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Some general guidelines on what to test for web based applications.

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Some general guidelines on what to test for web based applications.

1. Navigation: Users move to and from pages, click on links, click on images (thumbnails), etc. Navigation in a WebSite shoud be quick and error free.
2. Server Response. How fast the WebSite host responds influences whether a user (i.e. someone on the browser) moves on or gives up.
3. Interaction & Feedback. For passive, content-only sites the only real quality issue is availability. For a WebSite that interacts with the user, the big factor is how fast and how reliable that interaction is.
4. Concurrent Users. Do multiple users interact on a WebSite? Can they get in each others' way? While WebSites often resemble client/server structures, with multiple users at multiple locations a WebSite can be much different, and much more complex, than complex applications
5. Browser Independent. Tests should be realistic, but not be dependent on a particular browser
6. No Buffering, Caching. Local caching and buffering -- often a way to improve apparent performance -- should be disabled so that timed experiments are a true measure of the Browser response time.
7. Fonts and Preferences. Most browsers support a wide range of fonts and presentation preferences
8. Object Mode. Edit fields, push buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, etc. All should be treatable in object mode, i.e. independent of the fonts and preferences.
9. Page Consistency. Is the entire page identical with a prior version? Are key parts of the text the same or different?
10. Table, Form Consistency. Are all of the parts of a table or form present? Correctly laid out? Can you confirm that selected texts are in the "right place".
11. Page Relationships. Are all of the links on a page the same as they were before? Are there new or missing links? Are there any broken links?
12. Performance Consistency, Response Times. Is the response time for a user action the same as it was (within a range)?
13. Image File Size. File size should be closely examined when selecting or creating images for your site. This is particularly important when your site is directed to an audience that may not enjoy the high-bandwidth and fast connection speeds available
14. Avoid the use of HTML "frames". The problems with frames-based site designs are well documented, including; the inability to bookmark subcategories of the site, difficulty in printing frame cell content, disabling the Web browser's "back" button as a navigation aid.
15. Security. Ensure data is encrypted before transferring sensitive information, wherever required. Test user authentication thoroughly. Ensure all backdoors and test logins are disabled before going live with the web application.
16. Sessions. Ensure session validity is maintained throughout a web transasction, for e.g. filling a webform that spans over several webpages. Forms should retain information when using the 'back' button wherever required for user convenience. At the same time, forms need to be reset wherever security is an issue, like the password fields, etc.
17. Error handiling. Web navigation should be quick and error free. However, sometimes errors cannot be avoided. It would be a good idea to have a standard error page that handles all errors. This is cleaner than displaying the 404 page. After displaying the error page, users can then be automatically redirected to the home page or any other relevant page. At this same time, this error can also be logged and a message can be sent to notify the admin.

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