ROADMAP.md

RobotCore Project Roadmap

Usages

• Programmatic Usage (i.e. RemoteServer used as library in your application / runtime)
• Service inside ASP.NET (i.e. RemoteServer added as service to your ASP.NET server)
• Standalone Server (i.e. You launch the default RemoteServer executable)
• Dependency (i.e. You add the RemoteServer as NuGet package)

Server Information

• Status Page informing about loaded libraries and their keywords
• Robot Framework Library Documentation Format for each loaded Library

Type conversion support

• Robot Framework => RemoteServer (i.e. serialized parameters from RF)
  • General type support for parameters in keyword methods (all RF-supportable standard types of C# should be usable in keyword methods)
  • Python type conversions to parameter type of keyword method
    • Regular python types
      • None
      • string
      • int
      • float
      • bool
    • Special types
      • list, tuple
        • Handle regular python element types (listed above)
        • Handle nested list, tuple
        • Handle nested dict
        • other special cases to consider to be added here
      • dict
        • Handle regular python value types (listed above)
        • Handle text keys (string)
        • Handle numeric keys (int, float)
        • Handle object keys
        • other special cases to consider to be added here
• RemoteServer => Robot Framework (i.e. return values serialized to RF)
  • special types
    • null
    • void
    • dynamic
    • object
    • DateTime
    • enum
  • Symbol types
    • char
    • string
  • numeric types
    • int
    • uint
    • short
    • ushort
    • float
    • double
    • decimal
    • ulong
    • byte
    • sbyte
  • collection types
    • based on IList or ICollection
      • Array
      • ArrayList
      • List<T>
      • Queue
      • ConcurrentQueue<T>
      • LinkedList<T>
    • based on IDictionary
      • Hashtable
      • SortedList
      • SortedList<TKey, TValue>
      • Dictionary<string, TValue>
      • Dictionary<TKey, TValue>
      • ConcurrentDictionary<TKey, TValue>

Library types

• Static API Library
• Dynamic API Library

Remote Server Communication Features

• PASS
• FAIL
• CONTINUABLE
• FATAL
• Exceptions
  • Traceback
• Logging
• Finding keywords

Remote Server Library Features

• Library Attributes
• Keyword Attributes
• Support positional arguments
• Support kwargs
• Support variable arguments
• Support method overloading
• Support library class inheritance
• Support keyword documentation
• Support keyword tags
• Support code documentation

Remote Server Protocol (XML-RPC)

• Data type serialization
• Robot Framework Remote-Library-Interface specification
  • run_keyword()
  • get_keyword_names
  • get_keyword_arguments
  • get_keyword_types
  • get_keyword_tags
  • get_keyword_documentation
  • get_library_information

Remote Server Control

• Controls from Robot Framework
  • Start server
  • Stop server
• Controls in C#
  • Configure start / stop functionality (Allow)
  • Configure port (i.e. usage method in C# allows setting a server port)
  • Configure logging

CI/CD

• Merging strategy
• Dependency management
  • XML-RPC packages
  • Unit test framework
  • Robot Framework package for remote testing
  • Logging Framework
• NuGet-Packages
  • Sdk.props
  • Sdk.targets
• Standalone server (executable)
  • Windows
  • Linux
• Standalone server (Docker image)
  • Windows
  • Linux
• Testautomation
• Release Notes

RobotCore internal Tests (nunit)

• Performance testing

Robot Framework RobotCore Tests (atest)

• Verify Remote Server features
  • Start server
  • Stop server
  • Argument type conversion
  • Return value type conversion
  • Finding keywords
  • Variable arguments
  • kwargs
  • Logging
  • Traceback
  • Keyword status (PASS, FAIL, ...)
• Verify Static Library features
• Verify Dynamic Library features

Documentation

• Code structure
• Architecture

Usage Guides

• Wiki hosting
• Getting started
• FAQ
• Example programmatic usage
• Example ASP.NET service
• Example Standalone server
• Example NuGet usage
• Example Static Library
• Example Dynamic Library
• Example Robot Framework Usage
• Example Library Documentation

Support & Contribution Guides

• Issue templates
• Issue tags
• Codestyle
• Feedback loop (GitHub Discussions)

Maintenance

• C# Language versions
• .NET Core version updates
• Dependency management
• Refactor cycles

Development support

• Sponsoring (recurring)
• Sponsoring (single-donation)

Licensing

• Robot Framework Logo Usage?
• Appropriate copyright?

Marketing

• Project Name
• Project Logo
• README
• Repository tags
• RoboCon 2025 Material
  • Presentation slides
  • Hosted Live Demo Server
  • DevContainer for VSCode