Cross-browser Testing

What is Cross-browser Testing

Cross-browser  refers to the ability for a website, web application, HTML construct or client-side script to function correctly across all, or the majority of web browsers. The term cross-browser is often confused with multi-browser. Multi-browser is a new paradigm in web development that allows a website or web application to provide more functionality over several web browsers, while ensuring that the website or web application is accessible to the largest possible audience without any loss in performance. Cross-browser capability allows a website or web application to be properly rendered by all browsers.

Need of CBT -

The term cross-browser has existed since web development began.

1- The browser market has broadened, and to claim cross-browser compatibility, the website is nowadays expected to support browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Safari in addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape.

2- There has been an attitude shift towards more compatibility in general. Thus, some degree of cross-browser support is expected and only its absence needs to be noted.

Challenges –

Making a cross-browser site is usually pretty simple for basic websites. However, complex sites with a lot of HTML formatting and JavaScript may require significant extra coding in order to be compatible with multiple browsers. Some developers may even generate completely different pages for each browser. While CSS formatting has helped standardize the appearance of Web pages across multiple browsers, there are still several inconsistencies between Web browsers. Therefore, cross-browser design continues to be a necessary aspect of Web development. Developing professional websites can be a daunting task, especially when your client wants all the bells and whistles. After adding more and more of these fancy effects and complex layouts, the chances that your website might not display 100% correctly in other browsers rises. Microsoft now believes in web-standards (finally!!) and this could definitely make our lives as web devs/designers easier. Their new product line, Expression, aims to compete with Adobe Flash in the rich media internet experience, and they are claiming that Expression will build standards-based websites out of the box.

TIPS while working on Cross Browser Development –

There will never be an escape from tweaking small things to look perfect in every browser, but there are some tips that can help you develop a better, more browser-friendly website. For this one need to obtain a copy of VMware Server which is completely free. After that, install an old copy of Windows XP on the VM, and load it with all of the different browsers you could find. it is now possible to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer, and have them run synchronous in standalone mode.

List of Multiple Browsers available in Market –

Microsoft Internet Explorer v3/v4/v5.01/v5.5/v6
Mozilla Firefox v1.5/v2.0.0.6
Opera v9.22
Safari v3.0 beta

CBT Automation Tools –

Selenium RC
QTP 11

Useful Links –

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
http://crossbrowsertesting.com/
http://www.browsrcamp.com/
http://litmus.com/
http://www.netrenderer.com/
http://browsershots.org/