How to pass **kwargs values from Robotframework to python class

At times its become very confusing how to pass **kwargs values to robotframework.
In below post , i will try to explain you , how you can pass your **kwargs value to python class from robot file.

Lets suppose we have file Demo_kwargs.py , which accept  **kwargs value from the user.

Demo_kwargs.py

from subprocess import Popen, CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE,PIPE,STDOUT
import time
import subprocess
import datetime
import os


class Demo_kwargs:

        """Demo class"""

        def __init__(self,**kwargs):

                self.filters=''
                self.window_ip = kwargs.get('ip')
                #print type(self.window_ip)
                self.window_user= kwargs.get('username')
                self.window_password= kwargs.get('password')
                self.dest_path= kwargs.get('Target_path')
                self.interface= kwargs.get('interface')
                self.terminal='cmd'
                self.home=kwargs.get('Home_path')


        def test(self):
            print 'Checking kwargs .....'
            return self.window_ip

Now let's call this file from python file  'Data.py'

Data.py

from Demo_kwargs import *

SERVER_01 = Demo_kwargs(
        name='WIRESHARK_ENV91',
        ip='192.168.1.16',
        username=r'INTRA\pmmm',   #always prepend r , before giving your username and password
        password='jan@2018',
        prompt='$ ',
        autostart=False,
        unzip_capture=True,
        filter='',
        #interface=['ens2f0'],
        interface='Ethernet',
        Target_path=r'D:\Users\pankaj-m\Desktop\Test'
        )

print SERVER_01.test()

output would be

Checking kwargs .....

192.168.1.16

This work absolutely fine with python

But what if you have created this class to be used as library in robotframework and you need to use the  value of ip,username,password in  your robot scripts  .

Lets create a robot file (check.robot) and see how it goes

check.robot

*** Settings ***  
 Library  Demo_kwargs.py  
 *** Test Cases ***  
 Test  
   check  
 *** Keywords ***  
 check  
   ${abc} =  test  
   log to console  ${abc}  

If you run this code, all you would get is 'None',because you never passed any values to class Demo_kwargs.

However, lets modify our scripts little bit

 *** Settings ***  
 Library  Demo_kwargs.py  ip='10.20.20.20'  WITH NAME  Mylib  
 *** Variables ***  
 ${window_ip }  
 #&{names} = Create Dictionary  0=First Name  2=Email  
 *** Test Cases ***  
 Test  
   check  
 *** Keywords ***  
 check  
   ${abc} =  test  
   log to console  ${abc}

If you run this code , you will see the output would be

==============================================================================
Check
==============================================================================
Test                                                                  '10.20.20.20'
| PASS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now lets use all the three files ( Demo_kwargs.py,Data.py,check.robot) to do our task

We will use Data.py  as --variable file,lets modify our script (check.robot)

check.robot

*** Settings ***  
 Library  Demo_kwargs.py  ip=${SERVER_01.window_ip}  username=${SERVER_01.window_user}  password=${SERVER_01.window_password}  Target_path=${SERVER_01.dest_path}  interface=${SERVER_01.interface}  Home_path=${SERVER_01.home} WITH NAME  Mylib  
 *** Variables ***  
 ${window_ip }  
 #&{names} = Create Dictionary  0=First Name  2=Email  
 *** Test Cases ***  
 Test  
   check  
 *** Keywords ***  
 check  
   ${abc} =  test  
   log to console  ${abc}  

run command now :

pybot -V Data.py check.robot

Output

==============================================================================
Check
==============================================================================
Test                                                                  '10.20.20.20'
| PASS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you pass Data.py with -V i.e. --variablefile option , it stores all the variable values with reference of object Server_01

You can then pass each object like above to get the desired result