A flight-booking system may serve travelers, while call center staff handle requests the website cannot. Identifying only “the user” can hide these different goals and workflows. An actor names a person, external system, or process whose interaction with the system matters. section 4.3.3 section 14.2.2
Actors help answer two related questions:
- In impact mapping, who can help achieve—or prevent—a business goal? Identify people affected by the outcome, including those for whom a change may be inconvenient, before choosing features. section 4.3 section 4.3.3
- In a Screenplay test, who performs each activity? An actor pursues a goal through business-level tasks, rather than being defined by a screen or a sequence of clicks. section 12.2 section 12.4
Make a multi-person workflow explicit
A loan application needs a client to apply and bank employees to review and approve or reject it. Giving each participant an actor keeps their activities distinct. For a simpler flight-booking test, a traveler can attempt a BookAFlight task expressed in business terms; its interactions can then be reused within other tasks. section 12.1 section 12.4
In test automation, an actor needs abilities to use an interface, such as browsing the web or calling an API. A Cast prepares actors and makes them available by name across scenario steps. Use a shared configuration when actors need the same abilities; use a custom Cast when personas need distinct details or credentials. section 12.10.1 section 14.2.3
Listing 14.1 Configuring a generic cast of actors to use Playwright
import { BeforeAll, AfterAll } from '@cucumber/cucumber'
import { configure, Cast } from '@serenity-js/core'
import { BrowseTheWebWithPlaywright } from '@serenity-js/playwright'
import * as playwright from 'playwright'
let browser: playwright.Browser
BeforeAll(async () => { #1
browser = await playwright.chromium.launch({ #2
headless: true,
})
configure({ #3
actors: Cast.whereEveryoneCan(
BrowseTheWebWithPlaywright.using(browser), #4
)
})
})
AfterAll(async () => { #5
await browser.close()
})
This configuration gives every actor the same Playwright-backed web-browsing ability before scenarios run. section 14.2.2
