Why is Cross Browser Testing Needed?
At first glance, it may seem that cross browser testing is just an extra step; why do we need to do that. Also, the majority of the people use Google Chrome; Chrome holds about 52 percent of the browser market share. However, only testing Chrome means you’re leaving the application up to chance for 48 percent of users.
You could hope that your website works for those browsers without taking the time and effort to go through them, but it only takes one bug to affect your company’s revenue and reputation.
Before moving on to the need for cross browser testing, let’s look at some of the reasons why cross browser issues occur.
- Browsers may implement features differently.
In the 1990s, IE4 and Netscape were competing to become the first dominant browser; developers were quite troubled as browsers were implemented differently to gain a competitive advantage. However, it's not the case now; browsers now follow a set of standards. However, the differences are still there and need to be addressed.
A website containing great animations will look good on a tablet, Laptop. However, it will be quite slow on a low-end device.
The reason for cross-browser testing is that it helps the developers by pinpointing browser-specific compatibility issues to make debugging easier.
Cross-browser compatibility and testing may seem time-consuming and scary; however, you will be on the safer side if done with proper planning. When working with large projects, test it regularly, ensure that the new features are working for your target audience, the addition of new features does not disrupt the old features.
What Features are analyzed in a Browser Test?
Product teams generally constrain their testing with a test specification document. The document highlights broad essential features like which browsers to test. Test scenarios and budget. The features undergoing testing can be categorized in the following manner:
- Base Functionality: This includes testing to verify the basic functionality, like all the form fields are accepting inputs, dialogs and menus are working properly, touch input for mobiles and tablets, etc.
- Design: The website appearances like fonts, images, and layout match the specification shared by the design team.
- Accessibility and Responsiveness: The differently-abled users should be able to access the website, last but not least, the design should be fluid and fit different screens sizes.
How to Select Browsers for Cross Browser Testing?
It isn't easy to build and test for every browser, device, and operating system out there. General practice is to focus on maximizing the reach of the target audience. Locking down to the most critical versions is done.
You can sort the browsers based on popularity. Typically B2C or consumer-facing websites are optimized for the most popular browsers.
Another way is to sort the browsers based on analysis and analyze the website traffic stats.
Pick your browser and OS combinations based on these findings. A general rule of thumb is to prioritize testing on any browser-OS combination that gets over a 5% share of traffic. You can, however do it as per your need.
How to perform Cross Browser Testing?
A simple approach is to download all the browsers on which testing will be performed and then do manual testing on each of them.
(Source: tenor)
A more realistic approach is to use online cross browser testing tools to test your website on multiple browsers at once. List of some of the available testing tools are:
- LambdaTest
- Selenium
- Ghost Inspector
- Browsera
- Perfecto
- Experitest
- Sauce Labs
-
Browserling
FAQs
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What is Cross Browser Testing?
Cross Browser testing is a type of non-functional testing that lets you check whether your website works as intended when accessed through Different Browser-OS combinations, i.e., on popular browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari—on any of the popular operating systems like Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
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What Tools do you use for Cross Browser testing?
Some of the tools for cross browser testing are
LambdaTest
Selenium
Ghost Inspector
Browsera
Perfecto
Experitest
Sauce Labs
Browserling
Key Takeaways
In this blog, we studied cross browser testing, what it is and how to perform one for our website.
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