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Alpha-Centauri-00 opened this issue Sep 21, 2023 · 1 comment
Open

Colored Text in Terminal [Enhancement] #4878

Alpha-Centauri-00 opened this issue Sep 21, 2023 · 1 comment

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@Alpha-Centauri-00
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Alpha-Centauri-00 commented Sep 21, 2023 •
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"Log To Console" Keyword is useful to address some values or debugging, but if the text in Terminal is colored, it would be great!


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@BarbeRousseLibre
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BarbeRousseLibre commented May 15, 2025 •
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Hello,

EDIT: This is made for UNIX like system, specifically here on Gentoo Linux. Don’t know how to achieve the same thing for Windows.

I do agree with you, I would like to see something Built-In for such.

Currently I am working on it and it is actually possible to drop colors in your output, please see my screenshot (Robotframework + SeleniumLibrary + DataDriver).

Image

To do that, it’s not very difficult but do makes your code looks like spaghetti… This is how I do it, for now:

1/ First, I declare the BASH’s color into variable in my resources.robot file:

# Logging colors and variables used for improving readability
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_BLACK}=           \\33[30m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_RED}=             \\33[31m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_GREEN}=           \\33[32m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_YELLOW}=          \\33[33m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_BLUE}=            \\33[34m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_MAGENTA}=         \\33[35m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_CYAN}=            \\33[36m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_GRAY}=      \\33[37m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_GRAY}=            \\33[90m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_RED}=       \\33[91m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_GREEN}=     \\33[92m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_YELLOW}=    \\33[93m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_BLUE}=      \\33[94m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_MAGENTA}=   \\33[95m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_CYAN}=      \\33[96m
${FOREGROUND_COLOR_WHITE}=           \\33[97m

${BACKGROUND_COLOR_GRAY}=            \\33[40m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_RED}=             \\33[41m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_GREEN}=           \\33[42m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_YELLOW}=          \\33[43m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_BLUE}=            \\33[44m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_CYAN}=            \\33[45m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_WHITE}=           \\33[46m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_GRAY}=            \\33[47m
${BACKGROUND_COLOR_GRAY}=            \\33[48m

${STYLE_FONT_RESET}=                 \\33[0m
${STYLE_FONT_BOLD}=                  \\33[1m
${STYLE_FONT_FAINT}=                 \\33[2m
${STYLE_FONT_ITALIC}=                \\33[3m
${STYLE_FONT_UNDERLINED}=            \\33[4m

Then I also define pre-colored new variables:

${CLR_NORMAL}=                       ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_WHITE}
${CLR_INFO}=                         ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_YELLOW}${STYLE_FONT_FAINT}
${CLR_ON}=                           ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_MAGENTA}${STYLE_FONT_BOLD}
${CLR_OFF}=                          ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_MAGENTA}${STYLE_FONT_FAINT}
${CLR_OK}=                           ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_GREEN}${STYLE_FONT_BOLD}
${CLR_WRN}=                          ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_YELLOW}${STYLE_FONT_BOLD}
${CLR_CRI}=                          ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_RED}${STYLE_FONT_BOLD}
${CLR_TAG}=                          ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_CYAN}${STYLE_FONT_FAINT}
${CLR_VAL}=                          ${FOREGROUND_COLOR_LIGHT_GREEN}${STYLE_FONTFAINT}

Once it is made, in my actual test cases .robot’s file I can use them like this:

${msg_required_field}=                      Evaluate        "\\n${CLR_OK}All required fields are present before initiating this test case.${STYLE_FONT_RESET}"
    Log To Console                              ${msg_required_field}

As you can see on my screenshot, it works very well. BUT.

Let me shows now how unreadable could your code be after you started using this…:

    Input Text                                  ${target_1_id}   ${target_1_data}
    ${target_1_message}=                        Evaluate         "\\n${CLR_INFO}Filling:${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_TAG}${target_1_id}${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_INFO}with:${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_VAL}${target_1_data}${STYLE_FONT_RESET}${CLR_INFO}.${STYLE_FONT_RESET}"
    Log To Console                              ${target_1_message}

And in my actual example, I’ve more than a dozen of these, it’s awful to read (another example):

    ${next_test_initialisation_message}=        Evaluate  "${CLR_INFO}Page was reloaded from:${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_VAL}${current_location}${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_INFO}to${STYLE_FONT_RESET} ${CLR_VAL}${URL_FORM}${STYLE_FONT_RESET}${CLR_INFO}.${STYLE_FONT_RESET}\\n\\n${CLR_OK}Location and Title are correct as expected.${STYLE_FONT_RESET}\\n\\n${CLR_WRN}Next test, if any, will be initiated now.${STYLE_FONT_RESET}"
    Log To Console                              ${next_test_initialisation_message}

It works, but there is several cons to this method:

1/ This is absolutely not easy to reproduce for any other message you want to log to console.
2/ Very easy to add mistake by accident.
3/ Poor maintainability.
4/ Now trying to "copy/paste" this way in my other 7 testing cases… is a pure hell :).
5/ Each modification (you want to change anything beside the colors defined for any ${CLR_*} ask you to repeat it each time you use it in each file. It’s hell. Not good.

I’m currently trying to write a keywords doing this, but I struggle with Evaluate and Log To Console behavior once I try to set this method out of my actual test file.

So yeah, you can already do it (at least on UNIX alike), but it’s painful.

I hope this is helping anyone wondering.

Regards,
GASPARD DE RENEFORT Kévin

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@BarbeRousseLibre @Alpha-Centauri-00