Web Application Testing Guide


We can all agree that in today's fast-paced, competitive world, the internet has become an indispensable component of our daily lives.

Because most of us nowadays make decisions based on information found on the internet, having a website is no longer an option but a requirement for all types of organizations. It's the first step toward becoming and being market-relevant.

It is insufficient to simply have a website. A company is required to create an informative, accessible, and user-friendly website. To retain all of these traits, the website should be thoroughly examined, which is referred to as web testing.

What is Web Testing?

Web testing is a type of software testing that involves checking websites or web apps for problems. It's the process of thoroughly testing web-based apps before they go online. Web testing examines the web application or website for functionality, usability, security, compatibility, and performance.

During this stage, topics such as web application security, site functionality, accessibility for handicapped and regular users, and traffic handling capacity are examined. Before going live for end-users, a web-based system must be thoroughly tested from beginning to end. A company may ensure that a web-based system is running effectively and can be accepted by real-time users by conducting website testing. The commanders of website testing are the UI design and functionality.

Checklist for Web Testing

  • Functionality Testing
  • Usability Testing
  • Interface testing
  • Compatibility testing
  • Performance testing
  • Security testing

Web testing principles stated on this page can be practiced with the following tools −

CrossBrowserTesting

With their cloud-based real device lab, CrossBrowserTesting enables you to perfect every web experience on any browser or mobile device. Get rid of your virtual machines and device lab. Run manual, visual, and Selenium tests on 2050+ real desktop and mobile browsers in the cloud.

=> Go to CrossBrowserTesting webpage

LoadNinja

LoadNinja allows you to check your web application with real browsers at scale, using test scripts that can be replayed immediately after recording, resulting in actionable browser-based performance data that can be used to isolate issues and debug mistakes in real-time.

=> Go to LoadNinja webpage

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is a scalable cloud-based cross-browser testing platform for cloud infrastructure that supports all websites and web apps.

With manual, visual, and automated testing, the LambdaTest platform make sure that your online app elements (such as JavaScript, CSS, HTLM5, Video, and so on) render consistently across all desktop and mobile web browsers. You may use LambdaTest to test up to 2000 different combinations of desktop and mobile browsers in the cloud.

=> Go to the LambdaTest webpage.

Following are the different types of testings that are to be carried out.

Functionality Testing

What is Functional Testing and How Does It Work?

Testing a product's features and operating behavior to confirm they meet its standards. Testing that overlooks a system's or component's internal mechanisms and focuses entirely on the outputs produced in response to specific inputs and execution conditions.

What is Functional Testing's Purpose or Goal?

Functional testing's purpose is to ensure that your product meets the functional specifications specified in your development documents.

All links on websites should be checked, as well as database connections, forms for submitting or receiving data from users on web pages, cookie testing, and so on.

Cookie Evaluation:

Cookies are tiny files that are saved on the user's computer. These are primarily used to keep track of sessions, particularly login sessions. By enabling or disabling cookies in your browser's settings, you can test the application.

Before writing to the user's system, make sure the cookies are encrypted. Check for login sessions and user metrics after the session finishes if you're testing session cookies (i.e. cookies that expire after the session ends). By deleting the cookies, you can see how it affects the application's security.

Check your HTML/CSS for errors:

HTML/CSS validation is the most crucial factor to consider when optimizing your site for search engines. Validate the site mostly for HTML syntax issues. Check to see if the site can be crawled by various search engines.

Testing Databases:

In a web application, data consistency is also critical. While editing, deleting, or modifying forms, or doing other DB-related tasks, check for data integrity and errors.

Check that all database queries are correctly executed, and that data is retrieved and updated. More on database testing could be a burden on the database; we'll cover this in the section below on web load or performance testing.

Usability testing:

Usability testing is now a required component of any web-based project. It can be done out by testers like you or a small focus group that is representative of the web application's intended audience

Examine the website's navigation − On all of your website's pages, menus, buttons, and links to different pages should be clearly visible and stable.

Examine the Content − There should not be any spelling or grammatical mistakes in the content. If images are given, then they should have an "alt" text.

Interface Testing

Application, Web, and Database Server are the three areas to be tested here.

  • Test queries are correctly given into the database, and client-side output is correctly shown. If there are found any errors, they must be detected by the application and shown exclusively to the admin, not the end-user.

  • Test the web server All application requests are handled by the webserver without any service denials.

  • Check that queries issued to the database return the intended results.

  • When the connection between the three levels (Application, Web, and Database) cannot be created, the system responds by displaying an appropriate message to the end-user.

Database Testing

Your web application's database is a key component, and it must be fully tested. The given activities are parts of the testing process −

  • Check to see if there are any issues appearing while running queries.

  • When creating, updating, or deleting data in a database, data integrity is conserved.

  • Examine query reply timing and fine-tune them if it is necessary.

  • Your web application accurately shows test data recovered from your database.

Testing for Compatibility

Compatibility testing makes sure that your web application works satisfactorily on a variety of devices. This would include the following

Browser Compatibility Test: The same website will appear differently in various browsers. You must make sure that your online application is shown appropriately across all browsers, that JavaScript, AJAX, and authentication are all functioning accurately. You can also see if your browser is compatible with mobile devices.

With each change in the Operating System, the rendering of web elements such as buttons, text fields, and so on changes. Ensure that your website is suited to a variety of operating systems, that are Windows, Linux, and Mac, as well as browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

Performance Testing

This will guarantee that your site functions properly under all load conditions. Activities for software testing will comprise of but are not bound to −

  • Response time of website at different network speeds

  • Test your web application under typical and peak loads to see how it reacts.

  • Test your website to see where it breaks when it's subjected to higher-than-normal loads during peak hours.

  • Test how the site retrieves from a crash produced by maximum load.

  • To reduce load times, make sure optimization techniques like gzip compression, browser, and server-side cache are enabled.

Security Testing

For e-commerce websites that contain sensitive client information such as credit cards, security testing is essential. The given activities are parts of the testing process −

  • Unauthorized access to secure pages should not be allowed during testing.

  • if not having appropriate access, private files should not be downloaded.

  • After a period of not using, sessions should be automatically terminated.

  • When SSL certificates are utilized, the website should be redirected to SSL pages that are encrypted.

Crowd Testing:

You'll choose a huge group of people (the crowd) to carry out tests that would otherwise be carried out by a small group of people in the firm. Crowdsourced testing is the latest and exciting concept that can aid uncover numerous previously undetected flaws.

Some Test Scenario

A few other things to think about when evaluating a website are listed below.

  • What is the server's expected load (for example, the number of hits per unit time)?

  • What level of performance is necessary for each loading scenario (for example, web server response time and database query response time)?

  • What kind of performance testing tools will be required (e.g., web load testing tools, other in-house tools that can be customized, web robot downloading tools, etc.)?

  • What is the target audience? Who is the intended audience? It'll be interesting to see what browsers they use. They will be using what kind of connection speeds. Internet-wide or intra-organizational (high connection speeds and similar browsers)?

  • As an example, how fast should pages load, and how quickly should animations and applets run?

  • Server and content maintenance/upgrades will require a period of downtime. If so, then how much money will you be spending?

  • What methods will be used to validate and update internal and external links? And how often do you do it? Is it going to happen?

  • Is testing possible on the production system, or will it necessitate the use of a separate test system?

Updated on: 19-Aug-2021

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