Note: This is a guest post written by Jamie Davidson
Introduction
In today’s technology-driven world, where people have a handful of choices to choose their preferred web browser, it’s of utmost significance to have your website go through cross-browser testing. Any exception in the loading of a website can lead to losing its user’s trust.
Hence when you know your users have an expansive option of browsers, assure your website is compatible with all of them. The constantly used web browsers are Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.
What’s Cross-Browser Testing?
The operation of your application over different browsers is validated using cross-browser testing. It verifies that your website works steadily and as per necessities. It can be utilized both for web and mobile operations. Customer-facing applications are additionally desirable to be administered for cross-browser testing. But eventually, the question arises that most of the applications are meant for end-users only.
Why is cross-browser testing required?
According to StatCounter, in Asia, 82% of mobile users are on Android, 17% on iOS, and lower than 1% on other operating systems ( OS). While in the USA, 61% are on iOS and just 38 on Android. It would nearly unsettle you to know that in America,10.5 of Windows users are still on Windows 7. More than 3% use Windows 8.1, and some are still using XP or Vista. The screen-resolution statistics are equally different – 360×640 px, 1366 x 768 px, and 1920 x 1080 px are the default or preferred resolutions on nearly 30% of the devices around the world.
Cross-browser testing, as talked over ahead, is done to test the application’s compatibility with multiple browsers. A few other common reasons for the implementation of cross-browser testing are
- To find flaws in the applications and be capable of amending them.
- To increase the effectiveness of the app
- To find any probable downsides
- To test if the app looks the same across different browsers.
- To validate if all the app functionalities work fine on different web browsers.
- To authenticate if it fulfills the customer’s necessities across all the browsers.
Who Performs This Testing?
The testers play an essential part in cross-browser testing. Still, business analysts, customers, stakeholders have an identically significant role in deciding upon the number and names of the browsers the testing has to be administered. Assaying the statistics of the users using different browsers, they pick up several web browsers that the application users more often use. It’s next to impossible for the testers to accomplish cross-browser testing on 1000’s browsers available in the market.
The analyst squad and the customers list the most often used browsers by the application end-users, and testers further carry out testing over it.
How to Perform Cross Browser Testing?
The most eventful part is performing the cross-browser testing. The first entity to be decided is whether to perform manual or automation testing. Manual testing can be achieved for cross-browser testing, but manual testing can lead to multiple and varied challenges considering the numerous machines, multiple OS, and multifold browsers. Hence automation testing is a favored approach of testing for cross-browser testing.
Manual Method
It is very tough to test the application on various web browsers manually implementing cross-browser testing. In manual testing, the app can be stretched over a countable limited web browser only, limiting the app’s efficacy. This process is time-consuming as well as expensive.
Automated approach
Cross-browser testing requires running the identical test suit over various browsers. This recurring task can result in errors if conducted manually and is also very time-consuming and expensive. Also, automated cross-browser testing is more cost-effective when using automated testing tools.
Numerous tools are available that assist cross-browser testing.
HeadSpin
HeadSpin is one of the leading cross-browser testing platforms. It allows users to perform manual and automated mobile and web testing procedures at the same time. Running multiple tests simultaneously facilitates the optimization of resources. HeadSpin has a dedicated device deployment model amongst others which improves security and performance of the testing process. The advanced AI/ML capabilities of the HeadSpin Platform provide deep insights across various parameters – network performance, device related factors like CPU load and battery drainage, network optimisation issues and also audio and video issues to name a few.
Cross-browser Testing
Cross-browser testing has a vast capacity to enforce manual, visual, and Selenium tests in the cloud on over 2050 authentic desktop and mobile browsers. The astonishing Record & Replay attribute permits recording live tests and running that recorded test in correspondence for rapid testing.
Experitest
Experitest allows implementing a corresponding test on different browsers and mobile devices.
Selenium
Selenium with an easy transaction of browser can aid to test the web applications effortlessly incongruence. It’s a thriving browser testing automation tool.
LambdaTest
LambdaTest is used to test web apps on over 2000 combinations of various web browsers and operating systems. It’s a cloud-based cross-browser testing platform. It allows implementing Selenium automation tests on the Selenium grid. It helps operate live interactive cross-browser testing of websites and web apps on the cloud.
Browserling
Browserling is a live interactive for testing quickly. Browserling offered blistering access to all the standard browsers and popularized operating systems.
Benefits of Automated Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing
Numerous benefits of executing a befitting strategy for automated cross-browser compatibility testing for all your web applications or websites. Let’s look into some of the most pivotal advantages:-
Seamless user experience and quality assurance
The direct benefit is delivering an ideal user experience to the end clients. This translates into sustained business, lower client attrition, and optimized intellectuality employment spanning the company. Brainpower can be used to develop unique solutions rather than debugging broken user interfaces across- browsers.
Alleviate risks precariously at haste
QA squads have reported automation saves them 70% of their time. With testing- automation, usability, or functionality errors can be related comparatively much faster than manual testing. This empowers the testers to estimate the threat or liability to the market, prioritize hazards, and consequently fix them.
Shorten release cycle and ship code faster
With the invention of new development paths, the testing terrain is also enhanced. Ceaseless testing is the latest de-facto in the application testing community. Automation apps like Selenium can be easily integrated into the DevOps automation strategy. Testing is a crucial stage of CI / CD pipeline execution. Development teams can ship code briskly with perpetual automated testing and shorten the release cycle for new features.
Cost-effectiveness, time efficiency, test coverage, and accuracy
With managed browser testing automation results, testing brigades need not worry about the gruesomely tedious course of setting up the architecture with the accurate set of version reliances. Instead, they can concentrate on writing robust scripts in their favored language(s) like Python, Ruby, Java, PHP, etc.
Conclusion
Cloud testing automation services successfully empower organizations to escape high expenses along with established testing architecture. Also, the following can be accomplished:
- scale to 2000 browsers or devices.
- shrink your in-house testing architecture and use a cloud-based result on a need base.
Such a varying combination of web browsers, OS, devices, and screen resolutions gives better test coverage for your operation. Automated cross-browser compatibility testing intrinsically helps avoid human- breaches, providing better efficacy.
