Recording videos of tests using Castro in Python

Castro is a widely used tool in the Selenium community to record videos of test runs in Python. This tool works differently than ScreenRecorder or Microsoft Expression Encoder.

Castro is based on a cross-platform screen recording tool named Pyvnc2swf (http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/pyvnc2swf.html). It captures a screen using the VNC protocol and generates a Shockwave Flash (SWF) movie file.

With VNC protocol support, we can record a video from a remote machine with Castro. It needs a VNC program installed on the machine to record the videos, though.

Getting ready

1. Install Castro using easy_install or the pip tool from the command line:

   • easy_install Castro or

   • pip install Castro

2. Install/enable VNC :

   • On Windows, you need to install the VNC program. TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com/) will be a good choice. Install the TightVNC server and viewer on Windows.

   • On Ubuntu, go to Settings | Preference | Remote Desktop and check the Allow other...