Incompatibility with forthcoming RF 2.9 alpha 3

[pekkaklarck]

That I get this exception when using Selenium2Library with the latest Robot Framework code:

Importing test library 'Selenium2Library' failed: ImportError: cannot import name GLOBAL_VARIABLES
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Selenium2Library/__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
    from keywords import *
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Selenium2Library/keywords/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from _logging import _LoggingKeywords
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Selenium2Library/keywords/_logging.py", line 3, in <module>
    from robot.variables import GLOBAL_VARIABLES

Apparently the library uses Robot's internal GLOBAL_VARIABLES that we just we able to remove as part of robotframework/robotframework#532. I don't have time to investigate where and why GLOBAL_VARIABLES are used right now, but I hope the usage could be replaced with something else. I would assume variable related methods in BuiltIn could be used instead. A big benefit of them is that they are part of the public API and thus considered stable.

If it turns out to be hard to fix this on Se2Lib, we can consider adding GLOBAL_VARIABLES back for some time. Our general goal is to get rid of all/most global state like that to make the framework thread safe and easier to parallelize, though.

[pekkaklarck]

Notice that our plan is to get RF 2.9a3 released already tomorrow. I doubt a new Se2Lib version can be released before that. One possibility is that we add GLOBAL_VARIABLES back now, even as an empty dict or similar, and remove it in the next preview release.

[just-be-dev]

Um, I can do a minor update with just that in it if you consider it really critical.

[just-be-dev]

@pekkaklarck, No changes have went in since the 1.7.0 release, I'm more than willing to push out 1.7.1 with just this in it.

Would that be acceptable to you?

[jussimalinen]

I added GLOBAL_VARIABLES to robot.variables for backwards compatibility. robotframework/robotframework@75568dd

We would like to remove this in future, so a new release sooner rather than later would still be great.

[emanlove]

I think a 1.7.1 release would be justified.

[pekkaklarck]

1.7.1 release would be great but now that we added GLOBAL_VARIABLES back it's not urgent. Do you have something else planned for it that should be included? 1.7.1 some time next week would definitely be good enough for us.

[just-be-dev]

Well, I've already made the necessary changes. It wasn't actually listed in many places.

I've got other things planned, but there isn't any substantial changes planned until the next major release. 1.7.* stuff from here on in will be mostly documentation and test updates.

[just-be-dev]

This is fixed as of #431. I just need to bump the release which I can do in a few hours.

[pekkaklarck]

If creating 1.7.1 is not much work, getting it out ASAP would be awesome. We'll still keep GLOBAL_VARIABLES in RF 2.9a3 to give users some time to upgrade, but we will remove it once a3 is out.

[just-be-dev]

I'm working on it now. Having some difficulties with the build process though, I'll get back with you soon.

[just-be-dev]

@pekkaklarck, It's done now.

Sorry it took so long, I've been busy with work.

[SteveHarrison82]

Dear all, in 2.9b2 for the following setup I would like to report the following error:

A. OS: Windows version 7
B. Package installed:
a. Python 2.7.9 :: Anaconda 2.2.0 (64-bit)
b. robotframework-pageobjects==1.3.2
c. robotframework-selenium2library==1.7.1
d. robotframework==2.9b2

On iPython, on importing Page, I get the following error:

In [1]: from robotpageobjects import Page

C:\Users\rramasubramanian\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda\envs\rf29a3\lib\site-packages\robotpageobjects\context.py in ()
5 from robot import api as robot_api
6 from robot.conf import RobotSettings
----> 7 from robot.variables import init_global_variables
8 from robot.errors import DataError
9 from Selenium2Library import Selenium2Library

ImportError: cannot import name init_global_variables