Web test: This testing focuses on how well all parts of the web site hold together, whether inside and outside the website are working and whether all parts of the website are connected.
Testing Web Applications require background knowledge of how the web works and how the data are transferred when a browser requests information from a server. Testing web applications is more than just client/server testing; the usability, performance, portability, security and more as well as the functionality of each component of the web application.
When testing web applications, it is important to consider the following points:
- Web-enabled applications are meant to be stateless. HTTP was designed to be stateless. Each request from a Web-enabled application is meant to be atomic and not rely on any previous requests. This has huge advantages for system architecture and datacenter provisioning. When requests are stateless, then any server can respond to the request and any request handler on any server may service the request.
- Web-enabled applications are platform independent. The client application may be written for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and any other platform that is capable of implementing the command protocol and network connection to the server, although the server-side applications may be platform dependant.
- Web-enabled applications expect the client application to provide presentation rendering and simple scripting capabilities. The client application is usually a browser, however, it may also be a dedication client application such as a retail cash register, a Windows-based data analysis tool, of an electronic address book in your mobile phone.
Many developers and testers are making the transition from testing traditional client/server, PC, and/or
mainframe systems, to testing rapidly changing Web applications.
In next parts we will look at how to test web applications and what techniques to use at each test level.
