Real-Time Web Testing: Ensuring Website Integrity and Performance

The Internet is indispensable in today’s world and has become an essential part of our life.

With the dawn of mobiles, the internet is vastly used in searching for information and for intellectual works. Not only the internet, but even the website has also become important and compulsory. It is the foremost step in staying ahead and appropriate in today’s marketplace.

The website has been there since the advent of the Internet and the growing number of security and coding flaws has given birth to Website Testing.

What is Website Testing?

The web applications and websites before being hosted live and after being pushed to live must be tested for potential errors and bugs. There are various types of testing. The real time testing has gained importance for testing websites as it allows the tester to interact and test the website in real time. Users can test the website in various ways for finding out bugs before they are spotted by the users.

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The relevance of real time web testing is that it gives security, quality, and performance and ensures there are no programming errors.

Various types of Website testing are

1. User Acceptance Testing
2. Functionality Testing
3. Performance Testing
4. Boundary Testing
5. Security Testing
6. Compatibility Testing.
7. Usability Testing
8. Website Design Testing

Let’s understand each one of this in detail.

User Acceptance Testing

This testing is generally the last step in the SDLC cycle and real time Web Testing. UAT, as it is called in short, is acceptance of the web applications by the customer and will generally end in customer sign-off.

This testing involves generally the testing of the User Interface with the given business need of the customer. This testing is necessary because there is a trade-off between the website design functionality and the budget for web applications development. The importance of this testing is that customer has reviewed and is satisfied by the webpages and website.

Functionality Testing

In functionality testing, the complete website must be tested for internal and external links. Also, the connection must be tested to ensure a connection with the database. Forms for submission of data by the user must be tested. Also, functionality testing includes website cookie testing. This testing emphasizes the relevance of all the functionality in the website.

Checking the Links

• Test the external Links
• Test the internal Links - Test the internal links on the same pages which jumps to another section on the same pages.
• Test for email links
• Check for non-connected pages.
• Check for broken or not connected links

Checking the forms

Forms are important and most mandatory part of the web pages. Forms are used for exchanging information.

Forms checking involve

1. Output validation
2. Input validation
3. Default messages
4. Default safe fail-over messages and links
5. Default values in the fields.
6. Dynamic creation of forms by the user.

Cookie Testing

Cookies are tiny files stored on the user computer. These are used for login sessions and for transactions sessions. The website applications must be tested for enabling and disabling the cookies in the browser. Need to ensure that the cookies are encrypted always and deleted after the sessions end.

Types of WebPages

It is important to test and validate the server-side scripting in the website such as PHP, JavaScript etc. and then client-side scriptings such as HTML, CSS and DHTML. Check the connections and syntax errors. Also, do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with the help of search tags.

Database Testing

A database conngection must be evaluated and then tested for data to be added, deleted, modified and appended in the Database.

Performance Testing

The website thus designed must withstand heavy load during production. Therefore must be tested for Website Load Testing which involves the number of users it can connect to during the peak time/load and the number of users accessing particular web pages simultaneously. This also involves testing the amount of data accessed and the connection speed of the user to resolve the website at the given time.

Web Stress Testing involves constant load and performance of the web server that includes CPU, Memory as well as the ability to withstand the load. This testing emphasizes the need for performance is not compromised and websites function efficiently.

Boundary Testing

This testing involves connection of the website with the various Browsers, Operating Systems, Hardware’s, Devices, Servers and Database. Generally, this testing is significantly important and thus the loading of the WebPages on the above mentioned must happen accurately with easy navigation and good appearance. The importance of this testing is that there are no broken connectivity between the webpages, emails and links.

Security Testing

There are various steps involved in security testing. The importance of the security testing is that it ensures that the website is secure by all means and common attacks and Zero-day attacks can be prevented. They are as follows:-

1. Input and Output validation which is covered earlier
2. Encryption of User and calculated Values while in transmission and rest in the Database.
3. Types of Connection such as SSL etc
4. Logging of the common user and website functionality
5. CAPTCHA for detecting that the websites are not accessed by Bots or Automated Scripts.
6. HTTPS for website certificates and secure websites.
7. All types of dubious transactions, Errors, Breaches and Attacks must be prevented and logged for future investigation.

The common way of approaching this is by

1. Vulnerability Assessments
2. Penetration Testing
3. Password Breaking Tools
4. Network Scanning
5. Malware Detection
6. Log Reviews
7. Integrity Checkers.

Compatibility Testing

This type of testing is similar to Boundary Testing and it test whether the websites are compatible with Users Devices such as Laptops, Desktops and Mobiles, OS and Browsers. In Boundary testing we check for interfaces, however, in this, we check the compatibility. Safe Fail Over for transactions and default errors must be tested. This is done through testing the websites for any compatibility issues before the websites are launched in production. The relevance of compatibility testing is that it ensures that website operates in all new circumstances and all the relevant technologies.

Website Design Testing

Here the website is tested for any design level flaws such as multi-scripting, integrity with the database and any transaction flaws. This ensures that the design of the website is optimum and relevant to the changing technologies and future requirements.

Let see another set of Real Time testing classification in detail

Static Testing

This testing is carried out while the websites are in static and not in the server. This also is part of the real time testing. The importance of Static testing is that this gives secure and quality design during the SDLC phases and website is secure in the standby mode. The following are required,

1. Testing the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
2. Checking of fonts, font sizes and colors etc.
3. Checking the links
4. Checking the contents in the webpage
5. Checking the images
6. Checking the tabs and scrollbars
7. Checking the forms
8. Checking the URL’s and Email addresses
9. Checking the privacy page and copyright of the information
10. Checking the CAPTCHA module

Dynamic Testing

This testing involves the real time testing of the websites in the development servers and production servers. The relevance of Dynamic Testing is to establish that the website is functioning properly in the development and production server before hosting it live. The following steps are included.

1. Real time testing of links and interfaces
2. The load testing
3. Regression Testing
4. Website Navigation Testing
5. Database accessibility and interaction testing
6. Forms testing
7. Field Validation etc.

Mobile Testing

In Mobile Testing, websites are tested in the various Mobile browsers. There are two different distinctions in this namely the Mobile Website and the Responsive Website. The responsive websites are those which fit in the size of the device instead of creating a new version. Whereas the Mobile websites are once that create a new version when in new devices. This testing ensures that the webpages are compatible and functions properly in all the mobile devices.

E-Commerce Testing or Transaction Testing

The e-commerce websites are those which trade items and services for the sake of monetary transactions. The pages need encryptions to transact and must be verified for placing the order and for banking transactions. This generally involves the front end which is HTML/CSS and middle-end server scripts and then backend database connection. This must be tested in real time. This testing ensures that the tests are performed on the websites which engages in the monetary transactions. This may be in mobile devices, net banking or credit/debit card transactions.

Conclusion

The real time web testing involves the above all the things and is mandatory before the website to be launched successfully. The real time web testing has grown in recent years and has attained great importance and relevance. This article is written in order to provide various insights in real time web testing. It may be concluded that various types of real time web testing described above are important and ensures that the website operates properly when released to the internet.