PRACTICAL 8 :- TESTING OF A WEBSITE

Web Testing or website testing is checking your web application or website for potential bugs
before it’s made live and is accessible to general public. Web Testing checks for functionality,
usability, security, compatibility, performance of the web application or website.

In Software Engineering, the following testing types/technique may be performed depending on

your web testing requirements.

1. Functionality Testing of a Website

Functionality Testing of a Website is a process that includes several testing parameters like user
interface, APIs, database testing, security testing, client and server testing and basic website
functionalities. Functional testing is very convenient and it allows users to perform both manual
and automated testing. It is performed to test the functionalities of each feature on the website.
Web based Testing Activities includes:
Test all links in your webpages are working correctly and make sure there are no broken links.

2. Usability testing:

Usability Testing has now become a vital part of any web based project. It can be carried out by
testers like you or a small focus group similar to the target audience of the web application.

Test the site Navigation:

Menus, buttons or Links to different pages on your site should be easily visible and consistent on
all webpages
Test the Content:
• Content should be legible with no spelling or grammatical errors.
• Images if present should contain an “alt” text

3. Interface Testing:

Three areas to be tested here are – Application, Web and Database Server

• Application: Test requests are sent correctly to the Database and output at the client side
is displayed correctly. Errors if any must be caught by the application and must be only
shown to the administrator and not the end user.
• Web Server: Test Web server is handling all application requests without any service
denial.
• Database Server: Make sure queries sent to the database give expected results.

Test system response when connection between the three layers (Application, Web and
Database) cannot be established and appropriate message is shown to the end user.
4. Database Testing:

Database is one critical component of your web application and stress must be laid to test it
thoroughly. Testing activities will include-

• Test if any errors are shown while executing queries

• Data Integrity is maintained while creating, updating or deleting data in database.
• Check response time of queries and fine tune them if necessary.
• Test data retrieved from your database is shown accurately in your web application

5. Compatibility testing.

Compatibility tests ensure that your web application displays correctly across different devices.
This would include-
Browser Compatibility Test: Same website in different browsers will display differently. You
need to test if your web application is being displayed correctly across browsers, JavaScript,
AJAX and authentication is working fine. You may also check for Mobile Browser
Compatibility.
The rendering of web elements like buttons, text fields etc. changes with change in Operating
System. Make sure your website works fine for various combinations of Operating systems such
as Windows, Linux, Mac and Browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari etc.

6. Performance Testing:

This will ensure your site works under all loads. Software testing activities will include but not
limited to –

• Website application response times at different connection speeds

• Load test your web application to determine its behavior under normal and peak loads
• Stress tests your web site to determine its break point when pushed to beyond normal
loads at peak time.
• Test if a crash occurs due to peak load, how does the site recover from such an event
• Make sure optimization techniques like zip compression, browser and server side cache
enabled to reduce load times

7. Security testing:

Security Testing is vital for e-commerce website that store sensitive customer information like
credit cards. Testing Activities will include-

• Test unauthorized access to secure pages should not be permitted

• Restricted files should not be downloadable without appropriate access
• Check sessions are automatically killed after prolonged user inactivity
• On use of SSL certificates, website should re-direct to encrypted SSL pages.
8. Intruder

Intruder is a powerful vulnerability scanner that will help you uncover the many weaknesses
lurking in your web applications and underlying infrastructure. Offering industry-leading
security checks, continuous monitoring and an easy-to-use platform, Intruder keeps businesses of
all sizes safe from hackers.

9. Crowd Testing:

You will select a large number of people (crowd) to execute tests which otherwise would have
been executed a select group of people in the company. Crowd sourced testing is an interesting
and upcoming concept and helps unravel many a unnoticed defects.