Robotframework: Appending to test message using HTML doesn't work if old message is not HTML

[StephanMath]

I would like insert a line between test messages :
Set Test Message | *HTML* Insert line here<hr> | append=True
But when i use optional argument 'append=True', message appear in text format. 

(Test with robotframework 3.0.2)

[laurentbristiel]

I did some testing around this and the problem is a little bit more complex.
What I see is that "Set Test Message" with HTML formatting AND append=yes does not work when appending on a "test message" that is not HTML formatted.

1) this would work:
Set Test Message *HTML* custom message<hr>after the line<BR> Set Test Message *HTML* and another custom message append=True

2) but this would indeed not work properly
Set Test Message custom message Set Test Message *HTML* and another custom message in <HR> with a line append=True
=> In that case you would get : custom message *HTML* and another custom message in <HR> with a line

3) note that appending Test Message with HTML formatting in Test Teardown with an error message coming from Robot (in case of failure) would not work neither because Robot Message is not HTML formatted.

@StephanMath do you agree with this analysis?

All that being said, I don't know how Robot should managed cases where HTML should be append to non-HTML... Looks quite difficult. Maybe we should just document that HTML with append works only when appending to HTML?

[pekkaklarck]

Seems to be a variation of #2360. Shouldn't be overly complicated to fix.

[StephanMath]

@laurentbristiel I confirm your analysis.
So I understand I can use "Set Test Message" keyword in HTML format with argument "append=True" only if all test messages in one testcase use HTML formatting.
Thank you for your explanations.

[StephanMath]

@pekkaklarck Thank you for your change with a title more explicit :)

[pekkaklarck]

No need to close this. I consider the current behavior a bug that ought to be fixed.