In the previous tutorial, we created and tested our first scenario. In that scenario, we didn't define any actors. In this tutorial, we explicitly define multiple actors to participate in the process.
Defining actors
Each actor plays a specific role in the scenario. We'll tie the actor to a particular user (or team) when creating the process. We define two actors for the handshake 'initiator' and 'recipient' and give each actor a title.
Create file handshake.yaml (or handshake.json) in the scenarios directory.
We want the two actors to interact in the form of a simple greeting:
Initiator: Hi, how are you?
Recipient: Fine. How about you?
Initiator: Fine
The initiator will still complete the process, but from the initial state, it will first do a greeting, expecting a reply. We'll add these 2 states where these can be performed. First, the initiator waits on the recipient and then visa versa.
We use the by property to specify which actor can perform the action in that state.
Scenario
handshake.yaml
actors:
initiator:
title: Initiator
recipient:
title: Recipient
states:
initial:
on: greet
by: initiator
goto: wait_on_recipient
wait_on_recipient:
on: reply
by: recipient
goto: wait_on_initiator
wait_on_initiator:
on: complete
goto: (success)
We see that we transition from the "initial" state to "wait_on_recipient", then wait on "initiator" and finally to successful completion of the process.
Test case
Create file handshake.feature in the features directory.
handshake.feature
Feature: Two actors greet each other
Background:
Given the process is created from the "handshake" scenario
And "Bob" is the "initiator" actor
And "Eve" is the "recipient" actor
Scenario:
When "Bob" does "greet"
Then the process is in "wait_on_recipient"
When "Eve" does "reply"
Then the process is in "wait_on_initiator"
When "Bob" does "complete"
Then the process ended
Choose to ignore
Let's give the recipient a choice to either reply or ignore the greeting. If he chooses to ignore the greeting the process will have failed.
Scenario
For the "wait_on_recipient" state we define two transitions. Both can only be performed by the "recipient" actor.
handshake.yaml
actors:
initiator:
title: Initiator
recipient:
title: Recipient
states:
initial:
on: greet
by: initiator
goto: wait_on_recipient
wait_on_recipient:
transitions:
- on: reply
by: recipient
goto: wait_on_initiator
- on: ignore
by: recipient
goto: (failed)
wait_on_initiator:
on: complete
by: initiator
goto: (success)
We can add a new Scenario section in our test file to test the path in the process where the recipient "Jane" ignores the greeting.
handshake.feature
Feature: Two actors greet each other
Background:
Given the process is created from the "handshake" scenario
And "Bob" is the "initiator" actor
And "Eve" is the "recipient" actor
Scenario:
When "Bob" does "greet"
Then the process is in "wait_on_recipient"
When "Eve" does "reply"
Then the process is in "wait_on_initiator"
When "Bob" does "complete"
Then the process ended in "success"
Scenario:
When "Bob" does "greet"
Then the process is in "wait_on_recipient"
When "Eve" does "ignore"
Then the process ended in "failed"
You can have multiple Scenario sections. The Background is run before each Scenario.
