Testing Web Applications

Objectives

 what to test in web applications.

 How to test in a web application.
 Functional and usability issues: functional testing,
usability testing, navigation testing, form testing,
and page content testing.
 Configuration and compatibility testing
 Reliability and availability testing
 Performance testing: scalability testing, load
testing, and stress testing.
 Security testing
 End-to-end transaction testing
 Database testing
 Post implementation testing
 Introduction
 Web-based applications present new challenges,
both for developers and testers. These challenges
include:
 Short releases cycles
 Constantly changing technology
 Possible huge number of users during initial website
launch
 Inability to control the user’s running environment
 24-hour availability of the website
 Any difficulty in response time, accuracy, or ease of
use will make the user to click on a competitor's
site.
Topology of a Web Site

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 The Need for Web Testing
 Is the site content meaningful?
 Is this application easy to use?
 How about browser compatibilities?
 How reliable is our technology?
 Do the Servers have enough power?
 How many visitors are we expecting?
 Are the machines fast enough?
 How much activity can the site handle?
 Functional and Usability
 The first tests for a website should focus on the
Issues
site’s intended behavior by assessing the
following issues:
 Functionality
 Usability
 Navigation
 Forms
 Page content
Why is Functionality Testing
Important?

Missing
image
Functional and Usability Issues:
Functional Testing
 Functional testing involves making sure
features that most affect user interactions work
properly. These include:
 Forms
 Searches
 Popup windows
 Shopping carts
 Online payments
 Functional testing evaluates the content of
dynamically generated pages and verifies many
behind the scene (connections to database)
Functional and Usability Issues:
Usability Testing
 Usability testing assesses the website’s user
friendliness and suitability by gathering
information about how users interact with the site.
 The key to usability testing is to study what a
user actually does.
 Usability testing steps:
 Identify the website’s purpose
 Identify the intended users
 Define tests and conduct the usability testing
 Analyze the acquired information
Functional and Usability Issues:
Navigation Testing
 Good navigation is an essential part of a
website, especially those that are complex and
provide a lot of information.
 Most users expect the following:
 Easy and quick access to the information they want
 Logical hierarchy of pages
 Confirmation of where they are at any point
 Facility to return to previous states or the homepage
 Consistent look and layout of every page
Functional and Usability Issues:
Forms Testing
 Websites that use forms need to be tested to
ensure that each field works properly and that the
form posts all data as intended by the designers.
 Testing forms include the following actions:
 Using the tab key to verify that the form traverses fields
in the proper order, both forward and backward
 Testing boundary values
 Checking that forms traps invalid data correctly,
especially data and numeric formats
 Verifying that the form updates information correctly
Functional and Usability Issues:
Page Content Testing
 Each web page must be tested for correct
content from the user perspective.
 These test fall into two categories:
 Ensuring that each component functions correctly
 Ensuring that the content of each is correct
 Configuration and Compatibility
 Testing
A key challenge in web applications is ensuring
that the user sees a web page as the designer
intended:
 The user can select different browser software and
browsers options.
 Use different network software and online service
 Run concurrent applications
 Compatibility testing ensures product
functionality and reliability on the supported
browsers and platforms that exist on the
customer computer.
Configuration and Compatibility
Testing (Cont.)
 Guideline for testing web applications (by
listing the platform and browser
environments to be tested).
 Reliability and Availability
 A key requirement of a website is that:
 It is available whenever the user requests it, often 24
hours a day, every day.
 The number of users accessing a website simultaneously
may also affect the site’s availability.
 To assess availability, the tester must build tests
around anticipated usage spikes which can include:
 For store applications: promotional campaigns and sales
 For business cycles: month-end and quarter-end dates
 For banking applications: direct deposit dates
 During maintenance: required downtime for backups,
upgrades, and other operations.
Performance

 Performance testing evaluates system

performance under normal and heavy usage.
 Website performance is crucial to the
success of any web application.
 Performance tests:
 Scalability testing
 Load testing
 Stress testing
Performance: Scalability
Testing
 Scalability concerns the website’s ability to
handle the volumes and types of activities
that can occur after launch.
 The following types of scenarios affect
scalability:
 How closely the test environment matches the
production environment
 Millions of users accessing the site during launch
 Activity spikes due to marketing promotions
Performance: Load Testing

 The purpose of load testing is to model real

world experiences, typically by generating
many simulations users accessing the
website.
 Load testing may need to be repeated at
least once.
 Performance: Stress Testing
 Stress testing consists of subjecting the system to
varying and maximum loads to evaluate the
resulting performance.
 Stress testing can be automated. Tools can report
the following type of information:
 Number of requests, transactions and kilobyte/second
 Round trip time (time from the user makes a request to
the time that the users receives the result)
 Number of concurrent connections
 Degradation of performance
 Types of visitors to the site and their number
 CPU and memory usage of the application server
Security Testing

 Security is a primary concern when

communicating and conducting business
especially sensitive and business critical
transactions over the internet.
 Regardless whether the application requires
the user to enter a password to access the
website, the tester must check for internet
threats.
End-to-end Transaction
Testing
 End-to-end transactions follow the
workflow to the customer from beginning of
the visit until the customer leaves the site.
Database Testing

 Database testing is an essential part of the

web testing.
 Key issues include:
 Data integrity (no data corruption)
 Data validity (accurate information provided to the
customer and accurate information passed back
to the database)
 Data manipulation and updates (updating the
number of books sold, books available, ...)
Post-Implementation Testing

 Post-implementation testing verifies the

behavior of the application in the production
environment.
 It is not feasible to duplicate the test
environment to match the production
environment.
 Post-implementation testing takes place in a
“production maintenance window”.
 Key Points
 Testing web applications present new challenges.
 Functional and usability tests focus on the site’s
intended behavior:
 Functional testing asserts whether the main features
function correctly.
 Usability testing evaluates whether a site is user friendly
by observing users as they interact with the site.
 Testing a form ensures that each field works properly.
 Navigation testing ensures that the user can accomplish
the desired tasks by verifying access to pages, images,
links, and other page components.
 Testing page content ensures that the information
provided by the website is correct.
 Key Points
 Configuration and compatibility testing make
sure that the application functions correctly
across the various hardware and software
environments.
 Reliability and availability testing assesses
whether the website is accessible whenever the
users request it by testing around anticipated
peak usage such as marketing promotions and
high-activity cycles.
 Key Points (Cont.)
 Performance testing ensures that the website
server responds to browser requests within defined
parameters. As part of performance testing:
 Scalability testing assesses the website's ability to meet
the load requirements.
 Load testing evaluates how the system functions when
processing many simultaneous requests from a multitude
of users.
 Stress testing subjects the system to varying loads.
 Security testing aims to check for internet threats or
protect sensitive information.
Key Points (Cont.)

 End-to-end transaction testing tests all parts

that make up a particular transaction by
following a customer's workflow from entering
to leaving the site.
 Database testing verifies the integrity, validity
and manipulation and updates of the data.
 Post-implementation testing verifies an
application's behavior in the production
environment.