Robot Framework with VS Code and RF Language Server

 Installing Visual Studio Code and Robot Framework Language Server 

Robot framework scripts are plain text files.

It is possible to write Robot Framework scripts in any text editor like Notepad, but you might make small mistakes that could be hard to catch. Proper tools are also available to make your life easier. 

These tools are very helpful especially when you’re starting afresh. 

One such tool is Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio code is available for many platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac.

An alternative is IntelliJ PyCharm IDE but in this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to setup VS Code for creating Robot Framework automation scripts. 

I’ll launch the browser and download Visual Studio Code

Let’s install it. You'll need to agree to the terms and conditions.

We'll select all options on “Select Additional Tasks”  and click Next then click Install.

I’ll leave checked the “Launch Visual Studio Code” option and click Finish

Visual Studio Code will open after you click the finish button.

Maximize the VS Code window and click the Extensions icon on the left side.

Search for “Robot Framework Language Server Extensions” and install it

After this search for “Python” in plugins and install the one from Microsoft. 

When the installation is finished, we’ll be good to start work with Robot Framework but there is one small pre-requisite we still have to download to run automation.

I'll show that to you in my next article.

Stay tuned. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

All articles in the Robot Framework Test Automation series

1. Introduction to Robot Framework, Test Automation, and RPA Tool
2. Installing RobotFramework, RobotFrameworkSelenium, Python on your PC & updating Pip
3. Robot Framework with VS Code and RF Language Server
4. The role of browser driver in test automation and downloading Google ChromeDriver to use with Selenium and Robot Framework