Businesses aim to make the most of the rapid improvements in technology and digitization by making sure their online applications function flawlessly across all platforms and browsers. Businesses increasingly rely on their online presence to boost ROI and broaden their online reach. Because of this, the majority of web applications are made to work with different browsers. Any responsive online application must be compatible with every browser and every version of a browser at all times, therefore this is extremely important.
In light of this, let’s examine some browser testing difficulties and browser compatibility problems along with their fixes. But first, let’s define cross-browser testing and examine its necessity.
What is Cross Browser Testing, and Why is it Important?
Cross-browser testing, to put it simply, is the process of making sure that a web application’s functionality is consistent across various browsers, browser versions, and operating systems, hence giving its consumers a hassle-free user experience.
You can begin testing your application using the shift-left methodology before transferring it to production. Cross-browser testing, on the other hand, allows you to find and correct errors even after a production deployment.
Let’s examine cross-browser testing’s importance and how it contributes to better UX:
- Comparing the UI and features of several browsers is simple.
- It offers standardized behavior and an improved user experience across numerous devices and browsers.
- With more user-friendly websites, it helps you attract delighted customers.
- It can let your web application run on several devices, including tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers.
- Dependable and simple navigation.
Top Cross Browser Testing Challenges and Their Solutions
We might believe that Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera are the only browsers out there. However, in practice, people utilize a wide variety of browsers for their web-related activities. The main cross-browser testing difficulties that the QA team runs across are listed below-
Challenge 1: Automating Cross-Browser Testing Is Difficult
The holy grail that will enable you to significantly speed up the release cycles for your online apps is automated browser testing. But the procedure involves much more than just a few clicks. It’s a straightforward answer to a challenging issue.
Although using tools like Selenium to automate functional testing may seem simple, having the right tool and being prepared for automated cloud-based browser testing, which includes tasks like writing test scripts, defining capabilities, etc., is necessary for better results.
Solution: A program with essential capabilities for cross-browser testing automation.
Selecting a cross browser testing solution with all the features to automate the process is the only approach to overcome this cross browser testing difficulty. Make sure the automation tool’s server has an accurate inventory of browser versions before choosing it. Additionally, it must continue to be compatible with any recent browser changes and include all current browser capabilities.
It must be able to take HD screenshots, record movies, test web programs across various browsers, and do a lot more. For example, LamdaTest is a well-known application that offers all the essential functions to meet your needs for cross-browser testing.
Challenge 2:The Setup And Maintenance Of Internal Infrastructure Is A Burden
Setting up an internal structure is not always possible, especially if a business has a defined spending limit. There are limitations specific to on-site development. Even though the question of in-house vs. cloud has been debated for a while, I’ve encountered many folks who regret not starting off with a cloud-based strategy.
For instance, maintaining the infrastructure of the most recent hardware, operating systems, browsers, and browser versions is necessary if you want to test your web application across several platforms. This is a laborious task since it needs a committed staff to manage it and because it is expensive. Additionally, it takes a lot of time and frequently has scalability problems.
Solution: A dependable infrastructure-based cloud service
The best solution to this cross-browser testing problem is to use a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool instead of internally managing the devices. For instance, LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform. It facilitates both manual and automated testing across a vast array of real desktop browsers, devices, and operating systems, encompassing more than 3,000 unique combinations.
Challenge 3: Too Much Browser Testing, Including Older Browsers
There are just too many different browsers and versions, which is one of the biggest problems with cross-browser testing. Not every company has the resources necessary to host and manage all browsers, versions, and hardware in-house. The bigger challenge is staying current with them all and making sure your web application performs well on each of them.
As an illustration, suppose your program was designed with support for the top five web browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Due to the fact that there are only five of them, it appears to be rather simple and doable.
Solution: An all-encompassing platform with both modern and older browsers
Understanding whether or not testing your web application across all of these browsers and browser versions is required is the first step in finding the best solution to this issue. A fast way to do this is to look at visitor statistics and the browsers being used. You can prioritize your test based on the findings by starting with the browsers with the largest user bases.
Challenge 4: frequently updated browsers
Browsers contain a mechanism that allows them to evolve roughly every six to eight weeks. Most people update, which leads to new versions. In some circumstances where auto-updates have been enabled, users are unlikely to even be aware that they are using a new browser version. This forces the testing team to conduct testing procedures periodically to make sure that everything functions properly with the most recent browser versions.
Different companies adopt various strategies. Unless a user reports a bug, one portion ignores the updated versions. Although it might seem convenient, sometimes the damage scares away numerous consumers before it is repaired.
Solution: Use automation testing to stay current with new browser releases.
As was already mentioned, testing automated browsers is difficult. But in the end, the work is worthwhile. You can still handle the situation by delaying testing your web application on the upgraded browser until a customer reports a bug or using a third-party cross-browser testing solution to stay up to date on the most recent browser changes.
Challenge 5: testing across a wide range of OS combinations
The difficulty of managing testing across several browsers and browser versions has already been demonstrated. It is nearly impossible to test a website or a web app at all due to the wide variety of browsers and versions, as well as operating systems. Not to add, it is necessary to test a site’s compatibility with different mobile devices.
Let’s expand the scope to the three operating systems to further illustrate the difficulty of testing 18 variations of browsers and browser versions.
- 3 browsers for Windows 8
- 3 browsers for Windows 8.1
- 3 browsers for Windows 10
- 3 browsers for OS X macOS Sierra
- 3 Browsers for macOS High Sierra
- 3 browsers for Ubuntu 17.04
- 3 browsers for Ubuntu 17.10
- 3 browsers for Ubuntu 18.04
Given that each OS type has 32X and 64X variations, this task is rather difficult. You can still improve test coverage even though it might not seem practical to cover every single combination that exists.
Solution: A cloud-based solution with a variety of operating systems is the answer.
It’s interesting that cloud-based services allow you to test across a variety of mobile and desktop browsers and OS systems. The major benefit is that organizations don’t have to deal with the hassle of maintaining sets for testing different combinations.
Challenge 6: Testing all screen resolutions for visual flaws
Manually checking your website for visual problems might take a lot of time. Even if the information is not new, test automation immediately comes to mind. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that utilizing test automation to find problematic layouts for websites and web apps can be a little challenging. In this situation, there is a lot to manage, especially once we start counting the various test environments.
The mix of different browsers, browser versions, and operating systems has already been covered. Adding screen resolution will now make things more challenging, particularly when using the manual method. Imagine how long the list would be if we included mobile devices, each with their own set of browsers.
Solution: A tool to provide seamless UI testing across all screen resolutions is the answer.
In such a case, a Selenium-based solution that can easily automate UI testing is required. Your tests should, for instance, do several operations while simultaneously taking screenshots. By looking at the screenshots that were taken, it is possible to assess how consistently the user interface is designed. Additionally, you can choose a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool if you wish to test several screen resolutions concurrently.
Conclusion
UX is a crucial factor in deciding a business’s overall success. The user experience of a web application is not solely based on its interface. It’s important to periodically examine a website or app’s cross-browser compatibility due to the growing number of OS, devices, and browser versions. Some programmers view it as the last stage in creating a web application.
It’s unquestionably a crucial yet challenging step. However, even though the work is difficult, cross browser testing has a fix for every issue. Additionally, you can be certain of effectiveness and precision as long as a group of professionals is supporting the procedure.
Also read: UC Browser Mini – Download Smaller Version of UC Browser!
