Web Page Fundamentals

In the simplest terms, Internet web pages are just documents of text, pictures, sounds, video, and hyperlinksmuch like the CD-ROM multimedia titles that were popular in the mid 1990s. As in those programs, web users can navigate from page to page by clicking hyperlinked text or pictures, searching for words or phrases, and viewing the information they find.

The Internet, though, has introduced two twists to the multimedia document concept that revolutionizes the technology:

• Unlike data that is stored solely on a CD-ROM, web pages aren't constrained to a single PC. Users can link to and search worldwide across the entire Internet for information on any website.

• Web page authoring isn't limited to programmers using expensive and technical tools. The average person can create a simple web page almost as easily as writing a letter in a word processor.

But, just as giving someone a paint brush doesn't make him an artist, giving someone the ability to create web pages doesn't make him an expert in multimedia publishing. Couple that with the technology explosion that continually adds new website features, and you have the perfect opportunity for a software tester.

Figure 14.1 shows a popular news website that demonstrates many of the possible web page features. A partial list of them includes

• Text of different sizes, fonts, and colors (okay, you can't see the colors in this book)

• Graphics and photos

• Hyperlinked text and graphics

• Rotating advertisements

• Text that has Drop-down selection boxes

• Fields in which the users can enter data

Figure 14.1. A typical web page has many testable features.

A great deal of functionality also isn't as obvious, features that make the website much more complex:

• Customizable layout that allows users to change where information is positioned onscreen

• Customizable content that allows users to select what news and information they want to see

• Dynamic drop-down selection boxes

• Dynamically changing text

• Dynamic layout and optional information based on screen resolution

• Compatibility with different web browsers, browser versions, and hardware and software platforms

• Lots of hidden formatting, tagging, and embedded information that enhances the web page's usability

Granted, short of a secure e-commerce website, this is probably one of the more complex and feature-rich web pages on the Internet. If you have the tester mentality (and hopefully you've gained it by reading this far in the book), looking at such a web page should whet your appetite to jump in and start finding bugs. The remainder of this chapter will give you clues on where to look.