feat: add STATUS enum for MAPDL state management (#4221)

* feat: add STATUS enum for MAPDL state management

* chore: adding changelog file 4221.added.md [dependabot-skip]

* refactor: change STATUS class to inherit from str and Enum2

* test: update check_status assertion to reflect running state

---------

Co-authored-by: pyansys-ci-bot <92810346+pyansys-ci-bot@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: germa89

doc/changelog.d/4221.added.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add STATUS enum for MAPDL state management

src/ansys/mapdl/core/mapdl_core.py

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 """Module to control interaction with MAPDL through Python"""
 
+from enum import Enum
 from functools import wraps
 import glob
 import logging
@@ -233,6 +234,12 @@
 ]
 
 
+class STATUS(str, Enum):
+    EXITED = "exited"
+    EXITING = "exiting"
+    RUNNING = "running"
+
+
 def parse_to_short_cmd(command):
     """Takes any MAPDL command and returns the first 4 characters of
     the command
@@ -472,18 +479,18 @@ def chain_commands(self):
         return self._chain_commands(self)
 
     @property
-    def check_status(self):
+    def check_status(self) -> STATUS:
         """Return MAPDL status.
         * 'exited' if MAPDL is exited
         * 'exiting' if MAPDL is exiting
-        * Otherwise returns 'OK'.
+        * Otherwise returns 'running'.
         """
         if self.exited:
-            return "exited"
+            return STATUS.EXITED
         elif self.exiting:
-            return "exiting"
+            return STATUS.EXITING
         else:
-            return "OK"
+            return STATUS.RUNNING
 
     @property
     def components(self) -> "ComponentManager":

tests/test_mapdl.py

@@ -2286,7 +2286,7 @@ def test_exiting(mapdl, cleared):
 
 
 def test_check_status(mapdl, cleared):
-    assert mapdl.check_status == "OK"
+    assert mapdl.check_status == "running"
 
     mapdl._exited = True
     assert mapdl.exited