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There are several approaches to unit testing SAF-based applications. Two popular techniques are direct Action invocation and testing interceptors and result-types independantly.

Direct Action Invocation

The simplest approach is to instantiate your Actions, call the appropriate setters, then invoke execute. Calling the Action directly allows you to bypass all the complicated container setup.

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package org.petsoar.actions.inventory;

import com.mockobjects.constraint.IsEqual;
import com.mockobjects.dynamic.C;
import com.mockobjects.dynamic.Mock;
import com.opensymphony.xwork.Action;
import junit.framework.TestCase;
import org.petsoar.pets.Pet;
import org.petsoar.pets.PetStore;

public class TestViewPet extends TestCase {
    private Mock mockPetStore;
    private ViewPet action;

    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
        mockPetStore = new Mock(PetStore.class);
        PetStore petStore = (PetStore) mockPetStore.proxy();

        action = new ViewPet();
        action.setPetStore(petStore);
    }

    public void testViewPet() throws Exception {
        Pet existingPet = new Pet();
        existingPet.setName("harry");
        existingPet.setId(1);

        Pet expectedPet = new Pet();
        expectedPet.setName("harry");
        expectedPet.setId(1);

        mockPetStore.expectAndReturn("getPet", C.args(new IsEqual(new Long(1))), existingPet);
        action.setId(1);

        String result = action.execute();

        assertEquals(Action.SUCCESS, result);
        assertEquals(expectedPet, existingPet);
        mockPetStore.verify();
    }

    public void testViewPetNoId() throws Exception {
        mockPetStore.expectAndReturn("getPet", C.ANY_ARGS, null);

        String result = action.execute();

        assertEquals(Action.ERROR, result);
        assertEquals(1, action.getActionErrors().size());
        assertEquals("Invalid pet selected.", action.getActionErrors().iterator().next());
        assertNull(action.getPet());
        mockPetStore.verify();
    }

    public void testViewPetInvalidId() throws Exception {
        action.setId(-1);
        testViewPetNoId();
    }
}

Testing Interceptors and/or Result Types

Check out the test suites in XWork and SAF. These suites are comprehensive and provide a good starting point. Here's an example.

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Yes. Struts 2 provides built-in support for JUnit 3.8 via an abstract StrutsTestCase, which provides common Struts variables and setup code. To learn what approaches you can take when testing your Struts Actions, see How can we test Actions.