Testing your website on different browsers is a must thing to improve user experience. We’ve all noticed that some websites don’t display correctly in specific browsers, believing that the website is broken.
However, when you open it in a different browser, the website loads just fine. As a result, this behaviour explains how a website works with different browsers.
The information on the website page is interpreted differently by each browser. As a result, some browsers may lack the features your website is attempting to display, causing your website to appear broken in that browser.
In this article, you will know why it is essential and the best way to test websites on different browsers.
Cross-Browser Testing: Definition, importance, and How does it Perform?
As a web developer, it is your responsibility to ensure that your websites work and work for all of your users, regardless of browser, device, or additional assistive tools they are using.
A website comprises several components such as content, images, CSS, and scripts. Each browser will uniquely handle all of this.
CSS, for example, can behave very differently in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. This means that the same element may appear differently in different Web browsers.
Website browser testing ensures that these components work properly across all browser versions. The overarching goal is to detect bugs that may prevent a site from correctly displaying or functioning across browsers.
This could include ensuring that HTML, JavaScript, plugins, and design elements look and behave as intended across all browsers; hence, it is essential to test websites on different browsers.
Why It’s Essential To Test Websites On Different Browsers?
All testing is aimed at providing users with the best possible experience. However, when you look at different browsers, you’ll notice that each uses a different back-end technology to render websites.
Chrome dominates the market due to its widespread use on Android and popularity on desktop computers; Safari, Edge, Firefox, and Chromium have a sizable market share.
The website browser compatibility test takes into account the differences among these browsers.
These are some points why website browser testing is important:
- First, it examines how the code of a website adapts to different browsers.
- Second, it assists designers and developers in identifying bugs, which can then be resolved as soon as they are identified. When you test websites on multiple browsers, you may find these typical problems:
- Various JavaScript implementations
- CSS resets are missing
- A mismatch between font size and image orientation
- HTML5 is not supported
- Page alignment is inconsistent
- Incompatibility of layout with browser
- Misalignment of frameworks or library versions You can test websites in different browsers to avoid these and many other pitfalls before launching your website or web app. You can do this with website cross-browser testing.
5 Key Reasons: Why Website Cross-Browser Testing Is Must?
1 Website Cross Browser Testing Provides A Consistent User Experience (Ux)
Multiple Web browsers Testing ensures that your website visitors have a consistent experience, regardless of their browser.
Cross-browser testing is essential for software development because many different browsers, devices, and operating systems are available today.
Cross-browser testing ensures that all browsers, devices, and platforms have the same behaviour and experience.
2 Different Browsers Handle Applications Differently
The fact is that depending on the web browser in which they are run, different client components produce different results.
Apple Safari’s text-to-speech feature, for example, will only work on macOS.
3 The Various Technologies That Were Used To Construct The World Wide Web
From JavaScript to Applets and a slew of other technologies! Since the internet’s inception, website technologies have evolved dramatically.
As a result, website configurations have changed with the introduction of new web technologies, libraries, and frameworks such as HTML, jQuery, JSON, XML, and ReactJS, among others.
Continuous improvements in them over time have made cross-browser testing more critical than ever.
4 CSS Styles Can Appear In A Variety Of Ways
CSS styles may appear differently in different browsers. For example, what works fine in Internet Explorer (now Microsoft Edge) may not work as smoothly in Google Chrome. This is something that can be detected and addressed through cross-browser testing.
5 You Go Ahead, Or Your Competitors Will
Ultimately! If you do not invest time and resources in ensuring cross-browser testing, your competitors will.
If you don’t want to disappoint your customers, you must treat the cross-browser compatibility issue with the seriousness it deserves.
Let’s discuss the new way of doing cross-browser testing.
What is Cloud-Based Cross Browser Testing?
Cloud-based cross-browser testing involves running your website on remote devices (virtual or physical) and controlling them from your system.
The issue is that the website must be tested every time a new browser is released, which happens far too frequently.
Recently privacy browsers like Duck-Duck-Go, Brave browsers etc were launched and have grown faster so it’s important that websites are optimized for these browsers.
Even many mobile companies come with their own browsers so websites should be optimized for these browsers as well.
With time, cloud-based browser compatibility testing has proven the best option for testing your website easily, quickly, and affordably.
What Does Cross Browser Testing Involve?
Visual verification is no longer sufficient for modern browser testing. It also includes testing the code’s unseen functionality and browser-related business logic. The engineer conducting the testing must ensure the following:
Examine the user interface. Ensure that all user interface aspects are strictly according to the specifications and requirements.
Check the code for accuracy. Ensure that the CSS and JavaScript are fully validated across all target browsers.
Run the operation. Check to see if the site behaves consistently. Tabs, panels, links, popups, and navigation menus are all examples of this.
Examine performance. Keep an eye out for performance issues, such as elements that load slowly or infrequently.
Assess responsiveness. Is the site responsive to different screen sizes? You’ll need to consult with the product team to understand things here.
Also Read: Testing on iPhone 15 Devices: What You Need to Know?
Why Do You Need To Automate Cross-Browser Testing and How To Do This?
Why Do You Need to Automate Cross Border Testing?
“Automating software testing is no longer rocket science; instead, it has become a standard practice among the testing community due to its numerous benefits. The situation is similar when it comes to cross-browser testing.“
Here are some of the benefits of automating cross-browser testing:
01 Cross-Browser Testing Saves More Time
Cross-browser testing necessitates continuous testing, which can be highly time-consuming when done manually. Thus, automating the testing process makes testing more accessible and faster, resulting in a shorter turnaround time.
02 It Improved Bug Detection
When the process is automated, it is easier to detect hidden bugs.
03 Cross-Browser Testing Allows For Continuous Delivery
Because the turnaround time for browser testing has shrunk dramatically, continuous delivery of new software code releases becomes more feasible and positively impacts the delivery pipeline.
Automate Your Website Cross Browser Testing in These Simple 5 Steps:
Now that we understand what cross-browser testing is, why it is essential, and why automating cross-browser testing is a better approach, let’s look at how it can be accomplished in a few simple steps.
01 Prepare test cases with defined steps
Designing test cases is the most fundamental aspect of performing any type of software testing.
To create the most efficient test cases, you must first identify the factors to be tested. Next, determine the browsers against which compatibilities must be tested.
02 Create An Execution Strategy And Add Individual Test Environments
Create an execution strategy that includes a different test scenario/environment for each individual browser.
You will be able to test your application across thousands of browser and OS platform combinations as a result of this. As a result, your application will be as robust as possible.
You can accomplish this by following the framework-specific steps to create an execution strategy while automating the process and selecting the test suite and execution setup environment.
The process must be repeated for each browser-platform combination and can be sped up by running parallel tests simultaneously.
03 Consolidate The Pipeline For Continuous Integration
Integrate agile and DevOps teams using CI/CD tools. This ensures that the quality of your applications is maintained throughout the continuous delivery methods.
04 Analyze the results in a different test environments
Once you have received comprehensive test results and bug details, analyze them individually for each test environment to create more dynamic and customizable reports.
These include text logs, video recordings, screenshots, and other information to aid analysis.
05 Errors Should Be Reported And Debugged.
Now that you’ve completed the testing process, it’s time to report, catalogue, and troubleshoot the bugs that were discovered. For a faster resolution, you can use automated programs for this process.
Some Of The Best Cross Browser Testing Tools:
01 TestComplete
TestComplete is one of the most user-friendly cross-browser testing tools and automated testing platforms, enabling teams of all skill levels to create and execute automated user interface tests for desktop, mobile, and web applications.
TestComplete helps accelerate testing cycles, improve software quality, and ensure that your applications work as intended.
*Key Features of TestComplete: *
- A functional test automation tool for creating and running tests on any web application’s user interface.
- You can get real-time access to the latest devices and browsers by utilizing the device cloud’s unique feature.
- It is compatible with over 3200 browsers and physical devices.
- Visual testing, real-time device testing, performance testing, headless testing, and codeless automation are all supported.
- Display Resolution Testing, there are screen resolutions ranging from 800 X 600 to 2560 X 1440.
- Support is provided by Selenium, Cypress, Puppeteer, and Playwright.
- Geolocation testing entails testing your website from various locations.
Connect to Jenkins, Bamboo, Jira, Azure DevOps, and other tools.
Cost of TestComplete:A subscription fee after the free trial can be added
02 LambdaTest
LambdaTest is a cloud-based platform for testing the cross-browser compatibility of your web app or website. You can automate Selenium scripts and successfully run them on LambdaTest’s scalable cloud grid or perform live interactive testing in real browser settings.
Key Features of LambdaTest:
- Developer tools are integrated to aid in the debugging of errors encountered during live testing.
- You can avoid post-deployment issues with your website or web application with locally hosted web testing.
- Test from various locations to ensure that your users have a consistent experience across all locales.
- Browser compatibility testing is available online.
- Automated Screenshots / Screenshot Testing is now faster.
- Examine the responsiveness on all screen sizes.
- Collaboration and testing are seamless.
Locally Hosted Pages are being tested.
Cost of LambdaTest:There is a trial version available.
An annual plan costs $15 per month, while a monthly plan costs $19.
03 Cross Browser Testing
Cross Browser Testing lets you test your website on over 2000 desktop and mobile browsers.
Use Selenium, Appium, or your favorite frameworks to test and debug on live remote devices interactively, view your website in multiple browsers simultaneously, or run automated tests using Selenium, Appium, or your favorite frameworks.
Team or organization following an agile approach. Agile teams can test more quickly thanks to parallel testing and integrations with continuous integration solutions such as Jenkins.
*Key Features of Cross-Browser Testing: *
- The Selenium and Appium cloud testing grid enables the engineering team to scale at the promised automation rate.
- It integrates seamlessly into your CI workflow thanks to integrations with great technologies such as Jenkins.
- FireBug, Chrome Dev Tools, and other useful developer tools and extensions are included.
- REST API allows you to use your command line to access almost all of the features of this tool.
- Using Record and Replay, you can create automated tests with no code.
- Create and run Selenium tests in the programming languages of your choice.
- Create full-page screenshots for different browsers and devices.
- Integrate apps into Cross BrowserTesting.com to receive notifications automatically and manually share test results. It is compatible with Slack, Jira, and HipChat.
*Cost of Cross Browser Testing: *
- A free trial is available, with packages beginning at $29 per month.
04 SeleniumBox
Selenium Box is an Enterprise Selenium Grid that primarily serves as a cross browser and mobile testing infrastructure for significant enterprises, financial institutions, and security-conscious organizations.
Key Features of SeleniumBox:
- It runs entirely on-premises or in your private cloud. It is a low-maintenance solution. Selenium Box will manage Selenium updates, browsers, and drivers.
- It supports the most recent and all previous versions of browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, and macOS Safari.
- Desktop browsers, mobile emulators, and accurate mobile devices are all supported.
- It is installed on your servers or in your private cloud behind your firewall. There is no need for tunnels or other external access.
- Supports Desktop browsers, emulators/simulators, and real-world devices
- Security does not necessitate the use of tunnels or external access.
- Completely manageable and low-maintenance
- Cost of SeleniumBox:
- A subscription fee can be added once the trial is done
05 Browser Shots
Browser Shots takes screenshots of your website design in various operating systems and browsers. It is a free, open-source online web application that allows developers to test their website’s browser compatibility in one place. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue.
Your website will be displayed in the browsers of several distributed machines. They will take screenshots and upload them to our central dedicated server for you to review.
Key Features of Browser Shots:
- A website UI can be tested using any browser and operating system.
- Check for cross browser compatibility and a wide range of customization options.
- It is compatible with over 200 different browsers.
- Cost of Browser Shots:
- This tool is completely free.
Why Should You Choose TestGrid To Test Websites On Different Browsers?
Simply because you will be just not limited to testing websites on different browsers but…you can also do a ton of more things that can give you an edge over your competitors, and your software testing business will skyrocket.
Parallel Testing: TestGrid platform enables users to add multiple environments to their testing suite and run parallel testing seamlessly, saving time, effort, and money.
Supports Continuous Integration: TestGrid provides simple integrations with all popular CI/CD tools to facilitate continuous integration.
Robust Reporting Capabilities: TestGrid platform includes powerful test analytics and reporting that can be customized to meet the user’s needs.
Scalability: With TestGird, you don’t have to worry about scaling up or down your testing infrastructure based on your testing requirements. Furthermore, as soon as a new version of a browser or operating system (OS) is released to the market, we add it to the available test environments.
Simple To Code: As we allow users to write automation scripts in a simple English keyword-driven manner, you don’t need to be a coding expert. TestGrid has made automation very, very simple, and anyone can do it.
Conclusion:
Your job as a developer is to make your website accessible, appealing, and work smoothly on maximum devices.
You need to ensure that someone using Internet Explorer can access and enjoy a website in the same way that someone using Google Chrome. In addition, it enhances the user experience.
This means that customers are less likely to encounter bugs and unappealing layout elements, and they are more likely to develop brand loyalty.
Browser testing promotes a positive reputation and has an impact on bottom-line goals when users can easily view content and experience optimized functionality regardless of device, operating system, or browser they use.
With TestGrid, testing is made easy, and you can automate the whole process and write the instructions without going through a tedious coding process.
This blog is originally published at Testgrid
Top comments (1)
This article seems a bit skewed towards promoting TestGrid, and doesn't link to the alternative solutions listed. Below are the missing links, for clarity:
TestComplete - smartbear.com/product/testcomplete/
LambdaTest - lambdatest.com
SeleniumBox - element34.com
BrowserShots - testingwebsites.co.uk/testing-tool...