Web site testing

Question

I have just finished programming the functionality on a new ASP.NET web forms c# site. Now the time has come to test the site. Does anyone have any ideas as to what would be the best way to test it? or have a list of tests that should be done on all new sites?

Yes, I am aware of test driven development but didn't have enough time or experience to implement it into this solution (unfortunately)

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm going to answer your question straight up first, and then I am going to hopefully challenge you about your testing approach.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what would be the best way to test it?

If you happen to have some business components in your application that aren't tied directly to System.Web, or at the very least are using the abstract versions of those classes, then you are in a good place to do some automated integration testing.

Take a look at a good integration testing framework as there are several. FitNesse, SpecFlow, NSpec etc... You will have to build the test harness yourself, but it will be worth the effort.

However, if the only option you have is of testing through the UI, then you will have to invest time into Selenium as Antony Scott mentioned. That being said, your best bet is to put some time into Selenium RC, so you can take programmatic control of your tests.

These UI tests will be brittle and difficult to maintain so only test your critical paths, and save the rest for manual testing.

Now For The Challenge

I have just finished programming the functionality on a new ASP.NET web forms c# site. Now the time has come to test the site.

This is mistake #1. You should be testing continuously throughout the development process. I am not even talking about TDD either. You need to think about how every single feature will be tested, and ensure that you test those features as they are implemented. Ignoring this will create integration headaches down the road.

Yes, I am aware of test driven development but didn't have enough time or experience to implement it into this solution (unfortunately)

This is a myth! TDD will not only help to improve your overall design, but will save you time overall. The time you waste in test and fix cycles would be drastically reduced had you used TDD.

As for experience, there is more than enough information out there on TDD to get you started. The barrier to entry is simply too low to claim this one. It might take some time to master, but you have more than enough wisdom to draw upon from the development community.

Answer 2

You could take a look at selenium. You would have to write scripts for your tests. I've not used it myself but I understand it is quite nice to use.