7 Cross Browser Testing Best Practices to Make Your Testing More Effective

Cross Browser Testing

Cross browser testing was an easy process in the early years of the web development. The main reason behind it was that there were limited browsers & OS during that era. Moreover, the browser developers used to roll out a limited number of updates. Also, very few differences were present in terms of mobile specifications. However, with the advancement of Technology, situations have dramatically changed in the current years. For instance, thousands of devices are released every year, and hundreds of browsers are added to the Arsenal. Thus, the application developers have to keep up with all these evolving trends and variations. This article will discuss the best practices that can help a developer improve his efficiency of cross-browser testing.

Best Practices to Improve the Efficiency of Cross Browser Testing

It is always an excellent option to have various approaches to conduct cross browser testing. Additionally, certain practices can reduce suffering while you are testing your website on multiple browsers. Now, let’s take a look at some methods that are recommended by the top experts in the Software Development Industry:

1. Wise Selection of Elements:

When it comes to front-end frameworks, you have various options available to make a choice. For instance, you can consider some reputed names such as Bootstrap, Foundation, Angular, and React. These frameworks allow you to conduct cross-browser testing on various devices and support you with many inbuilt features. However, for Cross-browser development, the framework’s components play a vital role compared to the framework itself. Thus, you have to pay special attention while choosing the details for the project.

Additionally, you have to ensure that all these components are compatible with your development process. For instance, the features available with Foundation allow quick prototyping and modification of application aspects. It will enable you to complete the entire testing process effectively.

So, we recommend the testers to understand the development process to make the correct selection thoroughly. This process will help them to conduct the development and testing algorithms effectively and smoothly.

2. Careful Selection of Libraries and Frameworks

As a tester, you will need libraries and frameworks to conduct every form of testing. Thus, it would help if you considered the latest CSS frameworks before you begin the testing process. For instance, the latest CSS version can help you provide a dynamic experience to all of your users. However, you might face compatibility issues while incorporating these additional UI changes in your application. It is because every browser uses a different rendering engine to display the content to the users. Thus, you must manually ensure that all of your website components are entirely compatible with the market’s different browsers. All these processes are essential to have complete control over the entire internet user base. Additionally, the latest CSS frameworks will help you incorporate features that will allow differently-abled people to access your web application.

3. Use Vendor Prefix

Presently, all the latest foundation frameworks are available with Global vendor prefixes along with style sheets. However, you must know the best way to implement these Global prefixes inside the web application. For instance, there are various cases where the latest features of CSS3 only works on the latest version of the Chrome Browsers and are incompatible with all other browsers. It might not be a huge issue, but it is always wise to check the vendor prefixes’ browser compatibility before beginning the process. The process will also help you save time as you can incorporate the stylesheet and not do it again during the production process.

In case you incorporate the vendor prefixes with the Framework class, you can complete most of the work with this process. For this, you can write the code manually or use a unique tool that will allow you to add all the essential vendor prefixes that are required for flex and other properties inside the CSS style sheet.

4. Optimization of the Internet Explorer Browser

Internet Explorer has indeed lost its glory days, but multiple users still use it because of their faith in Microsoft. So, as a company, you cannot afford to alienate a particular segment of users based on browser incompatibilities. However, a significant drawback of Internet Explorer is that it does not support the latest CSS styles and frameworks. So, if you have created a highly optimized CSS website and you try to run it on Internet Explorer then, you might end up ruining the entire User experience for the website. Additionally, for all the older versions of Internet Explorer, it becomes a dramatically more negative experience for app development and testing. Thus, you need to optimize your website for internet explorer to solve all these issues.

A practical solution is to write a separate style sheet for the Internet Explorer browser. Then, you can add a class to your doctype. It will allow you to optimize the website for Internet Explorer and disable all the incompatible features.

5. Use of Proper JavaScript Library and Task Runners

It is familiar to everyone that JavaScript plays a vital role in the entire development process. Thus, you must use the right resources of JavaScript for your web development. All these resources must fulfill your website requirements and be compatible with all the browsers. Many software development experts believe that React JS is the best option for JavaScript libraries. For instance, this software allows you to create interfaces that consist of reusable components.

Additionally, you can use the ‘declutter code’ feature of React JS to cut down component count. You can quickly navigate to the code tree using the react JS navigation feature and can make minor changes in the style sheet for every component. Therefore, React JS helps the developers to create cross-browser compatible websites effectively.

6. Check the Media Content for the Website

You can use high definition Media content such as GIFs and videos to increase your website’s overall visual aesthetics. However, you must ensure that all these media contents are compatible with various websites. Note that this issue is more visible on browsers that run on flash player. So, you must check the browser guidelines before you use any media on your website. It will allow you to get a list of all the supported media types. So, you can implement them on your website without any form of compatibility issue.

There are various opposing sides to implementing incompatible media content on your website. For instance, your users might see an error message or a blank screen whenever a media content fails to run entirely or partially on a browser. This process might frustrate the user, and they will eventually refrain from using your application.

7. Find the Best Browser-OS Configuration

You must have finished finalizing the basic concept of your website. Now, it is time to check the browser and operating system to test your web application. There are various things that you must consider to get the perfect result in this process. For instance, multiple versions of a single browser and individual browsers release an update at least once a month. Thus, you need to verify the version of the browser and operating system on which you will test the website’s compatibility. Many companies only try the website on the latest version of the web browser. However, you must focus on the older versions if you want to dominate the most considerable portion of the market.

There is a massive portion of the userbase that still uses the old version of Internet Explorer. So, you must ensure that you test your web application properly to ensure that every customer can enjoy your services. Additionally, you can use tools like Google Analytics or Splunk to get important user data. You have to analyze data to list all the browsers and operating systems that your customers will use to access your website.

8. Shift to Automated Testing

Manual testing is not the ideal approach if you want to test your website on multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices. We recommend all companies should shift to automated test to enjoy the full potential of cross-browser testing. This excellent form of testing provides not only complete coverage but also has other benefits. For instance, automated testing allows you to test your website on various Browsers and OS combinations.

Various automated testing applications are available in the market. All these tools are highly equipped and advanced to ensure that you can complete this process in the easiest way possible. However, we would suggest our readers to checkout LambdaTest as the ultimate platform to perform automation testing.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is a cloud based cross browser testing platform that offers a combination of 2000+ browsers & OS to perform testing on. Users will be able to perform both manual and selenium based automation testing with ease.

Users will be able to shorten their test cycles by multiple folds using their parallel testing feature. This essentially means that users will be able to run a number of tests in parallel of different browsers, OS & browser versions at the same time.

Not only this users will also be able to perform testing toggling between various geographies on the basis of their target audience utilizing LambdaTest Geo Location Testing feature which comes in handy for baking & e-commerce companies.

The Verdict

Cross-browser testing is a very crucial process. Thus, it is impossible to release a web application without performing proper browser compatibility testing. Many small companies try to avoid cross-browser testing, as it is a complicated and lengthy process. However, the developers must remember that a significant portion of website traffic depends on the browser’s compatibility. Thus, you must consider the best practices to perform this test effectively. So, we can conclude that all the points discussed in this article will help the testers increase their cross-browser testing process efficiency. 

Sebastian

Sebastian was born and raised in the busy city of Abbottabad. As a journalist, Saad Mushtaq has contributed to many online publications including the PAK Today and the Huffing Post. In regards to academics, Saad Mushtaq earned a degree in business from the Abbottabad UST, Havelian. Saad Mushtaq follows the money and covers all aspects of emerging tech here at The Hear Up.Thanks