What is Accessibility Checkpoint in QTP?

Quick test professional has got a variety of check points to offer which are an ultimate help in the determination of the efficiency measure of the software system or application i.e., it functions correctly as expected. 

The check points accomplish this task by making comparisons between the value defined by the user that is the expected value and the current value of a particular property of the software system or application.

Quick test professional itself adds a check point statement in the expert view and a check point in the current row in key word view as well whenever a check point is added by the user.

The name of the test object to which the check point is added forms the default name for the added check point. However this default name of the check point can be changed as needed. 

Following are the check points provided by the quick test professional:

1. Image check point
2. Standard check point
3. Table check point
4. Bit map check point
5. Accessibility check point
6. Page check point
7. Text check point
8. XML check point
9. Data base check point

Our focus is on the accessibility check point in this article. 

Accessibility Check Point

- With the help of accessibility check point, the areas of a web site or web page or web application that do pertain to the standards and web content accessibility guidelines of the W3C or world wide web consortium can be recognized. 

- In fact accessibility check points are an extended support for the web add – ins environment. 

- With the accessibility check point, it can be verified whether the software system or application is in compliance with the World Wide Web consortium. 

- World Wide Web consortium or W3C lays down the instructions as well as guide lines for information systems and technology based on web. 

- These guidelines maintain a certain standard for accessing the web and this is what that is checked by the accessibility check points. 

- The settings of an accessibility check point can be configured according to the user’s needs. 

- These accessibility guidelines have been stated by a part of the World Wide Web consortium called the web accessibility initiative. 

- If the some parts your application software or system does not matches with the accessibility standard defined by the World Wide Web consortium and need special attention to improve them, they are caught by the accessibility check points. 

- In fact, an accessibility check point does not determine whether the software system or application meets all the accessibility guidelines.

- It catches only the faulty areas of that particular application under test or AUT that need to be brought up to that standard. 

- The identification of the improper areas of the software system or application using accessibility check points is quite quick, easy and also reliable. 

- Furthermore, automatic accessibility check points are also available that you add to every page on your web site or test. 

- Also individual pages or frames can have their own set of individual accessibility check points. 

- The accessibility check points are highly customizable and can be configured according to the requirements of the tests. 

- For configuring, an accessibility check point the options are available under web option of the tools menu. 

- Check and un-check the items that you want or don’t want in your that particular accessibility check point and finalize by clicking OK. 

- The tool in the web environment has to be kept in recording mode. 

- Accessibility check points can be added automatically while the recording is in progress and can be accessed while edit very easily. 

How will you check a web application for broken links using QTP?

Checking for the broken and ill links forms a very important aspect of any web testing profile. The below mentioned are few testings which take the priority of the web testing check list:

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

Out of all these the functionality testing tests the following basic aspects of a web page or site or application:

1. all the links in web pages
2. data base connection
3. forms in the web pages
4. cookies

When it comes to checking of the links the following links are tested:

1. out going links from a specific domain
2. internal links
3. links jumping on same page
4. links for sending mails
5. orphan pages and lastly
6. broken  links

Our focus is on last aspect i.e., testing of the broken links in a web page, site or web application with the help of the quick test professional. 

What are broken links?

- Broken links are also termed as dead links since they are permanently unavailable and hence cannot be accessed by the user. 

- If you would have observed you might have surely come across 404 error while browsing some site. 

- This signifies the presence of a broken link. 

- Using quick test professional, the broken links can be identified during the run time itself by following any one of the two methods mentioned below:

1. via manual creation of a check point
2. via automatic page check point

How a broken link be checked manually by creating a page check point?

- A direct menu option is not available in the quick test professional for incorporating a page check point. 

- Therefore, you need to take assistance of a standard check point. 

- What you actually need, is to click on the start recording session and then select insert option, then check point and finally standard check point option.

- You can use F12 if it works for you.

- Get the hand pointer on the web page and click OK. 

- You will get a page check point properties dialog box which has a broken link check box. 

- You need to check that box and click OK. 

- After this, you need to run the scripts and check the status of links in broken link result. 

- If the links pointing only to the current host have to be checked then you need to check the box titled check only links to current host by going to the tools menu and then selecting web options. 

- Similarly, if the links pointing to all the hosts have to be checked then this box has to be kept unchecked. 

For following the second method you need to go through the following:

Tools à options à web à advanced

- You will get two boxes labeled “broken links” and “create a check point for each page while recording”, check these both boxes. 

Now every time the quick test professional starts recording on a new page, a check point will be automatically included for all the broken links. 

One thing that you should know is that the quick test professional experiences some issues with the windows vista if the internet explorer version that you using is 7.0. 

Tabbed browsing is something that is not supported by the quick test professional especially in Microsoft internet explorer. 

An alternative to this can be to disable tabbed browsing first and then proceed with quick test professional. In internet explorer the quick test professional may not be able to recognize the web objects. 

What are different phases of web application testing?

What is a web application actually? How do we define it? Let us put it in very simple words!

" A web application is much like any other normal application, the only difference being that a web application can be accessed only over an internet connection."

So only the accessibility makes it different form the other types of applications.

What is Web Application?
- A web application can be purely an individual application with its own spate existence over the web.

- But, there are several other kinds of web applications which are written in the Java script and are embedded in a web page or web site.

- The scripts that are used to write these web applications should be supportable by the web browsers.

- The scripts are usually a combination of Java and HTML codes and can be executed only with the help of a web browser and otherwise not possible.

What makes these web applications so popular among today’s generation?

- It is nothing else but the ubiquity of the web browsers.

- The web applications make use of the web browsers as a running client.

- Most of the web applications display the property of the cross platform compatibility i.e., they can be used on multiple platforms and across multiple browsers.

- This further makes them very much popular.

- Web applications like online retail sales and wikis are gaining so much of popularity world wide.

- As the number of users of the web applications keep on increasing the more vulnerable its following aspects become: security, reliability and quality.

These are some of the most crucial factors responsible for the success of a web application.

What can be done to improve their efficiency?

- Effective testing is one such measure which can improve the performance of any web application.

- Performing a web application testing is kind of tough task and requires great skills since the tester has got no direct control over the working of the web application.

Phases of Web Application testing
A typical web application testing comprises of three main phases:

1.1st phase: Testing of the Web tier
This phase involves the testing of the web application for the cross browser compatibility. The web application is checked the commonly and widely used web browsers.

2. 2nd phase: Testing of the middle tier
This phase involves the testing of the security related aspects as well as the functionality and features of the web application.

3. 3rd phase: Testing of the Data base tier
This phase involves the determination of the integrity of the data base of the web application as well its components. This phase is also concerned with the verification of the components of the web application.

Steps followed in each phase are:
Whichever the phase may be, there are common steps that are followed in every phase.
- First step is usually the loading of the web application on to a web server. The testing is not concerned with the location of the server! It might be known or unknown, it doesn’t matters.

- After this step, the second step involves the installation of this web application on the client side server.

- The web application is tested on the client’s side. The following mentioned aspects are foremost tested:
1. Browser compatibility
2. Operating system compatibility
3. Error testing
4. Static pages
5. Validation of the CSS and HTML code (either by checking the URL or by uploading)
6. Load testing and
7. Back end testing.

What are different HTML errors?

HTML or hyper text mark up language is perhaps one of the most used mark up languages for the web pages, sites and applications with which most of us are familiar. This language is written using the HTML elements which mainly constitute of the tags enclosed in the angle brackets like:

These elements are housed in the web page or site. Most of the HTML tags are implemented in pairs of two.

HTML ELEMENTS AND CONTENT
- Some tags are even empty and are commonly known as empty elements.
- These are usually unpaired unlike the filled elements which are paired.
- In the paired tags, the first tag is called the start tag and the second one is then called the end tag.
- Between these two tags, any text, comments, tags etc can be added by the designer of the web sites.
- The content that is to be added should only be of textual type.
- Due to some wrong designing principles often some errors are introduced in to the html of the web site or the page.
- One of the most common errors is the insertion of the graphical content in to the html.
- Such content is neither displayed nor is it interpreted.
- It simply causes the malfunctioning of the web site.
- Other elements of the html allow the addition of the graphical content and only these should be used whenever some graphics are to be inserted in to the page.
- Html elements provide a means for the creation of the structured documents that denote the structural semantics for textual content like:

1. Lists
2. Links
3. Paragraphs
4. Headings
5. Quotes and so on.

DIFFERENT HTML ERRORS AND THEIR IMPACT

- Html can also be embedded in to the scripts like javascript which also some times leads to errors when inserted incorrectly.
- Such errors affect the behaviour of the web sites and cause them to behave abnormally.
- Whenever the site is affected by an error or a bug is encountered, a set of error messages is generated by the business logic component which is then stored as a string in any of the available scopes.
- For using such functions, you need to define an application scope with the name of default attribute, because if such a scope is not found, then nothing is to be rendered by the business logic.
- Some designers forget to define such scopes and therefore end up with unnecessary errors in their web sites.
- Many more errors occur whenever a requested is generated by the client to the web server.
- In such cases the server responds with some status messages, few of which have been mentioned below along with the possible errors:

1. 400:
Bad syntax of the request is preventing the server to process it.

2. 401:
The request though being cannot be processed because of unavailability of the authentication processes.

3. 404 not found:
The page requested by the client is found to be unavailable at that moment.

4. 405 method not allowed:
The client made request in such a way that is not supported by that site.

5. 407 proxy authentication required:
The client has not authenticated its proxy.

6. 408 request time out:
The server’s request time expired while waiting for the client to generate one.

7. 409 conflict:
The server is not able to process the request because of the presence of some conflict in it.

8. 410 gone:
The page that was requested is no longer available on the web.

What are different cross browser testing tools?

Cross browser testing as we all know forms an essential part of cross browser testing. Today there many tools available in the web market which are able to carry out effective cross browser testing.

Cross browser testing tools present us a virtual method to check how our web site performs on the various different browsers available today and whether or not it functions properly?

Using cross browser testing tool you can easily check how your website looks on different browsers by working form just one system. Depending on the cross browser compatibility of a web site, it behaves differently with different browsers.

If you were to test yourself that how your web site behaves on different browsers, it will consume a lot of your time and effort. Then why not go for automated web browser testing tools? They are a great time saver and very reliable to work with.

Many cross browser testing tools are available like:
- Browser shots
- Browser lab
- Browsera
- Super preview
- Browser box
- Luna scape
- Selenium remote control
- IE tester
- Sauce labs
- Xenocode browser sandbox
- Cross browser testing.com
- Browscramp
- Litmus
- Net renderer

You can test your web sites using these cross browser testing tools and these cross browser testing tools test your web sites and applications on all the latest versions of the available web browsers.

SOME ASPECTS OF CROSS BROWSER TESTING TOOLS
- Some testing tools allow you to debug and test scripts of your web sites like CSS, AJAX, flash, HTML and JavaScript etc. allows you to explore the browser features and compatibility.

- Some of the available cross browser testing tools provides readymade test cases, so there is no need to waste time in setting up your test cases. You can straightaway start testing your web site.

- This will actually cut down the testing time and you will be able to spend the saved time by focussing upon the other aspects of your web sites that need to be improved.

- These cross browser testing tools are fast and you get the results in minutes.

- Some browser tools offer remote VNC sessions.

- They provide live browser tests so you have the ease of testing your web site from anywhere.

- You just have to provide the testing tool with the URL of your web site and select the browser for which you want to check your web site and hit run. That’s it! You will get instant results.

- Some of the cross browser testing tools provide a way to test the compatibility of the functionality and features of the web site across a variety of web browsers.

- After all it is necessary to test web site's features and functionalities rather than only look.

Lot of web designers are struggling with the problem of cross browser compatibility. Most of the cross browser testing tools offer services free of charge and are quite reliable and also easy to operate.

- To use some cross browser testing web site you may need to connect to their web site via a VNC client or you can use an applet.

- Once connected, you can fully test your web site interactively using their system.

- Few cross browser testing tools are windows program like IEtester.

- Such a tool allows you to test only the versions of internet explorer and not more than that.

- Some cross browser testing tools though offering excellent services, charge you a fee. The fee does not sounds too much if you look towards the positive side i.e., to the excellent and in depth testing options that they offer.

What are different aspects of Cross Browser Testing?

Cross browser can be defined as the ability of a web page, web site or web application to run easily on all the browsers i.e., the web site, web page or application should have a good browser compatibility.

Many people confuse between cross browser compatibility and multiple browser compatibility.

Multiple browser compatibility is the ability of a web site, web page or application to execute efficiently on many browsers simultaneously. If a web site, web page, or application is having good browser compatibility, it is able to run on all browsers and without any loss of performance.

Maintenance of standards of performance is essentially necessary. All the browsers are then able to render that particular web site or application.

1. Cross browser testing is a no new methodology and has been in use since the web development started.
2. But, nowadays cross browser testing is used rarely since the modern versions of the browsers already have built in support for scripts like CSS 1 and HTML and so the browsers do not require any kind of proprietary extensions to attain the quality of cross browsing.
3. Another reason is that nowadays DOM manipulation methodologies which are way more compatible than cross browser compatibility testing are being used for the development of client side scripts.
4. The main browsers that a web page, site, application or a script needs to support include the following:

- Internet explorer
- Netscape
- Mozilla Firefox
- Google chrome
- Safari and
- Opera

These days only a little of cross browser support is demanded. The emphasis is on improving compatibility. The World Wide Web consortium introduced in 1997 a browser scripting language called “ECMA script” which was supposed to improve the cross browser compatibility of the browsers. It was after this only that the W3C started working up on DOM techniques.

1. Cross browser testing forms an essential part of web testing or when application testing, so it needs to be focused up on.
2. There are several testing tools available in the market today to carry out automated cross browser testing.
3. There are so many web browsers available today, and so the end users are not using the same browser.
4. A variety of browsers are in user which calls a need for testing of web sites and applications.
5. This need can be fulfilled by cross browser testing.
6. Client components like applets, flex, flash programs, AJAX and java scripts may behave differently when accessed through different browsers.
7. Also for every browsers hands end user’s request in a way that is different from the other.
8. Web developers need to make sure that the web sites and applications they are making are compatible with all the browsers and deliver exactly the same performance on any browser.
9. Testing a website or application for a single browser is of course not beneficial.
10. Cross browser testing involves testing of web sites or applications on both the sides i.e., client side and server side.

There are following kinds of engines:
- Gecko is used in Mozilla Firefox browser.
- KHTML is used by conqueror web browser.
- Presto is developed by opera and is used for opera browser.
- Trident or MSHTML is used for Microsoft developed browser “internet explorer”.
- Web kit is used for Google chrome and safari. It supports other browsers also.

Layout engines play a very important role in cross browser testing. They are basic entity that needs to be tested when you want to improve the cross browser compatibility. A layout engine is a web component that takes web contents and formatting instructions as input and displays the formatted content on the web page.

How to test a User Interface based application page?

A user interface can be described as an interface that allows the users to interact with the system. GUI is an interface that allows the users to interact with the help of images rather than textual commands.

- User interfaces are used in computer systems, other hand held electronic devices such as portable media players, I pads, I pods, cell phones, gaming devices or mp3 players etc.

- An user interface makes the information and actions available to the user through some graphical images or icons and other visual indicators.

- These can be thought of as a kind of secondary notation as contrary to the text based interfaces, text navigation or typed commands.

- Using a graphical user interface, tasks are performed by the direct manipulation of the graphical icons or elements.

- The scope of a GUI is restricted to the two-dimensional display screens that have high display resolutions which are able to describe generic information.

It is a very common problem of how to effectively carry out UI based testing on an application page?

It is always said that user interface testing is very difficult or hard and less possible.But it is not so! What we actually need is the right kind of design.

- With a right and appropriate design, user interface testing becomes as easy as any other kind of testing.

This will become clear with the following example:
- Let’s say a common user interface component like a login page is to be tested.

- The most important thing here is to separate the user interface from the data and the logic.

- This task can be accomplished using can be done with the help of model that follows the view controller design pattern.

- The model is used as the data.

- There is one more thing about which you should be careful.The dependence order of the source code must be expressed in the following order:

View -> controller -> model

- The point of view of testing, this order should not be broken.

- We can say that there is no direct relationship that exists between the model and the controller.

- Neither transitive dependency is allowed nor is direct dependency allowed.

- Here we can merge the controller and model together if we are not going to use the model again.

- Here the controller is aware of model but the model knows nothing of the controller.

- In the case of this login page, we started with a model or controller package and it was observed that the controller mimics the user interface quite well.

- Each entry field was assigned a field and finally each action was assigned a method.

- We know that the view can directly access the controller and all the textual inputs corresponding to their respective fields as per the controller.

- The values are bound to the destination at the run time.

- The login button is then bound to the login method as described in the controller.

- Due to this binding, the controller is effectively separated from the view. So, now testing of the controller can be focused upon.

- Errors are usually discovered in the logic but not in the code.

- This method is 90 percent beneficial.

- Impedance mismatch is not at all desirable since it can cause marshalling of code which can result in the complication of the whole controller.

Drawbacks of the above method
- Though this method is very useful, it can lead to bugs that can be time consuming to rectify.

- The other drawback is that the approach also gets complicated with the complex user interfaces.

- To test complex UI based application pages you need to create additional required components on the go.

What are different tools available for web testing?

Web testing as we all know is defined as the software testing which focuses primarily on web applications and web sites. A complete testing of web server and applications is needed before they are presented live to the customers or clients.

Web testing mainly addresses the issues like web security, functionality of a particular site, feasibility and accessibility to the users, ability to handle traffic.

Nowadays there are several tools available for web testing. The most common and popular today being the “WAPT” abbreviated form for the web application performance tool.

What is WAPT?
- WAPT tool has been specially designed for testing the web related interfaces and web applications.

- Furthermore this tool can be effectively used for load testing, stress testing and performance testing of web sites, web applications, and web related interfaces.

- This tool tends to simulate a situation of virtual users.

- There are many challenges faced by WAPT and it is used for determining the compatibility of the browser, operating system and windows applications during the backend testing.

- This tool carries out tests via three kinds of loads namely:


1. Increasing user load
2. Constant user load
3. Periodic user load

These days some frameworks are available that give a tool box for testing the web applications.
Open source web testing tools are also available for web testing. The 2 very most common open source web testing tools are:


- HTTP test tool
It’s a tool based on scripting of the protocols. It is used for testing HTTP protocol based products.

- Apache j meter
It’s a tool programmed in java language. It is basically used for performance measurement and load testing of the web severs and web applications.

Next in the queue of web testing tools are web testing tools based on windows operating system. Few of them have been listed below:

- TOSCA test suite
It’s a software tool and has been designed for automated execution of regression testing and functional testing of the web applications.

- Testing anywhere
It is also an automated testing tool and it has been designed in such a way that it can perform any kind of testing from anywhere via automation feature.

- Test complete
This is another one in the line of automated testing tools. It was developed by the Smart Bear Software firm.

- Silk test
This is also an automation tool and has been designed specially for testing the functionalities of the web enterprise applications.

- Ranorex

- IBM Rational Functional Tester

- HP quick test Professional
It is an automated testing tool specially designed for functional testing and regression testing of the web applications and interfaces by HP.

- HP load runner
It can be called as a software tool from HP designed to carry out automated load testing and performance testing for web servers, web applications and other related interfaces.

Many web testing tools are available for Load testing and Performance Testing of web applications and web sites. Some have been listed below:

- Tsung:
Open source web testing tool. Tests load for multiple protocols.
- Performance Xpert
Performance testing and load testing.
- Load UI
Open source cross platform load testing tool.
- App view web
Cloud computing based performance testing tool.
- Sand storm
Load testing tool which supports testing of mobile, email and web protocols.
- Multi mechanize
- Load 2 test
- Xceptance load test
- Site Blaster
- Load intelligence
- Load storm

Some java based web testing tools have also been designed:
- Arquillian
- RTI
- Your kit java profiler
- Visual VM
- LAPSE
- Check marx
- Windows licker
- Cobertura

This is not the end of the list. Still there are many more. A new and improved tool is being developed every now and then.

What is the difference between web site and web application testing?

Before discussing the main topic i.e., the differences between website test and web application testing, we should know the difference between the two basic terms i.e., web site and web application.

What is a Website?
- A website can be defined as the collection of web pages that contain videos, text, images and other related digital assets.

- A website is generally hosted on a web server and is accessible via an internet connection or network address called “uniform resource locator” or URL.

What is a Web Page and Web Application?
- A web page can be defined as a document usually written in a plane text formatted with the formatting instructions of the HTML (hyper text mark up language) or XHTML (eXtensible hyper text mark up language) language.

- Suitable mark up anchors can be used to incorporate elements from other websites in to a web page.

- HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) is used to access and transport the web pages.

- The web pages may employ HTTP secure (HTTPS) to provide extra privacy and security for the person who is going to use that web page content.

- The content of the web page content is rendered on to the display by the web browser according to the HTML instructions of the web page.

- A web page can be easily accessed through its URL usually called its home page.

- The URLs organize the web pages in an appropriate hierarchy order and the hyper links on the pages provide the site structure to the user and guide the user towards the right navigation link.

Now let’s describe web application in contrast to the web site.
- A web application can be defined as an application that is accessed through a network like intranet or internet only.

- It can also refer to a software application that has been coded in a language like java script that supports browsers and it is combined with HTML.

- The application is executable through a web browser.

- The ubiquity of the web browsers is what makes the web applications so popular among the users.

- It also provides the convenience of using a web browser as a thin client. They exhibit cross platform compatibility.

- Some common web applications are online retail sales, wikis and web mail.

- A large world wide audience of a web application or web site, its quality and reliability prove to be a crucial factor for the success of a web application or web site.

- Similarly, the characteristics and behavior of the web applications and web sites pose many challenges during their testing.

- Web site testing and web application testing invariably vary in their methodologies of testing.

- These needs are met by tools that meet these specific needs.

- A web application is a bit difficult to test as compared to web site since in a web application test the tester does not has much control over the web application.

- The application is first loaded on to a server (the location of the server might be known or unknown) and then it is installed on the client’s server and tested.

- The application is tested on various web browsers as well as on different operating systems for browser compatibility, OS compatibility, static pages, error testing, load testing and back end testing.

- Like any other the web site testing forms an essential part of building a successful web site.

- Web site testing involves validation of CSS and HTML code.

- There are two ways of validating the HTML code. First is by URL of the web page and secondly by uploading from the computer itself.

- It also involves testing of all the links on the web site to ensure that they are working properly.

- The web site should well exhibit the cross browser compatibility. Other factors that contribute to the success of a web site are speed of the web page and download time.

What are different aspects of web testing?

The term “web testing” defines itself well. So, web testing can be defined as a kind of software testing aimed at testing the web applications. Its entire focus is up on web applications. A complete testing of web applications is required before they go live because this helps in addressing the issues of the application well.

The following issues are generally addressed in a typical web testing:
- Security of web applications.
- Basic functionality of the site under testing.
- Accessibility to the users who are handicapped as well as those who are fully able.
- Readiness for handling the expected traffic.
- Readiness for handling the expected number of users.
- Ability to survive a massive spike in user traffic.

A web testing tool called “web application performance tool” or WAPT (as it is abbreviated) is used to test the web related interfaces and applications. These web applications testing tools are used extensively for load testing, stress testing and performance testing of web applications, web servers, web sites and other web related interfaces.

The web application performance tool in a way simulates virtual users which will repeat either specified URLs or recorded URLs. It allows users to specify or mention the number of times the virtual users will have to repeat either specified URLs or repeated URLs. This measure makes it easy for the web application performance tools to check for the performance leakage in the web application or the web site being tested.

Though the web application performance tools face various challenges during testing, they should be able to check for the following aspects:

- Compatibility of operating system with the web application or the web site.
- Compatibility of the browser with the web application or the web site and web server.
- Compatibility with windows application wherever required during the back-end testing.

Web application performance tools allow the users to specify how the virtual users are equally involved in the whole testing process as well as in testing environment.
There are following 3 types of user loads:
- Increasing user load:
In this type of user load the number of virtual users is increased from 0 to 100 step by step. It is called RAMP.
- Constant user load:
In this type of user load the number of users is kept constant or maintained i.e., a specific number of users only can use the application.
- Periodic user load:
In this type of user load the number of users is increased and decreased from time to time.

Web security testing is another aspect of web testing which determines whether the web based application requirements are met or not when the web applications or web sites are subjected to malicious data input. The user interface of web applications can be tested by using frame works that provide a tool box for testing web applications. Nowadays some open source web testing tools are also available. Few of them are:
- HTTP test tool: This tool is scriptable protocol test tool and is used to test HTTP protocol based products.
- Apache J meter: It’s a tool programmed in java for performance measurement and load testing.

There are some windows based web testing tools available these days. The tester should first develop a web testing check list before carrying out the web testing. The check list should include the following:

- Usability testing: Tests how the users use the page, and other controls.
- Functionality testing: Tests links in web pages, database connections, and forms used in web pages.
- Interface testing: tests web server and application server interface.
- Compatibility testing: tests compatibility of browser, OS, mobile and printer.
- Security testing: tests the security of the web server and applications.
- Performance testing: includes web load testing and web stress testing.

What are different stages involved in web application testing?

Web application is a dynamic extension of an application server. Testing of a web application is done by a web application tester. Testing a web application involves different stages as follows:

Functionality testing:
In functionality testing, tests are made to check the links in web pages, database connection, forms used in web pages to submit or retrieve information from users.

Testing the links involves the following:
- Checking the outgoing links in all the pages from the specific domain under test.
- Internal links testing.
- Checking the links that jump on the same pages.
- The Links through which the email will be sent to the admin or to other users from different web pages must be checked.
- All the above mentioned links must be checked for broken links.

Testing the forms in all the web pages:
- Each field in a form must be checked for validity.
- Default values of each field must be checked.
- Options for creating, modifying, viewing or deleting a form must be verified during testing.

Testing of cookies:
The application must be tested by enabling or disabling cookies in browser options. The cookies must be tested for encryption before writing to user system. The session cookies must be tested for login sessions and user status after session ends.

Testing of database:
Data integrity must be monitored every time when data is created, modified, viewed or deleted within a database. Every database related functionality must be tested.

Usability testing:
Usability determines the ease with which a user can handle the application. The webpage designed must be user friendly with appropriate main menu in each page. It is very important to ensure that the application is readable and understandable by a user. It is recommended to use commonly accepted standards for font, frames and colors. Anchor text links must be analyzed.

Interface testing:
Web server, application server and database server are the main interfaces. Ensure whether each interaction between each of the interfaces is executed without any errors. Errors when occurred must be handled appropriately.

Compatibility testing:
Compatibility of a web application is a very important testing aspect. A web application must be compatible mainly with Browser and Operating System.

Browser compatibility:
A web application must be tested with different browsers to ensure its compatibility. Various browsers have different settings and configurations with which the application must be compatible. Web coding must be compatible with cross browser platform. If java scripts or AJAX calls are used for UI functionality and performing security checks or validations, browser compatibility must be given importance.

OS compatibility:
New technologies such as graphic designs, interface calls used in web development must be compatible with various browsers, which are popularly used.

Performance testing:
Performance of an application is measured by its ability to sustain load and stress. Load testing and stress testing are two main types of performance testing.

Load testing:
When large number of users requests the same page, the application must have the ability to sustain the load and perform appropriately. Performance of an application must be tested on different internet connections with varying speed.

Stress testing:
In stress testing the application is put beyond its limit of sustainability, to check the reaction of the application to stress or to check how the system recovers from crash.

Security testing:
Security testing must ensure that only authorized users can use the application and none of the internal pages must be opened for non registered users. CAPTCHA can be utilized to improve security in application.

What are key elements of Search Engine Optimization Part 2?

Apart from keyword analysis, other important elements of search engine optimization are:

- Page uses HTML links. These HTML links needs to be optimized and is an important element of search engine optimization. The HTML code should consists of search items which tells the search engine what is the page about. The following things should be optimized like page title, page headings, image text and link anchor text.
A good page title will not only be keyword targeted but also will entice a person to click on it in the search results.

- For good search engine optimization, good page content is also important. The content should be of high quality and unique. It should not be copied from other sites. A god content enhances the search.

- The code enhancement process determines your page rank on search engines. It understands the structure or pages of the website.

- Link building becomes very important for search engine optimization. It improves the ranking of the web page or web site.

Aesthetic or Graphic Design - Layout Issues and Graphic Design Issues

Aesthetic or Graphic design makes the web application appealing, though it is functional in nature. It is an artistic angle that compliments the technical aspects of web engineering. To perform aesthetic design, web application users decide how they want the application to look like.

General Layout Guidelines To Consider When Screen Layout Is Designed

- Do not over crowd the web page with too much information as it makes it difficult for the suer to identify the needed information and it creates too much visual chaos.
- Scrolling on web page should be reduced as the users prefer not to scroll much. The best idea is to reduce the content or just put necessary content.
- The design should specify all layout items as a percentage of available space.
- There has to be a pattern that should be followed during group navigation, content and function geographically within the page.
- Web application should be designed in a way in which there is more emphasis on content. A typical web page should contain eighty percent of content with the remaining part dedicated to navigation and other features.
- Users have a tendency to scan the web page in a way they scan the page of a book i.e. from top-left to bottom right. High priority elements should be placed in upper-left portion of the page.

GRAPHIC DESIGN ISSUES

Graphic design begins with layout and then it covers the color schemes, sizes, styles, use of media, typefaces and all other aesthetic elements of an application.
Different web sites provide design tips and guidelines.

Quick Tip: URLs - Uniform Resource Locator

URLs, or Uniform Resource Locators, are the method by which documents or data are addressed in the World Wide Web. The URL contains the following information:

- the protocol.
- the DNS name of the machine on which the page is located.
- the local name uniquely indicating the specific page.
- the location of the resource in the directory structure of the server.

To make a piece of text clickable, the page writer must provide two items of information : the clickable text to be displayed and the URL of the page to go to if the text is selected. Once the text is selected, the browser looks up the host name using DNS. Now armed with the host's IP address, the browser establish TCP connection to host. Over that connection, it sends the file name using the specified protocol.
The URL scheme is open to have protocols other than HTTP also. In short, URL's have been designed to not only allow users to navigate the Web, but to deal with FTP, news, Gopher, email, and telnet as well, making all the specialized user interface programs for those other services unnecessary, and thus integrating nearly all Internet access into a single program, the Web Browser.
The growing use of the Web has turned up an weakness in URL scheme. A URL points to one specific host. For pages that are heavily referenced, it is desirable to have multiple copies far apart, to reduce network traffic. The advent of systems such as Akami are meant to meet that need, distributing content over multiple servers on a global level.