IRJET-A Review of Testing Technology in Web Application System

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 06 Issue: 05 | May 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2019, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.211 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 6859
A Review of Testing Technology in Web Application System
Anirban Bhar1, Soumya Bhattacharyya2, Sujata Kundu3 , Shyamapriya Chatterjee4
1,2,3,4Department of Information Technology, Narula Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India.
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Abstract - Software testing is important activity in
Software Development Life Cycle. Software testing is the
process of assessing the functionality and correctness of a
program through execution or analysis. Software-testing
process is expensive and consumes a lot of time through
software development life cycle. As software systems grow,
manual software testing becomes more and more difficult.
Therefore, there was always a need to decrease. Software
testing that is not fully exhaustive can only suggest the
presence of flaws and cannot prove their absence; moreoverit
is impossible to completely test an application. Thisworkaims
at the process of identifying the bottlenecks that are very
common to test in web application systems, bottlenecks that
are application specific and testing type specific, analyze the
reasons and provide recommendations that will make
Software Testing [1] to happen without bottlenecks or with
minimum bottlenecks.
Key Words: SDLC, Testing, Web application systems,
Bottlenecks.
INTRODUCTION
Software testing plays a vital role in the software
development life-cycle to recognize the difficulties in the
process very well [2]. The objective of testing is to find
problems and fix them to improve quality (Fig.1). Software
testing typically represents 40% of a software development
budget.
There are four main objectives of software testing [3]:
1) Demonstration: It demonstrates functions under special
conditions and shows thatproductsarereadyforintegration
or use.
2) Detection: It discovers defects, errors and deficiencies. It
determines system capabilities and limitations, quality of
components, work products and the system.
3) Prevention: It provides information to prevent or reduce
the number of errors clarify system specifications and
performance. Identify ways toavoidrisk andproblemsinthe
future.
4) Improving Quality: By doing effective testing, we can
minimize errors and hence improve the quality of software
[4].
Fig.1
Testing is the primary method that the Organization uses to
evaluate software under development. Software quality is
nothing but the fulfillment of the end user requirements.
Main areas where developers need to focus upon are quality
assurance, quality planning and quality control. Software
testing plays an important role in these areas by providing
the way of reducing the bugs from the application.
Software testing techniques is categorized in two main
areas: Manual testing and automated testing.
Automation Testing uses automation tools to execute test
cases. In manual testing, test cases are executed by a human
tester and software. Automated testing is significantlyfaster
than a manual approach. Automation is one major solution
for reducing high testing effort. Automating certain manual
tasks from software testing process can save a lot of testing
time. It can help in performing repetitive tasks more quickly
than manual testing.
Manual Testing vs. Automated Testing
In manual testing (as the name suggests), test cases are
executed manually (by a human, that is) withoutanysupport
from tools or scripts. But with automated testing, test cases
are executed with the assistance of tools, scripts, and
software.

Testing is an integral part of any successful software project.
The type of testing (manual or automated) depends on
various factors, including project requirements, budget,
timeline, expertise, and suitability. Three vital factors of any
project are of course time, cost, and quality – the goal of any
successful project is to reduce the cost and time required to
complete it successfully while maintaining quality output.
When it comes to testing, one type may accomplish this goal
better than the other.
In short, manual testing is best suited to the following
areas/scenarios:
Exploratory Testing: This type of testing requires the tester’s
knowledge, experience, analytical/logical skills, creativity,
and intuition. The test is characterizedherebypoorlywritten
specification documentation, and/or a short time for
execution. We need the human skills to execute the testing
process in this scenario.
Usability Testing: This is an area in which you need to
measure how user-friendly, efficient, or convenient the
software or product is for the end users. Here, human
observation is the most important factor, so a manual
approach is preferable.
Ad-hoc Testing: In this scenario, there is nospecificapproach.
It is a totally unplanned method of testing where the
understanding and insight of the tester is the only important
factor.
Automated testing is the preferred option in the following
areas/scenarios:
Regression Testing: Here, automated testing is suitable
because of frequent code changes and the ability to run the
regressions in a timely manner.
Load Testing: Automated testing is also the best way to
completethe testing efficiently when it comes toloadtesting.
Learn more about load testing with our best practices guide
here.
Repeated Execution: Testing which requires the repeated
execution of a task is best automated.
Performance Testing: Similarly, testing which requires the
simulation of thousands of concurrent users requires
automation.
Web Application Architecture
Web application architecture defines the interactions
between applications, middleware systems and databasesto
ensuremultiple applicationscan work together.Whenauser
types in a URL and taps “Go,” the browser will find the
Internet-facing computer the website lives on and requests
that particular page.
The server then responds by sending files over to the
browser. After that action, the browserexecutesthosefilesto
show the requested page to the user. Now, the user gets to
interact with the website. Of course, all of these actions are
executed within a matter of seconds. Otherwise, users
wouldn’t bother with websites.
What’s important here is the code, which has been parsed by
the browser. This very code may or may not have specific
instructions telling the browser how to react to a wideswath
of inputs. As a result, web application architecture includes
all sub-components and external applications interchanges
for an entire software application.
Of course, it is designed to function efficiently while meeting
its specific needs and goals. Web application architecture is
critical since the majority of global network traffic, andevery
single app and device uses web-based communication. It
deals with scale, efficiency, robustness, and security.
Fig.2
Classes of Threats
Here are the different types of threats which can be used to
take advantage of security vulnerability.

Privilege Elevation: Privilege elevation is a class of attack
where a hacker has an account on a system and uses it to
increase his system privileges to a higher level than he/she
was not meant to have. If successful, this type of attack can
result in a hacker gaining privileges as high as root on a UNIX
system. Once a hacker gains super-user privileges, he is able
to run code with this level of privilege and the entire system
is effectively compromised.
SQL Injection: SQL injection is the most common application
layer attack technique used by hackers, in which malicious
SQL statementsare inserted into an entry field for execution.
SQL injection attacks are very critical as an attacker can get
critical information from the server database. It is a type of
attack which takes the advantage of loopholes present in the
implementation of web applications that allows a hacker to
hack the system. To check the SQL injection we have to take
care of input fields like text boxes, comments, etc. To prevent
injections, special characters should be either properly
handled or skipped from the input.
Unauthorized Data Access: One of the more popular types of
attacks is gaining unauthorized access to data within an
application. Data can be accessed on servers or onanetwork.
Unauthorized access includes:
 Unauthorized access to data via data-fetching
operations
 Unauthorized access to reusable client
authenticationinformationbymonitoringtheaccess
of others
 Unauthorized access to data by monitoring the
access of others
URL Manipulation: URL manipulation is the process of
manipulating the website URL query strings & capture of the
important information by hackers. This happens when the
application uses the HTTP GET method to pass information
between the client and the server. The information is passed
in parameters in the query string. The tester can modify a
parameter value in the query string to check if the server
accepts it.
Denial of Service: A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is an
explicit attempt to make a machine or network resource
unavailable to its legitimate users. Applications can also be
attacked in ways that render the application, and sometimes
the entire machine, unusable.
Data Manipulation: In data manipulation, a hacker changes
data used by a website in order to gain some advantage or to
embarrass the website’s owners. Hackers will often gain
access to HTML pages and change them to be satirical or
offensive.
Identity Spoofing: Identity spoofing is a technique where a
hacker uses the credentials of a legitimate user or device to
launch attacks against network hosts, steal data or bypass
access controls. Preventing this attack requires IT-
infrastructure and network-level mitigations.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Cross-site scripting is a computer
security vulnerability found in web applications. XSSenables
attackers to inject client-sidescriptintoWebpagesviewedby
other users and trick a user into clicking on that URL. Once
executed by the other user’s browser, this code could then
perform actions such as completely changing the behaviorof
the website, stealing personal data, or performing actions on
behalf of the user.
Web Based Application Testing Methodologies
Different types of testing techniques like coverage testing,
structural testing, statistical testing, combinatorial
interaction testing, penetration testing, Search based
software engineering testing, UniqueInput/Outputmethod
using Genetic Algorithms [5],Web application Slicing[6],[7],
Hierarchical testing [8], Bypass testing, Cross Browser
compatibility testing [9], Leveraging User session Data
Testing have been presented by various researchers in the
context of web application testing [10].
Structural Testing - Data flow analysis on web
applications is performed and model for testing the
application is built dynamically.
Statistical Testing– Input Sequence is generated to testthe
interactions with web applicationsbasedontheprofileuseof
the web application.
Mutation Testing – The technique of introducing faulty
code (called mutants) into the source code deliberately at
predetermined points and testing the software to uncover
any unknown errors. It is one of the effective coverage
criterion techniques for testing of web applications [11].
Combinatorial InteractionTesting-Usingacombinationof
different techniques by first designing a unique input space
matrix for the web application
Penetration Testing - Automated tests which are run
simulating the active attacks to expose the susceptibilities
of the web applications.
Search Based Software Engineering Testing -
Exploration of solutions within a state space and
calculating a fitness function to the solution iteratively until
we arrive at a most optimal solution. The technique is
employed for branch coverage of web applications.
Using UIO and Genetic Algorithms - Path selection is
done based on a unique input/output (UIO) algorithm and

automatic test case generation using Genetic Algorithms
which results in the best test sequences.
GUI Interaction Testing - GUI widgets events sequencesare
performed and the web application tested for correctnessby
observing the state of the GUI widgets.
Web Application Slicing - Reduced web application which
behaves completely as the original one with respect to some
criterion and performing the testing.
Cross Browser Compatibility testing - Subjecting web
applications to deployment across different browsers for
adherence to expected results.
Hierarchical Strategy - High level operational profile is
developed enumerating frequency of use of operations and
a high level function group to thoroughly test such an
operation or related components is done.
Bypass Testing - Bypass client side checking by providing
invalid inputs to web application to check correctness and
security of the web application.
Leveraging User Session Data - Test cases are
generated by applying strategies to collected user
interactions in the form of URL’s and name-value pairs.
Browser Fuzzing By Scheduled Mutation - Browsers are
validated by using the static and dynamic ways, the former
based on the input format while the latter randomly
executing instructions giving one input at a time.
Invariant Based Technique - Testing the web
application by crawling the web pages, and formally
designing a state flow graph with all the possible user
interaction sequences resulting in the possibleuserinterface
states.
Model Based Testing Technique - Web application is
reduced to a state transition graph and navigation through
links is tested to ascertain correct behaviour of the web
application.
CONCLUSION
In this paper we introduced a set of related search based
testing algorithms, adapted for web application testing and
augmented the approach with static and dynamic seeding.
This paper also shows, there are many issues raised by web
application testing, such as dynamic type binding and user
interface inference that create novel challenges for search
based testing that have not previously been addressed.
Dynamically mined value seeding approachcan significantly
reduce effort and increase effectiveness for web application
testing.
REFERENCES
[1] Brain Marick, Classic Testing Mistakes, RSTAR97
conference
[2] Introduction to software testing available at
http://www.onestopsoftwaretesting.com/introductionand-
importance-of-software-testing-in-sdlc/
[3] Anju Bansal, International Journal of Computer Science
and Mobile Computing, Vol.3 Issue.6, June- 2014, pg. 579-
584
[4] F. Saglietti, N. Oster, and F. Pinte, “White and grey-box
verification and validation approaches for safetyand
security-critical software systems,” Information Security
Technical Report, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 10–16, 2008.
[5] Poonam Soni, Dr. Sanjay Tyagi, ―Testing Web
Applications Using UIO with GA‖, The International Journal
of Soft Computing and Software Engineering Volume3,Issue
5, May 2013 ISSN: 2277 128X.
[6] Lei Xu, Baowen Xu, Zhenqiang Chen, Jixiang Jiang,
Huowang Chen, “Regression Testing for Web Applications
Based on Slicing”, Proceedings of the 27th Annual
International Computer Software and Applications
Conference (COMPSAC’03) 0730-3157/03 2003 IEEE.
[7] Filippo Ricca, “Analysis, Testing and Re-structuring of
Web Applications”, Proceedings of the 20th IEEE
International Conference on Software Maintenance
(ICSM’04) 1063-6773/04 2004 IEEE.
[8] Jeff Tian, Li Ma, Zhao Li and A. G¨unes¸ Koru, “A
Hierarchical Strategy for Testing Web-Based Applications
and Ensuring Their Reliability”, Proceedings of the 27th
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[9] Ali Mesbah,Mukul R.Prasad,―AutomatedCross-Browser
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[10] Sebastian Elbaum, Member, Gregg Rothermel, Srikanth
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[11] Hanh Le Thi My, Nguyen Thanh, Khuat Thanh, ―Survey
on Mutation-based Test Data Generation‖, International
Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE), Vol
5, No 5, 2015.

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