With varying web browsers in the current market
and the endless combination with the different operating systems, the behavior
of web applications presents issues that can prevent the important functions
from running uniformly throughout all browsers. Cross Browser testing reviews
and compares the functionality and the styles of a website across multiple
browsers, operating systems and mobile displays.
Each of us work in our favorite browser. This
makes us forget to test the application in the other browsers. Cross browserTesting checks the compatibility of the web application across the
different web browsers and ensures that the web application performs
efficiently across all of them. It tests both the client side and the server
side of the Web Application.
The classical way of cross browser testing is to
run the web application on as many computers and combinations of operating
systems and web browsers. But nowadays there are much more efficient ways of
testing web applications across different browsers. Here we have reviewed some
of the cross browser testing tools.
ADOBE BROWSERLAB
It is a free cross browser testing tool that
gives a number of views, including single browser full page view, as well as a
comparative side by side view. It also has the ability to create a pre-defined
browser set for testing.
BROWSER SHOTS
It is a free and one of the most comprehensive
testing tool which includes Linux and Windows. It also includes additional
browsers that are not generally used as of now. It carries out testing on the
latest versions of each browser. However, with the added number of browsers the
result generation of this tool slows down.
LUNASCAPE6
It is a triple engine browser which runs on
Windows. It supports all the three major rendering engines - Webkit for Safari and Chrome, Gecko for
Firefox and Trident for Internet Explorer. Thus the web application under test
can be viewed under in all the major web browsers. It also supports the add-on
extensions for Firefox plugins which further helps to diagnose compatibility
problems.
IE TESTER
It is a free Windows Browser that supports the
rendering and the Javascript engine for IE10 to IE5.5 on Windows 7, XP and
Vista.
SPOON
It is a service for emulating application. It
includes multiple versions of each browser.
SAUCELABS
It provides with a number of browser and OS
combinations. It sets up a Virtual Machine Instance, that operates inside the
browser. It also helps to build automated tests with the help of Selenium.
CLOUD TESTING:
It helps to perform cross browserfunctional testing. The user interaction is recorded with the browser
and Selenium IDE and then uploaded for Cloud Testing which runs the script in
multiple operating systems.
BROW SERCAM
It includes tools for testing for both Mobile and
Desktop. It gives remote access for live testing in Windows, OS X and Linux
configurations.
CROSS BROWSER TESTING
This tool provides with interactive testing on
browsers with Virtual Network Computing sessions. It can generate screen shots
across multiple browsers.
MULTI BROWSER VIEWER
This covers both mobile and desktop browsers. It
supports 26 Web browsers, five mobile browsers and 61 screen shot browsers. It
is also available in multiple languages – English, French, German, Spanish and
Russian.
CONCLUSION
There exists a great deal of variation between
browsers and its different versions. This necessitates cross browser testing to
ensure that all the pages are rendered as intended. A web application should be
tested in those browsers that hold the most market share. Regardless of the
testing tool that is chosen, the Web Application testing process should be
preferably be shifted earlier in the development cycle. This can save a lot of
time, effort and money later on.
