Robot Framework Electron & VS Code

Robot Framework libraries for testing Electron applications and VS Code extensions, built on the Browser library:

• robotframework-electron (Electron) starts Electron applications. Their windows are ordinary Browser pages, and every Browser keyword works on them.
• robotframework-vscode (VSCode) downloads VS Code and starts isolated instances with the extension under test, for end-to-end tests of VS Code extensions.

The libraries provide the technique: starting the application and handing its windows to Browser. What to click and which locators to use belongs to your tests.

Documentation: https://robotcodedev.github.io/robotframework-electron-vscode/

Status

The libraries are in a pilot phase, at version 0.1.0, and not yet published on PyPI.

They need a small hook in the Browser library, adoptContext, which lets a Browser extension hand a Playwright context that it created itself to the Browser library. The hook is not part of a Browser release yet. Until it is, this repository takes robotframework-browser from a local clone with the hook.

Development

The repository is a uv workspace with both libraries in packages/, the documentation site in docs/, and planned and archived changes in openspec/. AGENTS.md describes how to set up the Browser clone. Then, from the repository root:

uv sync                                            # install the workspace with the dev tools
uv run pytest                                      # unit tests
uv run robotcode -r . robot                                  # acceptance tests on the desktop, configured in robot.toml
uv run robotcode -r . -p xvfb robot                          # hidden on a Full HD Xvfb screen (Linux)
uv run robotcode -r . -p xephyr robot                        # in a separate Xephyr window (Linux)
uv run robotcode -r . -p xvfb -p electron-previous robot     # against an older Electron major
uv run robotcode -r . -p xvfb -p vscode-insiders robot       # against the newest VS Code Insiders

• The display profiles need Xvfb (xvfb or xorg-server-xvfb) and, for xephyr, Xephyr (xserver-xephyr or xorg-server-xephyr); with Openbox (openbox) installed, windows can be maximised there.

• The acceptance tests download Electron and VS Code into the repository's .cache/. To use local executables instead, set ELECTRON_EXECUTABLE or VSCODE_EXECUTABLE in a personal, gitignored .robot.toml:

  [variables]
  VSCODE_EXECUTABLE = "/path/to/code"

• The test Application And Web Browser needs Chromium for Playwright in the Browser clone, and the video tests need Playwright's ffmpeg: PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0 npx playwright install chromium there installs both.

• To run the VS Code tests against a fork, point VSCODE_EXECUTABLE at it and leave out the tests that check VS Code's own behaviour:

  uv run robotcode -r . -p xvfb robot -v VSCODE_EXECUTABLE:/opt/vscodium/codium -e vscode-only -bl "Electron & VSCode.VSCode"

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Read the Contribution Guide, the AI and Automated Contribution Policy and the Code of Conduct first, and report security problems as described in the Security Policy.

License

Mozilla Public License 2.0