Software Application Testing is a continuous ongoing effort. Testing needs to be performed through various dimensions of quality each pertaining to particular aspect in varying degrees. Let us discuss the parameters that should be met by a website before it is launched.

 

The different aspects of web testing checklist that needs to be met by a website can be listed as follows:

 

1) Functionality Testing: This process tests all the links in the web pages, databases connection and forms that have been used for providing or acquiring information from the user.  The following parameters are tested for in this category.

 

• Redirection URL Check: This includes checking

  • all the outgoing hyperlinks from all the pages in the website under test.

  • all internal links.

  • anchor links.

  • email submission links.

  • orphan pages.

  • broken links.

 

- Form Check: Forms are used to submit personal to transactional details. Hence, it is an integral part of the website to capture leads and complete transactions. Form Checking involves

• Form Field Validations.

• Default values of the fields.

• Check for wrong inputs, ex: filling in characters where numeric input needs to be provided.

• Options to create/delete/edit and view a form.

 

- Cookies Testing- Cookies are small files in user machines which are used to maintain sessions. The application needs to be tested by-

• Enabling and disabling the cookies in browser options.

• Checking Encrypted cookies before writing them in the user system.

• Checking login sessions and user statistics after the end of each session.

• Checking the effect on application security by deleting the cookies.

 

- HTML/CSS Validation- This check is very important for Search Engine Optimization.

• Check for HTML syntax errors.

• Check if the site can be crawled by search engines.

 

-Data Testing

• Checking data integrity and consistency while adding/editing/deleting the forms or its elements.

• Check all database related functionality.

• Check the execution of database queries.

• Check for correct data retrieval and data updation.

 

2) Usability Testing: It is a user centric testing which evaluates the application based on the process flow, navigation, layout speed and content.  The main parameters tested in this process is listed as follows:

 

-Test for Navigation – Navigation refers to the different control buttons, options and links on the pages that navigate to different pages. Navigation options should be

• Easy to use.

• Clarified through easy instructions.

• Main menu should be consistent and globally available to all the pages.

-Content Checking

• Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Spelling mistakes are a huge turn off for the users.

• Content should be logical, simple and meaningful.

• Images should be relevant to the context of the website and balance the text content.

• If printing options are provided then the font size, alignment and print layout should be checked. 

 

- Sitemap Validation – A sitemap is a very helpful page.

• It should feature all the links in the website.

• It should feature all the links in a proper tree structure.

• The links featured in this page should be checked.

 

3) Interface Testing: Browser, Application and Database, they form the three interfaces of a web application.  Check

- If all the errors returned by any interface are handled properly.

- Check for the interruptions in transactions and browser connections.

 

 4) Compatibility Testing: One of the most influencing aspect of a website is its compatibility with multiple browsers and its versions. Check for website compatibility in the following respect:

- Browser Compatibility:

- The website layout and coding should be uniformly displayed across all the browsers.

- The functionality of the JQuery and Ajax calls should be ensured on multiple browsers and their versions.

 

- Operating System Compatibility- Different components may have been implemented using elements and processes that may not be compatible with all the different versions of the operating systems. This calls for cross OS compatibility testing.

 

-Mobile Responsiveness: Websites are now accessed by mobile devices more than desktop PCs. Hence, website responsiveness, content layout, navigations and functionality should be compatible with the smart devices as well.

                  

5) Performance Testing: This process validates the responsiveness, speed, scalability and stability of a website. This process

- Measures the response times, throughput and the resource utilization by the web application.

- Validates the performance characteristics when subjected from normal to peak load conditions.

- Validates the performance of the website when subject to workload over an extended period of time.

     - Estimates the conditions under which the website is bound to fail.

     - Determines the number of users and transactions that can be supported by the application.

 

6) Security Testing checks the following cases

 

- Calling internal links directly through the browser. Ideally they should not be displayed.

- Submit the forms with invalid inputs.

- Access to the web files and directories without download options.

- CAPTCHA Testing.

- All activities log in the log file.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

A low quality website is not preferred by online users. Poor quality, broken links, faulty images and extended load times result into loss of customers, corporate image and  sales revenue. Therefore, quality assurance of websites needs to be performed comprehensively. With the emergence of automated testing, we now have better potential to meet the quality and reliability challenges in website testing. There are many free and paid automated testing tools that can be used for comprehensive testing.