With increasing demand and rising competition, most web development companies have started investing in feature-rich web applications using cutting-edge technologies. Currently .Net is widely used for enterprise app development due to its flexibility in meeting the growing business needs.

A more accessible, user-friendly, fast and secure web app is the right mix to elevate a business. To ensure that the .Net app stands tall on all these properties a .Net web app needs to be extensively tested on all fronts.

Testing .Net Web Applications

You should develop fast, scalable and responsive software; but until these factors are quantified, they are just assumptions based on the technology used.

The testing phase is an important part of application development, yet some software development companies underestimate it. The chances of a bug appearing increases with every stage of code and the costs of fixing them also rise with the time.

To know more about testing metrices and its relevance based on the stage of development do go through – Common Software Testing Metrices for your Project.

Testing ASP.Net applications should not be an isolated activity; it should be clubbed with the agile development phase to improve efficiency. To work with these tools, you need to hire .NET Developers who have worked on these tools or at least have an overview of these tools.

Tools for Testing ASP.Net Web Applications

Using testing tools to ensure the quality of app development is crucial. Testing tools have been widely used in almost all industries and are an integral part of all .net practicing companies.

With these testing tools, issues like web application accessibility, security, functionality, compatibility, usability, and performance are addressed before it is released. Finding the right balance of what to test and which testing tools to use is imperative to ensure app quality. Several general app testing tools work well with .Net apps.

Here is a list of web app testing tools, which are extensively used for testing .Net applications:

1.      ANTS Memory Profiler

The default automatic memory management in .Net can make app development much easier; however, there are chances of memory leaks in the app. For example, when it comes to developing complex applications, forgetting to unregister is more common and it is known for holding objects that you don’t require to store in memory anymore. If this remains unchecked or unresolved, it generally leads to increased memory usage and exhibits poor performance or even crashing of the app.

ANTS memory profiler uncovers the underlying cause of memory problems in your .Net application. It helps optimize the memory usage of VB.Net code and C# code. Use this tool as a part of the .Net Development Bundle or as a standalone tool and develop less memory intensive, better performing applications.

2.      DotCover

By developing and running a unit test against your app, you can verify the logic of individual components. It is important to be aware of the extent to which your application code is covered with this test. With Dotcover, it is possible to automate your unit tests as well as application coverage. This testing tool can calculate and report statement-level code coverage in web apps based on .Net Core, .Net Framework and Mono.

This .Net code coverage tool is integrated with JetBrains Riders and Visual Studio. It supports various unit testing frameworks including NUnit, MSTests, xUnit, and MSpec. Its helps figure out what units of the code were called at a particular session and which units were not reached. Further, its continuous testing feature automatically re-runs unit tests for the latest code changes.

DotCover also helps to identify the memory leaks in the code. Navigation to covering tests, Hot Spots view, Coverage filters, Remote code coverage, and multiple report formats are few other notable features.

3.      TestComplete

TestComplete offers automated functional and unit testing environment for a broad range of technologies and application types including web applications & services, .Net, Windows, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java, Delphi, and C++ Builder. It offers extreme support for regression testing, distributed testing, data-driven testing and others. Once the application is tested with this tool, it identifies its objects & controls while providing special commands to simulate user actions. TestComplete also has certain checkpoints that enable you to check the application status while running test cases.

This tool identifies .Net controls presented on forms and enables you to access internal methods, properties and objects of .Net web apps without recompiling them. It also offers several useful features for .Net testing, including manual testing and record & playback user action. It supports several standards and 3rd party .Net controls. It offers built-in operations to automate various user actions with these controls like grid cell clicks, item selection, data retrieval, tree node expanding and so on.

4.      Selenium WebDriver

Another effective tool for testing asp.net web applications is Selenium. This open-source automation tool is widely used to write test cases to automate functionalities of web apps. It supports multiple operating systems and browsers. .Net, PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, and Perl are some programming languages that Selenium WebDriver Supports. Selenium test cases employs several tools to write and automate test cases for web apps irrespective of any technologies. Selenium Grid, Selenium IDE, and Selenium RC are names of a few.

This tool is compatible with both desktop and mobile devices. Benefits of Web Driver have extended the automated testing support across browsers; hence, you can test on all major browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge and many more. Being open-source, user-friendliness, easy implementation, Add-ons & reusability, and cross-device testing are the widely acclaimed advantages of Selenium Web driver for automation testing.

5.      WebLoad

.Net Load testing can be a challenging task when the application includes a large number of dynamic values, which should be replaced to assure reliable test replay. WebLoad offers a complete solution for Load testing ASP.Net applications with simple test scripts and deep server-side analytics. Its powerful drag and drop building blocks, Correlation, recording & scripting, Response Validations, and Parameterization enable you to build load test cases more efficiently.

Compared to other performance testing tools for .Net applications, WebLoad offers comprehensive solutions for test creation & execution including implementing .Net stress testing and built-in support for recording apps. It offers server monitoring for Microsoft Active Server pages & Windows servers.

Its specialized reporting & analytics identifies the known issues of .Net applications like high contention rate, high wait time in queue, extensive time spent in garbage collection, etc.

You can extend as well as enhance your test scripts with integration and logic using the native JavaScript language of WebLoad.

Closure

Web testing tools can assure you the stable work and reliability of your applications. Keep in mind investing in the right testing tool is just the beginning; not the solution for everything. This makes the testing process easier, but you need to hire .Net developers and testers who know and adhere with the processes. Sometimes, tools might be stuck with recognizing complex issues on the apps. The skilled resources you hire can come up with a solution, which takes the process forward. Hence, choosing skilled resources and the right tools plays a key role in successful application development.