributing Telnet.Read Until Prompt strip_prompt option (#1874), to Tero Kinnnunen for BDD 'But' prefix (#1878), to Heiko Thiery for log level config option for TelnetLibrary (#1879), to Nicolae Chedea for float parameters in FOR IN RANGE (#1850), and Guy Kisel for making tidy split ELSE, ELSE IF, and AND to own rows (#1273).

Also thanks to everyone else who has contributed with bug reports, feature requests, patches, and fixes.

Full list of fixes and enhancements

ID	Type	Priority	Summary
#1842	bug	critical	Installation broken with Jython/Python 2.5
#1848	bug	high	Running Robot Framework on thread fails because signal handlers cannot be registered
#1862	bug	high	Testdoc broken in 2.8.6
#1873	bug	high	Failures in suite teardown ignored with --rerunfailed and when generating only report with Rebot
#1872	enhancement	high	Libdoc: Support searching keywords by name, arguments, and keywords
#1821	bug	medium	TestSuite.run does not remove its log handler from the root logger
#1838	bug	medium	Results get same timestamps if multiple test runs executed programmatically
#1866	bug	medium	Variable file and listener arguments from command line cannot contain colons
#1867	bug	medium	Rebot does not preserve order of keywords and messages in output.xml
#1850	enhancement	medium	Support using floats in FOR IN RANGE loop
#1860	enhancement	medium	Redirect messages logged with robot.api.logger to Python logging when Robot is not running
#1878	enhancement	medium	Ignore also But BDD prefix
#1879	enhancement	medium	Telnet: Support configuring log level of telnetlib debug messages
#1273	enhancement	medium	Tidy should split ELSE, ELSE IF, and AND to own rows
#1859	bug	low	Cannot set __doc__ dynamically for library class
#1870	bug	low	Process w/ Jython 2.7: Terminate Process fails with IOError if standard streams are used
#1883	bug	low	Reloading report settings from hash fails on IE8
#1884	bug	low	Variables and escape sequences in suite doc not resolved in console output
#1845	enhancement	low	Document that when matching tags, AND, OR and NOT in tags themselves must be given as lower case
#1851	enhancement	low	UG: Improve documentation about using resource files with initialization files
#1861	enhancement	low	Process: Enhance documentation related to process arguments
#1864	enhancement	low	Testdoc: Support for creating link targets and opening them
#1874	enhancement	low	Add option to Telnet.Read Until Prompt to remove prompt from return value

Altogether 23 issues. See on issue tracker.