What are the differences between testing WEB application and testing client-sever application?

Web application as we know are the kind of applications that can be accessed by one over a computer or internet or intranet network. Some of the web applications are also coded in to the web browser via web browser supported language like HTML or JavaScript. 

There are so many reasons that make web application quite famous with its users like:

1. Because of web browsers’ ubiquity.
2. Because web applications provide a means to use web browsers as a client that are usually termed as thin clients.
3. Because they can be updated and maintained without having to disturb and install the software system or application on 1000s of client systems.
4. And also because they support cross platform compatibility.

Now that we have discussed regarding the web applications, let us see what client server applications are! 

- A client server application is actually not an application rather it is a computing model that acts like a distributed application whose purpose is to partition the work loads or the tasks among the resource or service providers that are merely servers and clients (the service requester).

- The communication among the server and the client is established over a computer network and in most of the cases the servers as well as the client reside in the same system.  

In this article we are going to discuss the differences between testing the two types of the above mentioned applications. It is very necessary to test these applications since our personal as well as commercial needs are much dependent on these. 

First we will be talking about web application testing and then later regarding client server application testing so that the differences between the two will be clear to you! 

About Web Application Testing

- Web application testing is a combo of the following types of testings:

1. Usability testing
2. Compatibility testing
3. Security testing
4. Performance testing
5. Interface testing and
6. Functionality testing

- All these above mentioned tests make up a complete testing path for web applications. 

- These two types of testing i.e., the web application testing and testing client server application, differ on the basis of the environment in which they are carried out. 

- Testing a web application proves to be more difficult when compared to testing a web client server application and is quite complex too! This is so because the testers do not hold much control over the web application under question. 

- In web application testing, the application to be tested is loaded on a server whose location either or not may be known to the testers. 

- The .exe file is not installed on the client side and therefore it is to be tested on different web browsers. 

- Web applications are mostly tested for their compatibility with different OS platforms, error handling, back end testing, and load testing and static pages. 

About Client Server Testing

- Client server application testing is quite simple as compared to the web application testing and basically involves testing of two components.

- Here, like the web application testing is loaded on the server machine but unlike the web application testing, the exe file is installed on all the client machines. 

- The testing here is carried out broadly in categories mentioned below:

1. GUI on both the sides.
2. Functionality
3. Client server interaction
4. Functionality
5. Back end testing and so on.

- The kind of environment that is used in client server application testing is pretty much like the one that is found in intranet networks. 

- The testing team knows all about the location of the servers in the test scenario.