Cross-browser or browser compatibility testing involves performing tests on multiple browsers. Every browser has a unique base engine that makes it work differently from other browsers. Cross-browser testing aims to ensure that regardless of which browser your users use, they experience a seamless and glitch-free performance.
Cross-browser testing also involves:
- Code Validation: Running code validation tests to ensure that CSS and JavaScript validate completely across browsers.
- Performance: Checking performance and UI across various browsers.
- Operation: Verifying pages and popups, including tabs, navigation, links, and panels, are operational with each new release.
- Mobile: Checking orientation and resolution on mobile device browsers.
- User Interface: Ensuring all UI elements meet the set requirements.
While the uses of cross-browser testing are straightforward, similar to other testing types, it comes with challenges. Let’s look at a few challenges and find out how to tackle them.
Multiple Browser and Operating System Versions
One of the most prevalent challenges with cross-browser testing is dealing with numerous browser and OS versions. Browsers have multiple versions with unique system requirements making it difficult to keep them up to date. Furthermore, since these versions constantly change, ensuring flawless website performance is even more challenging. If a web application runs smoothly in one browser, it does not imply the same in every browser. This uncertainty is because every browser is unique, having its behavior, errors, and rendering system. Due to this, each browser has a distinctive way of rendering websites.
For example, you may access an app on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera and different OSes like Linux, macOS, and Windows. The app may not necessarily perform the same way on all these variations. Additionally, users may not regularly update their browsers. With multiple browsers, different OS, and systems running the latest or older versions of the browsers, testing becomes more difficult and longer to complete.
Solution
Your approach to tackling this problem should be to analyze your testing needs. Ask yourself, do you need to test every combination and every browser update? The fact is that you may not need to. It is unlikely that most of your users run old versions of browsers. An immediate first step is to use a cross-browser testing tool for analysis. The idea is to understand website visitor preferences – which browser or OS they prefer using. While Installing dedicated systems is difficult, cloud-based testing systems are easy to use since they have everything set up for users. These testing systems help you test combinations with deep user coverage, prioritize tests, and more.
Frequent Browser Updates
Another key cross-browser testing challenge that enterprises face is frequent browser changes. While the OS and resolutions remain standard, browsers receive updates every 6 to 8 weeks – meaning testers run browser compatibility testing the same number of times. This factor is a challenge because elements in the website change with every update. For testers, it’s about ensuring every iteration doesn’t result in a ripple effect and create bugs in previous builds. Repeated testing websites prove to be time-consuming and difficult for testers.
Solution
Automating your cross-browser testing will help you tackle this challenge. Automation makes dealing with regular updates easy as it removes the element due to which the challenge exists – manual testing. Various aspects come into play while running tests on updates. These multiple aspects can prove difficult for manual testers to compute. AI can accomplish the task of repeated testing with ease. Testers can then focus on building strategies by analyzing the results.
Infrastructure Maintenance
Cross-browser testing necessitates a significant amount of infrastructure upkeep. Aspects like browser maintenance, selenium grid infrastructure, integrated tools, and device infrastructure require regular maintenance. Maintaining the entire infrastructure or running automation test scripts manually is challenging. A part of the infrastructure is also the communication tools in the organization that teams use to talk about issues during testing.
Solution
Maintaining the infrastructure is a real challenge when organizations use manual processes. Cloud-based solutions help keep the infrastructure efficient and maintain a significant number of browsers and OS versions. It helps reduce set-up and maintenance costs and provides easy integration with additional tools.
Conclusion
As browsers change, cross-browser testing methodologies change with them. While challenges will always be there, cloud-based solutions can help organizations stay ahead. They can provide organizations with detailed analyses, reports, infrastructure, and more.
Tools like HeadSpin can help you perform comprehensive cross-browser testing. It provides AI-driven actionable insights to help with experience monitoring. These insights can help you understand your users’ choices and take appropriate action.