Providing a great user experience to a broader user base has become important In the modern digital world where a website and web applications appear consistently across various environments. To achieve it, QAs and testing teams are constantly working to ensure that their web application or website works on various devices, browsers, and operating system combinations.
As there are so many web browsers already available, the main challenge for testers is to ensure that the website performs and displays the same across all web platforms. Cross-browser testing is a process that has emerged as a satisfactory solution to address the challenges of multi-platform web development. This testing technique enables testers to ensure that a website functions consistently across various operating systems, devices, and browsers.
The basic concepts of cross-browser testing, including its definition and importance, will be covered in this article. It will also examine some of the challenges that developers in multi-platform web development encounter, as well as strategies for addressing those challenges.
Understanding cross-browser testing
Cross-browser testing is testing techniques that ensure the optimal performance of web applications. It checks that a website functions consistently across a range of browsers, resolutions, devices, and operating system combinations.
Some old browsers do not support CSS style and JavaScript functionality. Because of this users can encounter issues in using some important features of a website on that browser. For example, a website that functions well on Google Chrome may appear broken or unresponsive in Internet Explorer. Therefore, a web developer’s major concern is to ensure the optimal functionality of a website or application across all available browsers including the legacy ones. To ensure this they perform cross-browser compatibility testing to identify these problems and fix them before users encounter them.
Why is Cross-Browser Testing Important?
Currently, various browsers, devices, and operating system combinations make web browsing an incredibly diverse and personalized experience. Users have a variety of options to access the websites using many other browsers and devices. If any organization only tests its website in one browser, ignoring other browsers can increase the risk of users’ web experience. Hence without cross-browser testing, it is challenging to ensure that the website will function consistently across all popular browsers.
Every web browser has a different performance level, they handle rendering, execute JavaScript, and manage memory differently. A website that performs well in one browser may experience some issues in another browser. Without cross-browser testing, many potential issues can occur.
For ensuring website compatibility cross-browser testing is critical. Since it helps developers and testers ensure that their website works properly and displays consistently across several web browsers. This approach also aids in preserving the website’s credibility, retaining users engaged, and extending its appeal to a variety of users.
Types of cross-browser testing
There are several types of cross-browser testing, each has its different work.
Here are some important types.
Manual Testing- Such a test is used to identify visual and functional differences across different browsers and devices.
Functional Testing- It ensures that a website’s interactive elements and functionalities work as intended across numerous browser versions.
Visual Testing- Visual testing focuses on how a website or web application appears across different browsers and devices. To identify any visual differences or layout issues it compares screenshots of web pages from different browsers.
Performance Testing- This kind of testing involves the performance of a website across a wide range of browsers to evaluate factors such as responsiveness and loading times.
Compatibility Testing- Developers can check the compatibility of a website across different operating systems, a variety of devices, and multiple browsers.
Responsive Testing- This type of testing guarantees that websites work properly and display correctly regardless of the screen sizes and resolutions.
Browser Version Testing- This guarantees that the website works with several iterations and different versions of the particular browser.
Security Testing- Security features and protocols of a website are working consistently across different browsers and platforms performed by Security testing.
Benefits of performing Cross-Browser testing
Below we will explore the benefits of using cross-browser testing
Increased Test Coverage
Cross-browser testing allows testers to perform tests on many web browsers. That helps in expanding test coverage and identifying more issues. This also means that by testing the application on different browsers, they can identify and resolve issues particular to each browser, resulting in ensuring uniform user experience across all browsers.
Time-Saving
Testing applications on multiple browsers can be a time-consuming task. If browsers are being tested manually, it might take hours or even days. By automating this process cross-browser testing allows testers to simultaneously test the application on multiple browsers.
Improved Accuracy
Manual testing can be prone to human error. By automating the testing process cross-browser testing eliminates this risk. This improves the accuracy of the testing and helps identify issues that might not have been detected otherwise. Resulting in ensuring consistent test results and improved accuracy.
Mobile Devices
Ensuring compatibility with mobile browsers is critical with the increase in mobile internet usage. As they have their quirks and issues. It is essential for a website that adapts well to varying screen sizes and touch interfaces to cater to the mobile audience. Performing cross-browser testing is a suitable option to achieve this.
Cost-Effective
Automated cross-browser testing can be more affordable compared to manual testing. To perform manual testing a significant amount of time and resources are required, and rectifications of errors can also lead to costly rework. Automated cross-browser testing can reduce costs by simplifying the testing process and lowering the risk of errors.
Improved User Experience
In the modern digital world, consistent experience is a must across all devices and browsers. Cross-browser testing can ensure that the application works seamlessly irrespective of the platforms, resulting in an improved user experience.
Build Confidence in the application
By employing cross-browser testing techniques testers can boost trust in the application. It assures that the application works consistently across different browsers, which can provide peace of mind before its release.
Market Reach
Different users prefer different web browsers, and ignoring compatibility testing might cause a loss of a significant portion of the audience. Ensuring the website works consistently on all popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, irrespective of the device and operating systems helps testers to maximize the market reach and accessibility.
SEO Impact
Google as a search engine considers user experience as a ranking factor. If the website on specific browsers performs poorly might affect the search engine rankings. Performing cross-browser testing helps to enhance Google search ranking.
Challenges of Cross-Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing guarantees that web applications work properly on several web browsers and devices. But when it comes to cross-browser testing, developers frequently encounter several difficulties. These are some of the difficulties that affect online surfing.
Rendering Differences: Different browsers interpret HTML and CSS rules differently, resulting in variations in web page rendering and behavior. One browser can display a particular element slightly larger or smaller compared to other browsers, which may often cause misalignments or inconsistent layouts.
JavaScript Compatibility: There are modern JavaScript APIs that some older browsers do not support, due to which functionalities may work flawlessly in one browser but fail to work or encounter errors in another. Developers can implement workarounds and uncover compatibility issues to ensure consistent behavior.
Different web experience: Some bugs make it difficult to maintain a uniform experience as they are specific to particular browsers or browser versions,
Unstable test coverage: It is challenging to manage and organize test cases across numerous platforms, resulting in inconsistent test coverage.
Varying network condition: The performance and conditions of the network can differ significantly, which affects the operation of the application.
Other than these character encoding, date formats, and cultural differences also create issues when the application is translated and implemented into other languages and regions.
Techniques to address multi-platform web development challenges
Addressing the above-discussed challenges requires implementing a few techniques that help developers ensure a seamless user experience across different web browsers and devices. Some of them are discussed below.
Identify target browsers: Focus testing efforts on the browsers and browser versions that are most commonly used by the target user to prioritize compatibility for the majority of users
Test on real devices: To ensure an accurate user experience. It is always important to test the website on real devices including smartphones, desktop PCs, and tablets. Emulators and simulators can be beneficial, but they may not always reflect real-world conditions precisely.
Check the browser console for errors: For any JavaScript errors, CSS warnings, or deprecated HTML tags, the browser console needs to be monitored which could affect the functionality or layout of the site. By taking proactive measures, prevent browser compatibility problems to resolve these issues.
Verify CSS and HTML: Utilize tools like the W3C CSS Validation Service and the W3C Markup Validation Service to ensure that Web standards are followed by the CSS codes and HTML. Utilize tools.
Employ automated testing tools: Automated cross-browser testing tools allow developers to streamline the testing process across various browsers. This approach helps testers easily run test cases across multiple browsers simultaneously, saving time and manual effort. LambdaTest, TestComplete, and Selenium are a few of the most preferred choices for automated cross-browser testing tools.
LambdaTest is a cloud-based, AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to perform both manual and automated cross-browser tests at scale. The platform enables real-time and automated testing on more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and browsers.
LambdaTest platform provides compatibility with almost all of the major desktop browsers, including the latest and oldest versions of Firefox browser online for cross-browser compatibility testing.
In addition to cross-browser testing, Lambdatest provides support for various other testing types including,
Parallel testing- To speed up the testing process and reduce overall test execution time.
Real-time testing- to test and debug applications in real time to replicate user behavior accurately.
Geolocation testing- To ensure that the application’s location-based content features and performance are consistent when access from a different location
Regression testing- To ensure code changes do not affect the existing functionality. accessibility testing, etc.
Furthermore, LambdaTest can be integrated with various automation testing frameworks like Selenium, Cucumber, and Appium as well as CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Githubs, and Gitlab. That enables automating the testing process as a part of the build and deployment process.
Test responsiveness: To ensure a consistent user experience, test the responsiveness across a range of devices and screen orientations. Verify if the website responds and adapts properly to various screen sizes and resolutions and is responsive.
Perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT): To get feedback on usability and to find any browser-specific problems, involve real users in the testing process. User acceptance testing guarantees that the website meets the needs and expectations of its target user.
Stay updated on browser trends: Keep track of the latest browser updates and emerging browser technologies to anticipate changes in user behavior and prioritize testing efforts accordingly. Regularly update and review the testing strategy to accommodate new browser versions and features.
Document test cases and results: Maintaining comprehensive documentation of test cases is always a good practice. That includes the browsers and devices tests, issues encountered, and resolutions implemented. Documenting results from tests allows testers to track progress and maintain consistent testing across several environments.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, continuous learning and adaptation are key to success because the web development field is constantly changing. Cross-browser testing is a vital part of checking that the web application or browser functions regularly across different browsers and devices.
Testers can address cross-browser testing challenges by following the above best practices. It helps them ensure that the web applications or websites provide a consistent and satisfying user experience across different browsers. Additionally, a combination of cloud-based testing platforms can provide comprehensive coverage for testing web projects on different browsers and ensuring a consistent user experience.
