How to check/monitor scripts to ensure they are working?

Question

Hi all,

I was told to do a payment page using Paypal and so far it is working fine. Users can load it and purchase items with no issues.

But recently, there is a requirement to do daily checks that the page is working properly. Like a health check. The objectives are:

1. Load the payment page (something like a checkout page). Ensure the page loads with no errors.
2. Clicking on Paypal or Pay button in the page will bring the user to the Paypal page.
3. Check the IPN page can be loaded.
4. If any of the above fail, send a notification via email.
5. For each check, record them down in a log file or database.

I can do this manually and log them in a database or spreadsheet but I would prefer this to be done automatically at random intervals.

Can this be done?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You could use Selenium for this, but it's slightly odd because, in theory, your system won't "magically" change, unless something new is uploaded :) But it can't hurt to do redundant checks (what I'm getting at though, is that this sort of testing could be a part of your general development process before you actually release).