Why Load Testing is a Critical Part of Web Performance

Load testing is an important part of overall web performance. The load testing process is widely used. The testing system involves placing demand on a particular software system and measuring the response.

Load testing is a useful tool because it can give you an idea on how a system responds under normal operating conditions. In addition, load testing can also give an accurate measure on how a system responds during a time when it reaches peak load conditions. A peak load condition can better be explained when a web site receives a great deal of traffic all at one time.

Load testing is extremely useful because it can provide useful information maximum operating capacity of an application. In addition, load testing can accurately detect any weakness or vulnerability within a frequently used application. Therefore, long term use of load testing can actually help one build a stronger and more accurate software system.

Load testing with tools like LoadView Testing also accurately identifies stress testing procedure and how it affects the overall system. In some cases, overloading a system or placing great stress on the system can sometimes cause malfunction.

Performance testing, reliability testing and volume testing are all important testing procedures to determine if certain software programs are suitable. If a software program is deemed unsuitable, then measures must be taken to repair any flaws or weakness within the software system.

Load testing is widely used and it has other applications besides testing software reliability. Load testing can be effectively used to test a web sites QOS performance. QOS performance is measured according to customer behavioral patterns at any given moment.

Essentially each and every time a customer visits a web site a great deal of helpful information is automatically recorded. This type of information is extremely useful in helping web developers improve the quality of an existing web site. Customer or consumer input and suggestions are always very useful.

Identifying the needs of a consumer is essentially what keeps a web site up and running. The more people that view a certain web site will help the web site to make money and improve the overall quality of the web site.

Load testing will continue to be a critical part of web performance. Load testing essentially helps improve a web site operation, technique and overall performance. Stress testing will also continue to be a very important element as far as load testing is concerned. The more stress or traffic a web site can handle the better.

How to Monitor HTML5 Applications

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The latest web applications are really proving the power HTML5 has, and while its performance and abilities are awe-inspiring, if they aren’t properly monitored, they can quickly cause errors within the application. These errors and issues, even if minor, can completely destroy the user’s experience, which may result in a drop of productivity or visitor conversions. If you’re interested in monitoring your HTML5 web applications, then you should follow these tips and advice to ensure your HTML5 apps continuously run at their optimum performance levels.

Gain Insights Into End User Experiences

Just like any other web application, HTML5 applications can provide the end user with a fluid and dynamic experience; however, due to the complex nature of this coding language, there are many errors and issues that can suddenly arise. Prevent any downtime with your application by installing a web application monitorin gsolution capable of providing real-time insights into the performance and functionality of the HTML5 application based upon the end user experience. Make sure any solution you choose features detailed waterfall charts to truly understand how users experience the application within their browser.

Continuously Test HTML5 Apps

Due to the dynamic nature of HTML5 applications, it’s essential that you continuously test these applications on different browsers. While this can be a time consuming process, there are online tools capable of testing the functionality and cross-platform performance of HTML5 applications. These tools include:

  1. HTML5 Test
  2. Modernizr

These tools work by writing conditional code to handle a wide variety of situations. This is an invaluable toolset for applications that utilize features that particular browsers may not support. Once installed your server, these lightweight tools instantly load upon page load and add the necessary coding markups to ensure the application runs smoothly even on browsers that would otherwise not support the application features or elements.

Establish Key Performance Indicators

Much like any other web application, HTML5 applications should be running against a select amount of key performance indicators, or KPIs. These indicators act as the “baseline” for how an application should operate and perform. It’s only when these benchmarks are created that an application monitoring program is able to determine whether or not the HTML5 coding is operating in an acceptable manner. When KPIs is established, it makes identifying, troubleshooting and fixing application errors simple and fast – two essential elements when it comes to creating well-designed applications.

Code-Level Monitoring Solution

While it may be impossible for a single IT professional to continuously monitor HTML5 codes 24-hours a day, installing an application monitoring solution allows administrators access the functionality of their coding without having to manually scan each line of code. Since HTML5 code is dynamic in nature, and often combined with other scripts, such as JavaScript and/or CSS, it’s essential that a complete monitoring solution includes code-level analysis.

The Importance of Consistent Web Application Monitoring

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When it comes to the modern Internet user, there is one universal truth – they are demanding. Not only do they demand websites to fully load and be functional within 3 seconds, they also demand all web applications be fluid and high performing. If you’re searching for a way to satisfy Internet users, and potentially transform a visitor to a customer, then you must employ a consistent and well-designed web application monitoring solution. While there are several common reasons why an effective web application monitoring solution is an essential component for any IT department toolkit, there are other lesser-known reasons.

Consistency is Key for Customer Retention

Attracting customers is a universal element for any business; however, consistency within their experience is a whole different ball game. Continuity is something that’s closely linked to your brand. If a web application is glitch-happy and uneven with its performance, users will notice this. In fact, it only takes three negative or sub-par experiences to create a negative reputation regarding the functionality of your business. If you’re seeking out an effective way to retain customers without having to continuously revamp your site and offerings, simply install an effective web application monitoring solution to your site. Soon, you’ll be on your way to the level of consistency all web users expect and demand.

Faster Website Operation

Did you know that over half of all Internet users expect a web page to load in less than 3 seconds? Not only does this expectation reach out to the content and images of your site, but also its applications. Shockingly, over 75% of Internet users confess to moving onto a competitor’s site if an application takes longer than 7 seconds to load. This could mean the difference between reaching outstanding profits or just being able to “get by.”

An effective web application monitoring service not only ensures all apps are working at their optimum levels, but these services also offer insights into how your entire website interacts with the application and how these interactions alter the speed and functionality of your site. While there are specific tools to monitor and enhance website speed, a fully-functional app monitoring service provides an additional layer of security and speed to your site.

Less Help Desk Tickets

Every business owner can attest that help desk tickets have the potential of killing productivity within your business. If you must spend time answering questions and dealing with errors within the site, you’re spending less time dealing with the real issues of your business. This is where a consistent web application monitoring solution comes into play. The most effective solutions are those that monitor the end-to-end user experience, as well as how the app operates at code-level. Not only does this monitoring help isolate issues, but the most advanced solution automatically implements fixes and solutions that prevent any errors from affecting live users. When implemented, you’ll find this feature significantly reduces the number of help desk inquiries, which frees up your time to focus on the business-side of your enterprise.

Catch Errors Before Your Customers Do Through Effective Monitoring Solutions

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As our digital world expands and becomes more dynamic, the expectations of users and customers simultaneously expands and becomes more complex. Perhaps one of the most universally common expectations of users is the performance of web applications. Regardless of its purpose, visitors and users expect and demand applications to run at optimum levels from beginning to end. In fact, based upon the latest research, one of the most powerful ways to lose a customer or visitor is via under-performing web applications and slow website loading times. While there are many issues and errors that may affect the performance of a web application, engaging in web app monitoring best practices helps reduce user-experienced errors. Ultimately, by catching errors before your customers/visitors do can save your reputation and client base.

Monitor the Application and Network Performance

For most web app developers and administrators, monitoring application performance through an APM solution is a common approach. While application performance monitoring solutions are able to continuously monitor all levels of an application to ensure its processes and communication between the browser and server is seamless. The majority of enterprises should not only monitor an application, but also its network to ensure optimum performance and to catch errors as soon as they happen (or ideally immediately before they occur through established alerts and triggers).

Monitoring the experience users have on the application-level is essential to provide a granular view of experience quality; however, if you only rely on application level performance monitoring you’re only catching problems after they occur at the network-level. In fact, the most prominent challenges an enterprise can experience aren’t at the application-level, but at the enterprise-level. Because applications are at a near-constant state of flux, network-level processes are far more consistent, which makes its monitoring for potential errors far easier and effective than application-level-only monitoring.

Business Service Management Solutions

Due to the importance of catching errors before your customers/visitors do, many enterprises are moving away from application-specific monitoring and shifting into business service management solutions. While business service management is often more difficult and complex than APM solutions, its ability to catch errors on the network and application-level is far more superior than application only monitoring. There are also a number of services and standalone products that offer free web application monitoring. For example, the service Uptime Robot offers 50 free monitors at 5 minute intervals for no cost. Everystep Automation offers a free downloadable software package that monitors web applications at no cost, although they also offer a more robust paid package.

Perhaps one of the most effective approaches to BSM initiatives is through monitoring key service operation processes, which tend to deal with the most essential aspects of a digital environments, such as: access management, request fulfillment, incident management and event management. Once a monitoring tool has been established for each of these processes, the monitoring processes can be automated. This frees up IT department resources and effectively catches errors at the network and application-level before it has time to alter user experiences.

How to Test Your Web Application Before Going Live

So you’ve spent hours researching and developing your web applications and the launch date is soon approaching. While you may be excited to set your application free for all to enjoy, if there is a single issue with its functionality, this much-anticipated release may fall flat. While there are many different aspects you must consider while testing your application, there are three primary goals that your enterprise must accomplish before your application goes live.

The Three Goals and Types of Application Testing

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Demystifying the three primary types of application testing, and its goals, is the first step in understanding how to effectively test your web applications before the app goes live. The three testing types and goals of web application testing include:

  1. Stability Testing – The primary goal of stability testing is to reduce the likelihood of the application losing memory due to functionality leaks as well as detecting and fixing various system crashes. This is among the most important pre-launch tests as it ensures the application can sustain itself during low and high usage.
  2. Performance Testing – The goal of performance testing is to gauge the amount of time it takes to execute specific requests. It’s essential that every type of request an application may face is tested and reviewed. Upon its results, developers may optimize event processing methods, transaction lengths and procedures.
  • Scalabilitiy Testing – Websites that are expected to see an increase in traffic, especially during specific hours or days, must perform a scalability test. This type of test synthetically replicates the demands from a high level of users. It’s an essential aspect of testing and development as it clarifies the amount of hardware needed to support potential user load.

Utilizing an Effective Application Testing Tool

While you may be aware of the goals and the type of testing that needs to be performed, the tool used to test applications is just as, if not more, important. In order to implement effective testing strategies, use a tool that provides complete evaluation of an application, such as Windows Application Stress Tool, Emprix’s eTest Suite or ACT.

 

The type of tool you use is based upon the complexity of each test. For example, if you wish to test complex applications, then the more advanced-level tools, such as eTest Suite or ACT are best. Regardless of what tool you wish to use, properly setting up the tool, especially for more complex solutions, tend to require coding knowledge.

 

Regardless of the tools and steps you take to test your web application before it goes live, the most important approach all developers must take is known as the “No Surprises” approach. The most effective testing is that that delves deeper than simple system testing. Load testing is the only way to gain a true picture of the performance and sustainability of application architecture. By utilizing appropriate metric levels to gauge the quality of each application, you’re given a precise view into the inner-workings and performance capabilities of an application, which is absolutely necessary before an application goes live.

Testing Nonprofit Web Applications

If you’re a nonprofit looking to come out with a web application to help further your cause or help assist in reaching out to your supporters, it’s important to make sure that any web application you’re using is thoroughly tested. There are also a few important points to consider when looking at the infrastructure needed to support that.

First of all, you need to find web site hosting for nonprofits that can actually handle your web application. If you choose something that’s not robust enough you could be running into some big trouble because the server infrastructure just isn’t fast enough to handle things like that. This could lead to a slow and buggy situation where your site isn’t functioning properly and your web application is essentially pointless.

In addition to finding good quality non profit hosting, it’s important that you do some performance testing on your web application when it’s done. Just because you might be a nonprofit doesn’t mean this isn’t important. In fact, it’s actually more important because you really need to get your message out to people.

These are all important considerations when testing and creating a nonprofit web application, so don’t forget to be thorough, and check your performance even if you’re a nonprofit developing a web application.