Designing websites and web applications has become more complex as it now has to rely on many users across all sorts of platforms. It is, however, also worth noting that providing such levels of compatibility across various web browsers has its inherent challenges owing to the multiplicity and dynamism of available web browsers. This article will describe why browser compatibility testing should be performed, describe the most popular cross-browser testing tools, and discuss the cross-browser consistency methods and approaches that have already been introduced.
Understanding Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing
Cross browser testing is defined as the process of checking how web pages, applications, and features behave on various browsers, devices, and operating systems. It is the process of manually and programmatically checking how designed products like websites, web apps, and various UI elements appear and perform when opened on multiple browsers. Some key aspects involved include visual consistency where layout, styling, images, etc. look identical regardless of the viewing browser.
Additionally, functional compatibility is also critical in ensuring all interactive elements, forms, multimedia content, etc work flawlessly in each browser environment as intended without issues. Cross-browser testing helps close the gaps in browser support to deliver reliable customer experiences.
Which Browsers to Choose for Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing?
- Market share: Focus on testing in browsers that collectively account for the majority of current usage based on third-party analytics data. For example, cover Chrome, Firefox, and Safari which hold over 80% share globally.
- Different rendering engines: Choose at least one browser per unique rendering engine such as Blink (Chrome, Opera), Gecko (Firefox), Trident (Internet Explorer), EdgeHTML (Edge browser) and Webkit (Safari, Chrome for iOS).
- Legacy browsers: Assess essential facets in the more seasoned browsers’ versions which have a considerable number of users still installed but would not last forever such as Internet Explorer 11.
- Mobile and tablet browsers: Prioritize browsers used most across mobile devices for responsive web design testing. For iOS, focus on Safari, and for Android, Chrome is ubiquitous. Test other less-used mobile browsers selectively based on priorities.
- Emerging browsers: Keep an eye out for new niche desktop and mobile browsers gaining adoption over time. Examples are Vivaldi, Firefox Focus, Microsoft Edge on Android, etc. Consider testing select key areas in these as well.
Types of Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing
Manual testing: Where testers manually test applications, widgets, and different use cases across target browsers. Essential for catching intricate bugs poorly addressed in automation.
- Automated testing: Scripting browser interactions using an automation tool to run repeatable tests constantly on code changes. A faster way to check output/behavior remains unchanged.
- Responsive testing: This type of testing focuses on the responsive design and functionality of pages across screen sizes for different mobile and desktop browsers. Ensuring proper layouts, columns, etc.
- Functional testing: Testing of different interactive components like forms, buttons, dropdowns, multimedia interactions, etc. to ensure proper processing of inputs and outputs as per requirements across browsers.
- Visual testing: Using tools to capture screenshots of pages and components on different browsers and performing visual comparisons to detect layout mismatches or graphics rendering inconsistencies early.
- Performance testing: Validating sites load properly within time budgets across browsers using tools. Profiling resources consumed by each browser to identify and remedy any bottlenecks.
Significance of Browser Compatibility Testing
Browser compatibility testing is a crucial process that helps identify inconsistencies in how code and content are rendered across different browsers. This allows issues to be addressed proactively to avoid frustrations and ensure smooth functionality for all users, irrespective of the browser they use. There are several reasons why browser compatibility testing should be prioritized by web developers and testers:
- Browsers Interpret Code Differently: Each browser has its engine and algorithms to parse HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codes. Even minor differences in how they interpret standards can lead to display or behavior issues on some browsers. Compatibility testing helps find such inconsistencies.
- Diverse Browser Landscape: Popular browsers today include Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Edge, and many others. Additionally, different browser versions are supported on a wide range of devices like desktops, smartphones, tablets, etc. Thorough testing is needed to cover this complex matrix.
- Avoid Frustrations for Users: If compatibility issues are not identified and fixed, it can negatively impact user experience and satisfaction. Users on unsupported browsers might encounter broken or missing features which should be avoided.
- Increased Traffic from Varied Browsers: As per recent stats, Chrome and Firefox together account for over 70% of the global desktop browser market share. But mobile traffic predominantly uses Safari and other browsers. Ensuring mobile-friendliness requires testing on these browsers.
- Enhance SEO and Business Goals: Good browser compatibility allows websites to reach a much wider potential audience. It also helps search engines better understand and index content, positively impacting search ranking and business metrics over time.
- Future-proof Websites and Apps: New browser versions continue to emerge frequently with updated rendering engines and features. Continual compatibility testing keeps applications updated to changing browser standards and is capable of supporting future users.
- Meet Client/Stakeholder Expectations: In today’s competitive landscape, clients and stakeholders want their online presence to just work seamlessly on all commonly used browsers. Compatibility testing demonstrates the capability to deliver on those expectations.
Best Practices for Browser Compatibility Testing
With the significance of browser compatibility established, here are some tried-and-tested practices that can help foster a culture of cross-browser testing:
Manual Testing
While automated testing has its place, regular manual cross-browser testing performed by testers is invaluable to catching hard-to-replicate bugs and intricacies missed by automated scripts. Test early and often on major browser versions to find issues.
Use Browser Emulation Tools
Modern developer tools integrated within popular browsers allow emulating different browsers and devices without switching contexts. This makes initial compatibility testing very convenient and helps prioritize real devices for subsequent validation.
Use Automated Solutions Strategically
Browser testing tools with robust automation capabilities like Selenium and Cypress can be leveraged to build automated test suites covering core functionality and regressions across browsers in every code push. This ensures a baseline level of compatibility.
Prioritize Based on Usage Statistics
Instead of attempting to test on all 165+ available browsers, focus manual testing efforts on browsers that collectively cover 90% or more of actual user traffic as per analytics tools. Prioritize mobile environments specifically.
Involve Cross-functional Teams
Browser compatibility issues stem from cooperation between multiple layers like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. Involving front-end and back-end developers as well as testers in compatibility efforts leads to more comprehensive validation.
Use Standard-compliant Code
Adhering to web standards defined by W3C ensures code works better across browsers. Leverage HTML validators and automation to catch standards issues early during development itself.
Test on Actual Devices
Nothing matches real-device testing for accuracy. Maintain a device lab with the most widely used devices or leverage cloud-based solutions for on-demand access to thousands of real devices and browsers.
Continuous Integration
Setting up automated compatibility tests to run on every code check-in using a CI/CD pipeline prevents regressions and fixes issues immediately vs later in the process.
Browser Compatibility Testing Tools
Here are some of the most popular free and commercial tools that can help automate and enhance cross-browser compatibility testing efforts:
- Selenium: Open-source automation tool used via code for cross-browser regression testing. Widely used due to expansive browser support and available IDEs.
- Playwright: Node.js library that provides a common API for testing web applications across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge using similar DevTools protocols.
- Cypress: Feature-rich JavaScript framework ideal for front-end component testing, visual regression, and E2E testing via its built-in simulator. Records deterministic tests.
- PhantomJS: Headless browser useful for rapid smoke testing and visual regression of web pages without a browser GUI using JavaScript snippets.
- Percy: Visual testing tool that snapshot tests web pages and surfaces only visual differences between browser versions or code updates.
- Browserling: The free plan allows real-time testing across desktop browsers. Also integrates browser testing with GitHub pull requests.
- CrossBrowserTesting: On-demand access to thousands of desktop and mobile browsers on their proprietary testing grid using Selenium.
- Puppeteer: Node library to automate Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. Can control multiple browsers concurrently.
How Can the LambdaTest Platform Help in Browser Compatibility Testing?
The LambdaTest platform is an AI-driven cloud testing platform that can significantly help teams in achieving comprehensive browser compatibility testing. Through its on-demand access to over 3000 different browser instances on both Windows and Mac operating systems, it allows cross browser testing of websites and web applications on a wide range of real desktop and mobile browsers. This includes the latest as well as older browser versions. With LambdaTest, developers do not need to install or maintain any browsers or environments locally.
Some key capabilities include the ability to test in parallel across browsers using their grid infrastructure for faster execution. Detailed visual and functional cross-browser validation is also possible through easy integrations. The platform offers on-demand video recordings of test runs that help in debugging browser compatibility issues visually. Powerful automation APIs and integrations with tools like Selenium facilitate the scripting of compatibility test suites for automation. Dashboard views provide a central place for monitoring test progress and results from multiple browsers in one view. LambdaTest assists with easy cloud-based accessibility, responsiveness, and performance testing as well.
The platform supports integration with continuous integration pipelines like Jenkins to catch breakages early during each code commit. Its user-friendly interface and management of virtual machines on the cloud make the LambdaTest solution very programmable and cost-effective for driving comprehensive cross-browser testing requirements.
Conclusion
In today’s climate of fragmented yet evolving web technologies, browser compatibility testing has become imperative to build robust and user-friendly digital experiences. While testing on all available browsers can be unrealistic, focusing efforts on high-usage ones delivers good returns. Adopting industry-recommended practices like prioritizing automated regression validation, continuous integration, and device lab validation helps establish a solid QA foundation. Leveraging modern automation testing tools in combination with experience-based manual validation ensures a high degree of cross-browser consistency. Committing resources to such a holistic approach delivers dividends in the form of enhanced usability and brand perception for businesses.
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