web testing checklist.
1) Functionality Testing
2) Usability testing
3) Interface testing
4) Compatibility testing
5) Performance testing
6) Security testing

1) Functionality Testing:

Test for - all the links in web pages, database connection,
forms used in the web pages for submitting or getting
information from user, Cookie testing.

Check all the links:

    * Test the outgoing links from all the pages from
specific domain under test.
    * Test all internal links.
    * Test links jumping on the same pages.
    * Test links used to send the email to admin or other
users from web pages.
    * Test to check if there are any orphan pages.
    * Lastly in link checking, check for broken links in all
above-mentioned links.

Test forms in all pages:
Forms are the integral part of any web site. Forms are used
to get information from users and to keep interaction with
them. So what should be checked on these forms?

    * First check all the validations on each field.
    * Check for the default values of fields.
    * Wrong inputs to the fields in the forms.
    * Options to create forms if any, form delete, view or
modify the forms.

Let’s take example of the search engine project currently I
am working on, In this project we have advertiser and
affiliate signup steps. Each sign up step is different but
dependent on other steps. So sign up flow should get
executed correctly. There are different field validations
like email Ids, User financial info validations. All these
validations should get checked in manual or automated web
testing.

Cookies testing:
Cookies are small files stored on user machine. These are
basically used to maintain the session mainly login
sessions. Test the application by enabling or disabling the
cookies in your browser options. Test if the cookies are
encrypted before writing to user machine. If you are testing
the session cookies (i.e. cookies expire after the sessions
ends) check for login sessions and user stats after session
end. Check effect on application security by deleting the
cookies. (I will soon write separate article on cookie testing)

Validate your HTML/CSS:
If you are optimizing your site for Search engines then
HTML/CSS validation is very important. Mainly validate the
site for HTML syntax errors. Check if site is crawlable to
different search engines.

Database testing:
Data consistency is very important in web application. Check
for data integrity and errors while you edit, delete, modify
the forms or do any DB related functionality.
Check if all the database queries are executing correctly,
data is retrieved correctly and also updated correctly. More
on database testing could be load on DB, we will address
this in web load or performance testing below.

2) Usability Testing:

Test for navigation:
Navigation means how the user surfs the web pages, different
controls like buttons, boxes or how user using the links on
the pages to surf different pages.
Usability testing includes:
Web site should be easy to use. Instructions should be
provided clearly. Check if the provided instructions are
correct means whether they satisfy purpose.
Main menu should be provided on each page. It should be
consistent.

Content checking:
Content should be logical and easy to understand. Check for
spelling errors. Use of dark colors annoys users and should
not be used in site theme. You can follow some standards
that are used for web page and content building. These are
common accepted standards like as I mentioned above about
annoying colors, fonts, frames etc.
Content should be meaningful. All the anchor text links
should be working properly. Images should be placed properly
with proper sizes.
These are some basic standards that should be followed in
web development. Your task is to validate all for UI testing

Other user information for user help:
Like search option, sitemap, help files etc. Sitemap should
be present with all the links in web sites with proper tree
view of navigation. Check for all links on the sitemap.
“Search in the site” option will help users to find content
pages they are looking for easily and quickly. These are all
optional items and if present should be validated.

3) Interface Testing:
The main interfaces are:
Web server and application server interface
Application server and Database server interface.

Check if all the interactions between these servers are
executed properly. Errors are handled properly. If database
or web server returns any error message for any query by
application server then application server should catch and
display these error messages appropriately to users. Check
what happens if user interrupts any transaction in-between?
Check what happens if connection to web server is reset in
between?

4) Compatibility Testing:
Compatibility of your web site is very important testing
aspect. See which compatibility test to be executed:

    * Browser compatibility
    * Operating system compatibility
    * Mobile browsing
    * Printing options

Browser compatibility:
In my web-testing career I have experienced this as most
influencing part on web site testing.
Some applications are very dependent on browsers. Different
browsers have different configurations and settings that
your web page should be compatible with. Your web site
coding should be cross browser platform compatible. If you
are using java scripts or AJAX calls for UI functionality,
performing security checks or validations then give more
stress on browser compatibility testing of your web application.
Test web application on different browsers like Internet
explorer, Firefox, Netscape navigator, AOL, Safari, Opera
browsers with different versions.

OS compatibility:
Some functionality in your web application is may not be
compatible with all operating systems. All new technologies
used in web development like graphics designs, interface
calls like different API’s may not be available in all
Operating Systems.
Test your web application on different operating systems
like Windows, Unix, MAC, Linux, Solaris with different OS
flavors.

Mobile browsing:
This is new technology age. So in future Mobile browsing
will rock. Test your web pages on mobile browsers.
Compatibility issues may be there on mobile.

Printing options:
If you are giving page-printing options then make sure
fonts, page alignment, page graphics getting printed
properly. Pages should be fit to paper size or as per the
size mentioned in printing option.

5) Performance testing:
Web application should sustain to heavy load. Web
performance testing should include:
Web Load Testing
Web Stress Testing

Test application performance on different internet
connection speed.
In web load testing test if many users are accessing or
requesting the same page. Can system sustain in peak load
times? Site should handle many simultaneous user requests,
large input data from users, Simultaneous connection to DB,
heavy load on specific pages etc.

Stress testing: Generally stress means stretching the system
beyond its specification limits. Web stress testing is
performed to break the site by giving stress and checked how
system reacts to stress and how system recovers from crashes.
Stress is generally given on input fields, login and sign up
areas.

In web performance testing web site functionality on
different operating systems, different hardware platforms is
checked for software, hardware memory leakage errors,

6) Security Testing:

Following are some test cases for web security testing:

    * Test by pasting internal url directly into browser
address bar without login. Internal pages should not open.
    * If you are logged in using username and password and
browsing internal pages then try changing url options
directly. I.e. If you are checking some publisher site
statistics with publisher site ID= 123. Try directly
changing the url site ID parameter to different site ID
which is not related to logged in user. Access should denied
for this user to view others stats.
    * Try some invalid inputs in input fields like login
username, password, input text boxes. Check the system
reaction on all invalid inputs.
    * Web directories or files should not be accessible
directly unless given download option.
    * Test the CAPTCHA for automates scripts logins.
    * Test if SSL is used for security measures. If used
proper message should get displayed when user switch from
non-secure http:// pages to secure https:// pages and vice
versa.
    * All transactions, error messages, security breach
attempts should get logged in log files somewhere on web server.