Some of the top ways to do web testing in 2022

Nowadays more and more front and back-office applications and services are migrating from desktops to a single technology that is web-based interfaces. With each line of written code, the chance for potential bugs arises which can entirely ruin the app user experience. Truly speaking the later you find the bug the more the costs of fixing them increase. So it is important to find and resolve bugs or issues early by testing website across different browser and OS combinations.

It is essential to thoroughly test the web applications to avoid web issues like broken links, security, difficult navigation, etc, and maintain the application's quality. If the application testing runs smoothly, that means the app is successfully working and is ready to be released.

Here we will discuss and learn about the crucial components for successful web app testing. We will start with the definition then we will proceed to its importance, different types, and different ways to do web testing.

Web Testing

Website testing or web app testing is a testing practice that evaluates whether the applications or website's functionality and quality are working as intended or as per the requirements. It identifies all the potential issues, and defects, in a web application's functionality including issues with usability, compatibility, security breaches, and integration issues. Etc. It also checks for environmental challenges, general performance, bugs, and load traffic before the application becomes available to the users.

No one will want to run the testing again and again on immediate problems upon the release and invest resources in terms of time and money that have already been spent while developing web applications. That is why Web testing plays a crucial role in assembling any web application or website.

It is a well-defined and organized process that helps web testers to ensure fast and efficient test cases for their websites and applications. It verifies that the web applications are functioning correctly, and users get seamless and positive experiences when using them.

Why Is Web Testing essential?

Web testing decides the success and failure of a website. Without proper testing, there is a high probability that errors make their way to the final version of the site, and end users may report issues. The chances of losing users will also be higher. Providing bug-free and smoothly running applications catches new users that eventually drive revenue generation.

Website testing is essential following the development of a feature of an application because without a proper web testing phase applications cannot be labeled as bug-free.

Web testing can help identify and fix web application defects before they cause users problems. There are many different aspects that are checked and reviewed in web application testing, such as website security, functionality, usability, accessibility, performance, and others to maintain the proper functioning of the website.

In case of any issues or loopholes, the web application testing tools will find even the minute errors in the web applications and help the developers to fix them in no time. Delivering high-quality applications can only be possible by performing web testing so that developers can ensure that their application does not have critical flaws.

The compromised quality of an application puts a negative impact on the organization's standing. Rigorous web testing protects an organization's reputation. This testing also helps in avoiding problematic features such as broken links, blank pages, malfunctioning buttons, and many more.

Performance Testing

This testing measures the performance of the application when the demands from the users are high. It evaluates the time taken by a user to perform various actions on the application. This is done by putting the application under stress. That means pushing it to its limits and seeing how it responds.

Security Testing

Security is one of the most important aspects of any application. Because a web application may contain user’s sensitive information, like personal, financial, and medical data records. so it is a must to ensure that the application is secure and is hack-proof. Security testing helps find out weak security points in your application.

Ways to test web applications

Web application testing can be performed both manually and automatically. To Create a top-notch web application testers need to run a lot of testing which can be tedious and time-consuming if performed manually. For this reason, testers rely on automation so that they can save time and effort on monotonous tasks.

Lack of proper and effective web application automation testing results in bugs or errors in websites, which impairs their usability and readability. As a result, end-users end up using such web apps. This may result in the loss of valuable customers. Thus, organizations should leverage test automation for their web testing to ensure seamless and uninterrupted website performance to the end-users.

By automating web application tests loads of repetitive testing tasks shift from humans to machines. Automated tests help in executing tests continuously or at scheduled intervals. It also lets the testers compare real-world outcomes with predicted ones to ensure there remain no discrepancies. Ridding testers of tedious and routined tasks enables them to create faster, more efficient, and more reliable test cases for web applications. and focus on exploratory testing and other tests that require a human perspective.

It’s also important to keep in mind that automated testing does not totally eliminate manual testing. Not every test case can be automated in every testing pipeline, the manual testing has an important role to play.

Different Types of Websites

Different types of web testing are needed for different types of websites, some of them are discussed below.

●     Simple Static Website Testing

They are often informational type websites that do not offer a lot of functionality or interactive experience. Testing of this type of website provides the same content to every user no matter when and from where they are visiting the website.

●     Dynamic Website Testing

This type of website offers an interactive experience where the user can change and update the content on a regular basis.

●     E-Commerce Website

These are the dynamic types of websites where the application's primary purpose remains to deliver a smooth shopping experience. In this type of web testing, the tester's main focus stays on ensuring the end-to-end functionality of the transactional process.

●     Mobile Website

Mobile websites are designed for small-screen smartphones. Here the site redirects the request from a mobile browser to its counterpart for a convenient surfing experience. So carrying out full testing of mobile websites is important to ensure that the mobile website is properly responsive without any broken experiential happenings.

Because more than half of the visitors use a mobile device.

Steps to perform in Web testing

Web Testing or Website Testing usually consists of multiple steps that ensure that an application is fully functional and runs smoothly and securely. It plays a vital part in web development that confirms that an app is running properly before its release.

Here we will discuss a six-step guide, that will provide you with an overview of what kind of tests to run to test your web apps.

Functionality Testing

Performing functionality testing ensures that the web application is working as per its functional requirements and specifications, that is the purpose of the application. Here the testers check for various inputs provided by users and their corresponding outputs on the web application.

Functionality testing verifies aspects such as all the links including outgoing and internal links in the web application, forms where users enter data like their name, contact details, etc., and validation checks, like checking whether the email address provided is valid or not. Ultimately, in functionality testing, you test that the web application is working from end to end.

Usability Testing

Usability testing is performed to know the user's experience while using the application. Simply this testing lets you know how pleasing the application is to the users.

The test cases in this category are written with the aim to know whether the  web application is easy to understand and use. So that common users can execute them without any assistance.

Usability testing tests for different aspects like ease of navigation, user interaction with all elements of a web page i.e., the links, buttons, etc., error messages, documentation verification of various links and menus present on the website, and compliance with the guidelines.

Interface Testing

A web application consists of three main components; a web server for managing the functions of the web application, a web browser for user interaction with the server, and a database. Interface testing ensures synchronization among the web server, the web browser, and the database. The aim of this category of testing is to test how well communication is going on between these three components.

In interface testing, it is ensured that there is proper communication going on between these three components. Testers check that the data is being passed safely and getting to its destination. This also includes testing for interruptions during data transfer and making sure that the communication between the interfaces is smooth.

Compatibility Testing

Compatibility testing is performed to test whether a web application works fine and renders properly on a wide range of browsers and platforms. The aim of this testing is to ensure that the web application is performing as per the given requirements and specifications. Compatibility testing includes;

●     Browser Compatibility Testing

There are a number of browsers on the market. The users may use the application on any of the available browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc. Hence it is important to ensure that the application runs perfectly on all browsers and platforms without any problems.

●     Operating System compatibility

Just like web browsers, there are a lot of operating systems available such as Windows, Linux, Apple (Mac OS), etc. OS compatibility testing is performed to ensure that the web application works fine on all operating systems

●     Device Compatibility

Similar to browsers and operating systems there are various kinds of devices also. So it is a must for the developers to design their application and test them to ensure that it works on all new and older devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

Network compatibility testing

This testing ensures that web applications work well on various networks' bandwidth by checking the type of network being used by its users. It validates whether there are any limitations involved in terms of, security issues, and network latency.

Automated Web Testing with LambdaTest

Automated Web application testing, or automated website testing, is the process of analyzing a website's performance using varied types of automated website testing tools. Using the right test automation framework, testers can automate repetitive browser actions like interacting with web elements or filling out long HTML forms. Automation helps in saving time and effort, getting faster and more accurate results, increasing software efficiency, and focusing on innovation.

While creating web apps, it is important to check all changes and updates in a browser because users use browsers like Chrome, Firefox, etc, to use these web apps. Comprehensive and accurate website test automation is essential, especially when cross-browser testing requires real browsers and devices to check how the application renders and operates in real user conditions.

Cross-browser testing plays a vital role in developing browser-friendly web apps.

With limited access to the range of all possible devices, it becomes a bit trickier for developers to capture bugs during web application testing. For that, the need for testing on multiple browser-device-operating system combinations arises.

To do so, testers must run automated website tests on real browsers, devices, and operating systems to get an idea of how the app looks and performs on different device-browser combinations.

But not every organization has the resources to set up and maintain such a large infrastructure. To ease the task they can use LambdaTest, a scalable cloud-based cross-browser testing platform offering access to a real device cloud of more than 3000 real browsers and devices for the website, and web app test automation. This enables the testers to ensure that their web app elements are rendering seamlessly and working flawlessly across all desktop and mobile web browsers

Be it manual testing, automated testing, or other testing types like system testing, testers can utilize this reliable and secure platform infrastructure to get accurate results in real-world circumstances.

LambdaTest also provides testers access to multiple features designed to make testing faster and more convenient by integrating it with popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Jira, Travis, Circle CI, etc to ensure a robust automation pipeline.

Conclusion

Web testing is an integral part of the software development life cycle. Web testing is performed to ensure that all the functional and non-functional requirements of the application are met before it goes live for its users. As a web developer or a tester, it is a must for you to test for various things, and build the best version of the application. The information mentioned in this article covers all the major aspects for which you should test and modify your application.