WEB APPLICATIONS TESTING

Introduction
The instant worldwide audience of any Web Browser Enabled Application -- a Website -- makes its quality and reliability crucial factors in its success. Correspondingly the nature of Websites and Web Applications pose unique software testing challenges. Webmasters Web applications de!elopers and Website quality assurance managers need tools and methods that meet their specific needs. "echani#ed testing !ia special purpose Web testing software offers the potential to meet these challenges. $ur technical approach based on e%isting Web browsers offers a clear solution to most of the technical needs for assuring Website quality. Websites impose some entirely new challenges in the world of software quality& Within minutes of going li!e a Web application can ha!e many thousands more users than a con!entional nonWeb application. The immediacy of the Web creates immediate e%pectations of quality and rapid application deli!ery but the technical comple%ities of a Website and !ariances in the browser make testing and quality control that much more difficult and in some ways more subtle than 'con!entional' client(ser!er or application testing. Automated testing of Websites is an opportunity and a challenge.

Dimensions of Quality
There are many dimensions of quality) each measure will pertain to a particular Website in !arying degrees. *ere are some common measures+ Timeliness+ Websites change often and rapidly. *ow much has a Web,ite changed since the last upgrade- *ow do you highlight the parts that ha!e changed ,tructural .uality+ *ow well do all of the parts of the Web,ite hold together- Are all links inside and outside the Web,ite working- /o all of the images work- Are there parts of the Web,ite that are not connected Content+ /oes the content of critical pages match what is supposed to be there- /o key phrases e%ist continually in highly-changeable pages- /o critical pages maintain quality content from !ersion to !ersion- What about dynamically generated *T"0 1/*T"02 pages Accuracy and Consistency+ Are today3s copies of the pages downloaded the same as yesterday3s- Close enough- 4s the data presented to the user accurate enough- *ow do you know 5esponse Time and 0atency+ /oes the Web,ite ser!er respond to a browser request within certain performance parameters- 4n an e-commerce conte%t how is the end-to-end response time after a ,6B"4T- Are there parts of a site that are so slow the user discontinues working 7erformance+ 4s the Browser --8 Web --8 eb,ite --8 Web --8 Browser connection quick enough- *ow does the performance !ary by time of day by load and usage- 4s performance adequate for e-commerce applications- Taking 9: minutes -- or maybe e!en only 9 minute -- to respond to an e-commerce purchase may be unacceptable&

Im act of Quality
.uality remains is in the mind of the Web,ite user. A poor quality Web,ite one with many broken pages and faulty images with Cgi-Bin error messages etc. may cost a lot in poor customer relations lost corporate image and e!en in lost sales re!enue. ;ery comple% disorgani#ed Web,ites can sometimes o!erload the user.

The combination of Web,ite comple%ity and low quality is potentially lethal to Company goals. 6nhappy users will quickly depart for a different site) and they probably won3t lea!e with a good impression.

Bro!ser"
The browser is the !iewer of a Web,ite and there are so many different browsers and browser options that a well-done Web,ite is probably designed to look good on as many browsers as possible. This imposes a kind of de facto standard+ the Web,ite must use only those constructs that work with the ma<ority of browsers. But this still lea!es room for a lot of creati!ity and a range of technical difficulties. And multiple browsers3 renderings and responses to a Web,ite ha!e to be checked.

Dis lay Tec#nolo$ies"

What you see in your browser is actually composed from many sources+ *T"0. There are !arious !ersions of *T"0 supported and the Web,ite ought to be built in a !ersion of *T"0 that is compatible. This should be checkable. =a!a =a!a,cript Acti!e>. $b!iously =a!a,cript and =a!a applets will be part of any serious Web,ite so the quality process must be able to support these. $n the Windows side Acti!e> controls ha!e to be handled well. Cgi-Bin ,cripts. This is link from a user action of some kind 1typically from a ?$5" passage or otherwise directly from the *T"0 and possibly also from within a =a!a applet2. All of the different types of Cgi-Bin ,cripts 1perl awk shell-scripts etc.2 need to be handled and tests need to check 'end to end' operation. This kind of a 'loop' check is crucial for e-commerce situations. /atabase Access. 4n e-commerce applications you are either building data up or retrie!ing data from a database. *ow does that interaction perform in real world use- 4f you gi!e in 'correct' or 'specified' input does the result produce what you e%pect- ,ome access to information from the database may be appropriate depending on the application but this is typically found by other means. Na%i$ation" 6sers mo!e to and from pages click on links click on images 1thumbnails2 etc. @a!igation in a Web,ite is often comple% and has to be quick and error free. O&'ect (ode" The display you see changes dynamically) the only constants are the 'ob<ects' that make up the display. These aren3t real ob<ects in the $$ sense) but they ha!e to be treated that way. ,o the quality test tools ha!e to be able to handle 650 links forms tables anchors buttons of all types in an 'ob<ect like' manner so that !alidations are independent of representation. Ser%er )es onse" *ow fast the Web,ite host responds influences whether a user 1i.e. someone on the browser2 mo!es on or gi!es up. $b!iously 4nter@et loading affects this too but this factor is often outside the Webmaster3s control at least in terms of how the Web,ite is written. 4nstead it seems to be more an issue of ser!er hardware capacity and throughput. Aet if a Web,ite becomes !ery popular -- this can happen o!ernight& -- loading and tuning are real issues that often are imposed -- perhaps not fairly -- on the Web"aster. Interaction * +eed&ac," ?or passi!e content-only sites the only real quality issue isa!ailability. ?or a Web,ite that interacts with the user the big factor is how fast and how reliable that interaction is. Concurrent -sers" /o multiple users interact on a Web,ite- Can they get in each others3 wayWhile Web,ites often resemble client(ser!er structures with multiple users at multiple locations a Web,ite can be much different and much more comple% than comple% applications.

+unctionality Testin$"
Test for - all the links in web pages database connection forms used in the web pages for submitting or getting information from user Cookie testing. C#ec, all t#e lin,s"

Test the outgoing links from all the pages from specific domain under test. Test all internal links. Test links <umping on the same pages. Test links used to send the email to admin or other users from web pages. Test to check if there are any orphan pages. 0astly in link checking check for broken links in all abo!e-mentioned links.

Test forms in all a$es" ?orms are the integral part of any web site. ?orms are used to get information from users and to keep interaction with them. ,o what should be checked on these forms ?irst check all the !alidations on each field. Check for the default !alues of fields. Wrong inputs to the fields in the forms. $ptions to create forms if any form delete !iew or modify the forms.

Coo,ies testin$" Cookies are small files stored on user machine. These are basically used to maintain the session mainly login sessions. Test the application by enabling or disabling the cookies in your browser options. Test if the cookies are encrypted before writing to user machine. 4f you are testing the session cookies 1i.e. cookies e%pire after the sessions ends2 check for login sessions and user stats after session end. Check effect on application security by deleting the cookies. .alidate your /T(L0CSS" 4f you are optimi#ing your site for ,earch engines then *T"0(C,, !alidation is !ery important. "ainly !alidate the site for *T"0 synta% errors. Check if site is crawl able to different search engines. Data&ase testin$" /ata consistency is !ery important in web application. Check for data integrity and errors while you edit delete modify the forms or do any /B related functionality. Check if all the database queries are e%ecuting correctly data is retrie!ed correctly and also updated correctly. "ore on database testing could be load on /B we will address this in web load or performance testing below.

-sa&ility Testin$"
Test for na%i$ation" @a!igation means how the user surfs the web pages different controls like buttons bo%es or how user using the links on the pages to surf different pages. 6sability testing includes+ Web site should be easy to use. 4nstructions should be pro!ided clearly. Check if the pro!ided instructions are correct means whether they satisfy purpose. "ain menu should be pro!ided on each page. 4t should be consistent. Content c#ec,in$" Content should be logical and easy to understand. Check for spelling errors. 6se of dark colors annoys users and should not be used in site theme. Aou can follow some standards that are used for web page and content building. These are common accepted standards like as 4 mentioned abo!e about annoying colors fonts frames etc. Content should be meaningful. All the anchor te%t links should be working properly. 4mages should be placed properly with proper si#es.

These are some basic standards that should be followed in web de!elopment. Aour task is to !alidate all for 64 testing Ot#er user information for user #el " 0ike search option sitemap help files etc. ,itemap should be present with all the links in web sites with proper tree !iew of na!igation. Check for all links on the sitemap. B,earch in the siteC option will help users to find content pages they are looking for easily and quickly. These are all optional items and if present should be !alidated.

Interface Testin$"
The main interfaces are+ Web ser!er and application ser!er interface Application ser!er and /atabase ser!er interface. Check if all the interactions between these ser!ers are e%ecuted properly. Errors are handled properly. 4f database or web ser!er returns any error message for any query by application ser!er then application ser!er should catch and display these error messages appropriately to users. Check what happens if user interrupts any transaction in-between- Check what happens if connection to web ser!er is reset in between-

Com ati&ility Testin$"

Compatibility of your web site is !ery important testing aspect. ,ee which compatibility test to be e%ecuted+ Browser compatibility $perating system compatibility "obile browsing 7rinting options

Bro!ser com ati&ility" 4n my web-testing career 4 ha!e e%perienced this as most influencing part on web site testing. ,ome applications are !ery dependent on browsers. /ifferent browsers ha!e different configurations and settings that your web page should be compatible with. Aour web site coding should be cross browser platform compatible. 4f you are using <a!a scripts or A=A> calls for 64 functionality performing security checks or !alidations then gi!e more stress on browser compatibility testing of your web application. Test web application on different browsers like 4nternet e%plorer ?irefo% @etscape na!igator A$0 ,afari $pera browsers with different !ersions. OS com ati&ility" ,ome functionality in your web application is may not be compatible with all operating systems. All new technologies used in web de!elopment like graphics designs interface calls like different A74Ds may not be a!ailable in all $perating ,ystems. Test your web application on different operating systems like Windows 6ni% "AC 0inu% ,olaris with different $, fla!ors. (o&ile &ro!sin$" This is new technology age. ,o in future "obile browsing will rock. Test your web pages on mobile browsers. Compatibility issues may be there on mobile. Printin$ o tions" 4f you are gi!ing page-printing options then make sure fonts page alignment page graphics getting printed properly. 7ages should be fit to paper si#e or as per the si#e mentioned in printing option.

Performance testin$"
Web application should sustain to hea!y load. Web performance testing should include+ Web 0oad Testing Web ,tress Testing Test application performance on different internet connection speed. 4n !e& load testin$ test if many users are accessing or requesting the same page. Can system sustain in peak load times- ,ite should handle many simultaneous user requests large input data from users ,imultaneous connection to /B hea!y load on specific pages etc. Stress testin$" Eenerally stress means stretching the system beyond its specification limits. Web stress testing is performed to break the site by gi!ing stress and checked how system reacts to stress and how system reco!ers from crashes. ,tress is generally gi!en on input fields login and sign up areas. 4n web performance testing web site functionality on different operating systems different hardware platforms is checked for software hardware memory leakage errors

Security Testin$"
?ollowing are some tests for web security testing+ Test by pasting internal 650 directly into browser address bar without login. 4nternal pages should not open. 4f you are logged in using username and password and browsing internal pages then try changing 650 options directly. 4.e. 4f you are checking some publisher site statistics with publisher site 4/F 9GH. Try directly changing the 650 site 4/ parameter to different site 4/ which is not related to log in user. Access should deny for this user to !iew others stats. Try some in!alid inputs in input fields like login username password and input te%t bo%es. Check the system reaction on all in!alid inputs. Web directories or files should not be accessible directly unless gi!en download option. Test the CA7TC*A for automates scripts logins.

Test if ,,0 is used for security measures. 4f used proper message should get displayed when user switch from non-secure http+(( pages to secure https+(( pages and !ice !ersa. All transactions error messages security breach attempts should get logged in log files somewhere on web ser!er.