Testing Products for Web Applications?

hellbunnie asks: "I work with a team of developers many of whom spend much of their time writing web-based front-ends for DBs or other applications. Now, while we enjoy programming, we're pretty lazy when it comes to testing. Even if we weren't so lazy, I think we'd still miss a number of problems, 'cos there's just so many different screens that use any particular method/function that you might change. That means there's a lot to be tested after each change. So, my question is has anyone any experience with automated systems for testing web applications?"

"I've seen a lot of automated test suites advertised and I've always assumed that they were no substitute for careful testing by a human. However, as the number of web pages that we need to maintain grows, I've begun to wish that we had something that we could kick off at night, that would follow all links on our system and fill in values for the various forms it encountered, then when we arrived in the next morning there'd be some sort of report available detailing its findings. It could flag any pages that returned something obviously incorrect, such as a SQL error, a blank page or just the word 'error'.

Does such a thing exist or am I just engaging in wishful thinking to imagine that there might be something flexible enough to do the job? What do other people do to test their software?"

Comments

you forgot the link

[McCart42]

Well you hit upon one good way, you just forgot to post the link...of course if you did you'd be more worried about your server overloading than your web frontends not working correctly...

advice from uncle ed

[Anonymous Coward]

don't put your applications on the web, somebody will steal them

keep them locked up in the server room instead where they will be secure

then buy a big doberman and name it "george", put it in the server room with a big bowl of raw goat meat

if somebody breaks in you will hear george going ROOF ROOF ROOF BOWWOWWOWROWROWROW and then gurgling and screaming as the thief is eaten

this is all i can do.

Re:My god

[Loligo]

>Weve just had 9/11/02, and bush is attacking
>Iraq, and your talking about TESTING PRODUCTS
>FOR WEB APPLICATIONS? MY GOD PEOPLE GET SOME
>PRIORTIES!!!!

If the web is full of buggy applications, the terrorists have already won.

(my talking about testing products? what?)

Re:You are a programmer right?

[KingAdrock]

Even if he programmed this, he would be too lazy to test it.

I know what he is talking about though. I like programming when something is a challenge, and I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish it. But as soon as it gets down to small details and testing, i find it very tedious. Oh well... Those are the breaks!

You have it right here

[Christianfreak]

Just post the link to your website on /., if it doesn't crash from the load then it's probably pretty good. Hey maybe Taco should look into this! He could start offering it as a service :)

Re:Speak for yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

"professional html programmers"?
Maybe they could work for "military intellitgence" too, since we're going for oxymorons... ;)

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[1WingedAngel]

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Re:Lucky bastards!

[Winterblink]

I bet you got to see a lot of hot nude chicks while programming for Victoria Secret!!

Something tells me the photoshoots aren't happening in the server room or on developers' desks in cubicleville.

Re:There's a better solution than Mercury!!!!!

[caferace]

To quote your system requirements:

"The XMSGuardian(TM) Console requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher running on Windows 95/98/NT, 2000 or XP.....

Pricing and Availability:
XMSGuardian(TM) is now available as a monthly subscription. Pricing begins at $1,995 per month for a single URL...."

And not a downloadable demo in sight. Buh-bye.