Can't access dictionary with dot notation in Robotframework

Question

I have embedded dictionaries like this:

${json}=    Create Dictionary ......(value pairs)
${request}= Create Dictionary   body=${json}
${return}=  Create Dictionary   request=${request}

I can access original key-value pairs like for example this:

${return.request.body.type}

It all works fine. However, I get this error:

Resolving variable '${detail_call.response.json.type}' failed: AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'type'

When I try to create the initial json object vice-versa - by decoding it from string like this:

${decoded_json}=    Run Keyword And Ignore Error    json.JSONDecoder.Decode ${response.content}
${response.json}=   Set Variable If '${decode_status}' == 'PASS'    ${decoded_json} ${null}
${detail_call}=    Create Dictionary    response=${response}

and accessing it via dot notation:

${detail_call.response.json.type}

When I log the string, I can clearly see there is key "type" with a value assigned. It even works when I access it with brackets:

${detail_call.response.json['type']}

Do you have any idea, why I can't use dot notation if the dictionary was created with JSONDecoder?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As millimoose suggested, JSONDecoder returns python dictionary which is different from robotframework's own dictionary. I haven't found official way to convert python dict to robot dict so I have implemented my own:

Convert Python Dictionary
[Arguments]    ${python_dict}
[Documentation]    Converts Python dictionary to Robot dictionary.
@{keys}=    Get Dictionary Keys    ${python_dict}
${robot_dict}=    Create Dictionary
:FOR    ${key}    IN    @{keys}
\    Set To Dictionary    ${robot_dict}    ${key}=${python_dict['${key}']}
[Return]    ${robot_dict}

In case you need to convert robot dict to python dict, you can use Convert To Dictionary keyword from Collections library.