ECT 455/HCI 513

Website Testing

Technology and architecture

Agenda

• Market News

• Site Testing

• Technology

• Projects– Project Presentation– Final Deliverables– Peer Evaluation

• Final Exam Review

Testing

• Visual Acceptance Testing– Consistency in layout, color, and style.– Under different browsers, resolutions, and viewing

environments equivalent to those of a real user.– Printed pages.

• Functionality Testing– No broken links.– Test all interactive elements (forms, shopping carts,

search engines)– Test functions with realistic and extreme cases.

Testing

• Delivery Testing – Simulate site traffic– Test the site on the actual production server

• User Acceptance Testing – Beta testing – Perform user acceptance testing after fixing

obvious problems

• Release and Beyond– The maintenance phase has just begun.

Testing

• Content Proofing– Word usage, grammar, proof reading– Product names, copyright dates, and

trademarks

• System and Browser Compatibility Testing– Use detailed browser requirements– Use same types of systems and browsers that

real users will have.

Expert Evaluation

• Expert evaluation versus usability study.

• Goals:– To uncover obvious execution flaws.– To identify obvious usability problems

• Not a substitute for usability study.

Evaluation • First impression.• Home page pretesting

– Identify– Navigation: clickable zone

• Sub page pretesting• Site navigation testing

– Consistency of placement of navigation, search facility• Task analysis

– Readability– Findability (browsing)– Interactivity

• Execution analysis– Up-to-date content; standards for HTML, CSS, XML– Visual execution: image quality and file size; Delivery: speed and

server capacity• Final impression.

User Testing

• Log files

• Pay attention more to what users do than to what they say.

• Consider having a person not involved in the site design process to conduct a user test.

• http://www.useit.com

• http://www.usableweb.com

Web Services for e-Commerce

WSDL

http

WSDL

http

SOAP callSOAP response

Web Services: Using XML for communicationWeb service environment:1. Encapsulate the logic of the application logic into a

subroutine.

2. Define the API for the logic using WSDL.

3. Host the subroutine on a Web server supporting the SOAP.

4. Publish the subroutine definition to an UDDI directory.

5. Look up the service in the UDDI directory

6. Use SOAP to make a remote call from the client application to the subroutine.

7. Use the results of the call in the application.

The Vision of Web Services

• Provide a straightforward and interoperable means for programs to communicate with each other over the Web.

• Provide directories so that providers can advertise and users can search for services

• Create a market for remote services, such as payment systems, logistics, and business messaging.

• Knit together disparate applications by the use of service discovery and negotiation.

Advantages of Web Services• Based on open and ubiquitous standards.

– HTTP for communication and XML for information exchange

– Work across hardware and software boundaries

• Allow creation of business service stacks– Expose software systems over the Internet to create

value-added service stacks by melding discrete Web services over a network

– Standardize machine-to-machine interaction– Publish your service to broad audience without worrying

about custom coding and interoperability issues

• Enjoy a broad-based industry support.– Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Oracle– The open source movement

Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

• Based on RPC models – YDDI standards (for service directory)– WSDL – an XML schema (API)– Web servers and HTTP (binary wire protocols)

• New factors– Remote and less reliable than local procedure

calls. – Built on open standards, leading to wide

interoperability among different implementations.

Core Enabling Technology

• XML• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

– The transport that facilitates the exchange of XML messages between machines.

– Calling conventions for remote procedure calls, encoding rules for parameters and return values, and the envelope.

– Performs business method requests as XML documents and supports a variety of lower-level protocols (HTTP(S), SMTP)

– Consists of request and response XML documents that have an envelope over them.

Core Enabling Technology

• WSDL (Web Services Description Language)– Interface definition language for Web services.– Describe services that are accessible via SOAP

and HTTP. – An XML language that permits standardized

description of Web services.– Describe the interface, semantics, and

administration-related information of a Web service call.

– Allows simple services to be quickly and easily described, documented, and discovered.

Core Enabling Technology

• UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration)– A process not a protocol. – Provides a specification that permits the publication

and location of services in a universal service registry. – Publishes an available service along with its call

interface and semantics/– Provides a discovery and meeting point for service

providers and consumers.

UDDI Specification

• Business information (businessEntity element)– Business name, contact details

• Service information (businessService element)– Services relevant to a function or a service category

• Biding information (bindingTemplate element)– Network access point, supported interfaces

• Specification information (tModels)– Specification or interfaces supported by a Web

services– Data structure

Web Service Layers

Examples

• Amazon.com

• Auto industry

E-Commerce Solutions for Small Business

• Valueweb

• Storesense

• 1&1 Professional eShop

• Yahoo Merchant Starter

E-Commerce Building Blocks

E-Commerce Application Building Blocks

Sell-Side E-Commerce Systems

Projects

• Testing

• Guidelines

• Documentation

• Presentation

• Peer Evaluation

Final Exam Review

• Treese & Steward 2nd edition– Chapters 2, 3, 4, 11, 13, 15

• Web Design and Complete Reference 2nd edition– Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6 (165-185), 9 (302-312), 17

(725-733)