Understanding HTTP Headers: Types, Examples & Their Role in Web Communication

HTTP Request and Response objects consist of a body and header. While the body in the Response holds the data message (HTML, JSON) or form fields in the Request, the headers let the client and the server pass essential information about each other.

Headers can be grouped into four categories by their context:

• General headers contain information that is relevant for both request and Response, but no information about the data in a body.
• Request headers hold information about the client and requested resources.
• Response headers include server details, like time, location, and configuration.
• Entity header informs the browser about the type and body of the resource.

Let’s inspect more in detail. Go to the webpage https://madurai.nic.in/, open the console > Network tab, and select the document to inspect headers. You will likely see the headers divided into General, Request, and Response.

General group consist of the following information:

• Request URL: https://madurai.nic.in/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
• Request Method: POST
• Status Code: 200 OK
• Remote Address: 164.100.225.214:443 (The IP address of the server)

Request Headers include the following properties:

• Accept: / (Accept any content type)
• Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br, zstd (An algorithm, such as compression that is used on the recourse sent back.)
• Accept-Language: en-US, en (Hints the server about the expected language)
• Connection: keep-alive (Controls how long connection should stay open)
• User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/125.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 (Lets server to identify the characteristics of the application, OS, vendor, and versions)

Response Headers include:

• Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 (Set the instruction for caching. Other setting types: no-cache, no-store, no-transform)
• Content-Encoding: Specifies the compression algorithm used for the response body
• Content-Length: 17 (The size of the recourse in bytes)
• Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8 (The resource type received. The current type is a JSON document.)
• Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2024 06:57:27 GMT (The time when the message was created)
• Expires: Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT (Sets the date when the relevant content will no longer be new/fresh)
• Server: Specifies the software used by the server at the time of the sent Response

Low Severity and High Priority Bugs in E-commerce Web Application

1. Typo on the Checkout Confirmation Page

Description: A misspelled word on the checkout confirmation page.

Severity: Low

Priority: High

2. Logo Displaying Incorrectly on Homepage

Description: The company logo appears stretched or pixelated.

Severity: Low

Priority: High

3. Incorrect Customer Support Email Address on the Contact Us Page

Description: The email address provided for customer support is incorrect.

Severity: Low

Priority: High

4. Broken Social Media Links in Footer

Description: Links to social media pages in the footer are broken.

Severity: Low

Priority: High

5. Non-functional Promo Code Input Box

Description: The input box for promo codes in the checkout process does not work.

Severity: Low

Priority: High

High Severity Low Priority Bugs in E-Commerce Web Application

1. Payment Gateway Failure in Specific Currency
High Severity: Users cannot complete purchases using a particular currency.
Low Priority: This currency is rarely used by the customer base.
Technical: When users select a rarely used currency, the payment gateway integration fails due to incorrect API calls or missing currency configuration.
Simple: Users can't pay in a specific, rarely-used currency.

2. Crash When Filtering Products by a Rare Attribute

High Severity: The website crashes, disrupting user experience.

Low Priority: The attribute filter is rarely used by customers.

Technical: Filtering by an uncommon attribute triggers a crash, possibly due to a null reference or unhandled exception.

Simple: The site crashes when filtering by a rarely used feature.

3. Incorrect Discount Calculation for Bulk Orders

High Severity: Users are charged incorrect amounts.

Low Priority: Bulk orders are rare.

Technical: The discount logic has a bug when calculating bulk order discounts, leading to incorrect pricing.

Simple: Bulk orders get the wrong discounts.

4. Failure to Load Product Images on Secondary Pages

High Severity: Product images do not load, affecting user experience.

Low Priority: Occurs on less frequently visited pages.

Technical: Image URLs or CDN issues prevent images from loading on less-visited pages.

Simple: Product images don't show up on certain pages.

5. Inability to Apply Multiple Coupons on Checkout

High Severity: Users cannot avail of multiple discounts.

Low Priority: Only a few users use multiple coupons.

Technical: The checkout process doesn't handle multiple coupon codes due to a bug in the discount application logic.

Simple: Users can't use more than one coupon at a time.

6. Error in Wishlist Functionality for Out-of-Stock Items

High Severity: Users cannot add out-of-stock items to their wishlist.

Low Priority: Out-of-stock items are a small portion of the catalogue.

Technical: The wishlist feature crashes or misbehaves when adding out-of-stock items due to lack of proper handling.

Simple: Can't add out-of-stock items to a wishlist.

7. Mismatch in Product Specifications on Detailed View

High Severity: Detailed view shows incorrect specifications.

Low Priority: Rarely visited detailed specifications page.

Technical: The product detail page shows incorrect specs due to outdated or incorrect data fetching logic.

Simple: Wrong details are shown on the product page.

8. Search Function Fails for Long Strings

High Severity: Users can't search with long keywords.

Low Priority: Most users use short search queries.

Technical: Long search queries cause database or server errors, possibly due to input length limits or inefficient query handling.

Simple: Searching with long phrases doesn't work.

9. Incorrect Display of User Loyalty Points

High Severity: Users see the wrong loyalty points balance.

Low Priority: The loyalty points program has low participation.

Technical: The loyalty points calculation or display logic has errors, showing incorrect balances.

Simple: Users see the wrong loyalty points balance.

10. Failure to Load Reviews for Products with No Reviews

High Severity: Page crashes if a product has no reviews.

Low Priority: Most products have at least one review.

Technical: The review section crashes when there are no reviews, likely due to poor handling of empty datasets.

Simple: Page crashes if there are no reviews.

Common API Test Cases: Essential Checklist for Effective API Testing

 

Bug Leakage in E-commerce Web Applications

1. Payment Gateway Issues:

• A bug where the payment gateway fails to process transactions intermittently, causing users to be unable to complete purchases.

  
2. Product Display Errors:

• Incorrect product images or descriptions are shown, leading to user confusion or incorrect orders.

  
3. Cart Issues:

• Items added to the cart disappear or change quantity without user input.

  
4. Order Confirmation Emails:

• Users not receiving order confirmation emails or receiving them with incorrect details.

  
5. Search Functionality:

• Search results not displaying relevant products, or the search feature not working at all.

  
6. Discount Codes:

• Discount codes not applying correctly or giving incorrect discounts.

  
7. User Account Problems:

• Users are unable to log in, register, or reset passwords.

  
8. Slow Loading Pages:

• Certain pages take too long to load, leading to a poor user experience.

  
9. Checkout Process Failures:

• The checkout process freezes or fails, preventing users from completing their purchases.

  
10. Inventory Mismatches:

• Showing products as in stock when they are out of stock, leading to order cancellations.