The competitors right around the corner, businesses have stopped hesitating about testing. Regardless of your customers’ ways to access your website or application, they shouldn't feel annoyed browsing your content. However, the terminologies can get tricky and it's important to establish clarity around those.
Of course, the aim is to test whether an application for a website behaves exactly as expected from the beginning to the end. With a wide variety of browsers, operating systems, devices, and software system and subsystem complexities, it has become crucial to perform cross browser testing and end-to-end testing. The end result of a successful testing cycle for both these processes is an enhanced end-user experience.
Speaking of which, in this post, we are going to take a look at what is cross browser testing and how does it differ from end-to-end testing. We will also dive into some top-notch cross browser testing practices. Let's dig in!
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What is Cross Browser Testing?
If you build an application keeping one browser in mind it should be compatible with other browsers and their respective versions as well. Not to mention, these browsers and versions combined with different operating systems and devices should render a website or that's the basic premise behind cross browser testing. Your users should witness your platform the way you initially intended.
Cross browser testing is the category of software testing known to check a website's or web applications compatibility on a wide array of browsers, devices, and operating systems. It's important that a web app or website works flawlessly and uniformly on different browsers, browser versions, operating systems, devices, and other combinations of all of these.
Since users can avail any combination of devices, operating systems, and browsers, it's vital to check the user interface, performance, and compatibility of a website or application on all. Cross browser testing imparts consistency, intuitive user experience, and helps in preserving and widening the customer base of a business.
We know for a fact that every browser has its own interpretation of an application which leads to various outputs. The goal is for a web platform to render the same output on different browsers. This applies to both display and functionality.
Therefore, to ensure an efficient cross browser testing environment, QA teams are in charge of executing the same test cases on the testing platform to ensure that the functionality is intact. If any discrepancies arise during this process, the testing team detects bugs and directs them to the development team for fixing.
How Does Cross Browser Testing Differ from End-To-End Testing?
Before going into the details of how cross browser testing is different from end-to-end testing, let us first thoroughly understand end-to-end testing. It is a software testing methodology which features the process that tests a web application’s or a website’s workflow from start to end. The test involves all operations of the application such as it's communication with hardware databases, external dependencies, and network connectivity.
Before testing begins, developers and designers create an entire list of features, common functions, or UI components. They track data flow between various systems to locate inaccuracies dependencies and flaws.
While end-to-end testing tests all the aspects of the entire software product, cross browser testing mainly focuses on browsers, browser versions, operating systems, and device combinations. End-to-end testing is a longer and more comprehensive process whereas cross browser testing is more precise focusing on specific aspects at a time.
End-to-end testing applies to completed systems or finished products. If the teams find an issue, they test the whole thing for the second time. There is more scope of automation in cross browser testing as compared to end-to-end testing.
Top Cross Browser Testing Practices
Gone are the days cross browser testing used to be a cakewalk. With limited browsers, devices, and operating systems, testing wasn’t an overwhelming task. After all, we didn't have to worry about an unending number of screen sizes and viewports. However, now the combinations are endless. This makes the execution of cross browser testing challenging.
Considering the rapid pace at which operating systems and devices are evolving, it makes sense to make cross browser compatibility testing an integral part of your Software Testing Life Cycle. So, to ensure a discrepancy-free working of your web applications according to the set intention, here are some top cross browser testing practices to take into account. Let's take a look.
1. Identify and Prioritize Browsers
We could ideally test on every single browser and browser version but in practicality, narrowing it down to some works well. You can take assistance from production analytic tools that offer insights on popular browsers out there. Divide browsers under consideration into three different grades – A, B, and C.
A-grade should consist of the most commonly used browsers and their versions. Everything should work perfectly with these. B-grade browsers are somewhat less capable but you should target delivering a satisfactory experience. In other words, the most crucial functionalities of your website of application should work. C-grade browsers consist of really used ones. In that case, you can either facilitate the simpler rendering of a website variation or direct users in case the browser fails to adhere to minimum requirements.
2. Wisely Select Elements, Frameworks, and Libraries
No matter how out-of-the-box your frontend framework is. If you don't keep an eye out for the compatibility of your components, your cross browser testing efforts can go in vain. For example, you can easily modify your prototype to different aspects of your web application with the help of foundation components. It would take some experimenting to shortlist the most reliable and useful components.
The same goes for frameworks and libraries and you should be careful while choosing them. Always check the guidelines of browsers under consideration before using JavaScript or CSS libraries or frameworks. The browsers should be supporting those frameworks and libraries if you are using them.
3. Making The Shift To Automated and Parallel Testing
Cross browser testing involves checking website compatibility on a large number of browsers, browser versions, and device combinations. It's fairly easy to deduce that manual testing is definitely not the right approach in every scenario.
Switching to automated testing, at least wherever applicable not only eliminates monotonous and repetitive tasks, but it also offers a more comprehensive and wide test coverage. Parallel testing offers an opportunity to test applications on a different browser, device, and operating system combinations simultaneously.
4. Virtual Machines and Emulators
Most cloud-based cross browser testing tools offer emulators of different configurations that impart the exact replica of a website on different browser versions. Even if you have a tight budget and you don't want to put in a lot of effort, testing on emulators can be extremely convenient.
Similarly, since the framing of virtual machines is such that it's easy to deduce how they work with the specific browser version, they’re big time savers.
5. Going Mobile First
With people constantly browsing the internet on the go, we’re not in a position to underestimate the exponential growth in smartphone and tablet usage. With the extent to which mobile devices are conquering the browsing scenario, IT companies have started to follow the mobile-first approach which includes cross device testing.
Syncing with devices having varying viewports and screen sizes with the help of a cloud-based cross browser testing tool is the way to go. Always remember, when you are going mobile-first, don't forget to take tablets into account.
Summing It Up
In this day and age, it’s hard to come across professionals who question how vital test automation is. Without, if you wish to enhance the efficacy of your cross browser testing, test automation is the way to go. In fact, it's the backbone of DevOps and CI/CD along with faster software delivery.
The internet era has transformed the communication between brands and their customers. As businesses entered the virtual world, digitalization turned out to be a massive game-changer. With the internet becoming a dominating channel for sending out a brand message, flawless websites or web applications are no longer optional. Since the interpretation of application code varies with different devices and browsers, it's vital to ensure that the application or site carries out a thorough analysis of all browser versions, devices, and operating systems of the target audiences.
As we are already aware, all kinds of testing improve the functioning and quality of your website or web application. Cross browser testing and end-to-end testing helps in imparting an outstanding impression on the end-user by offering a consistent interface. Both are non-negotiable components of the software testing pipeline and should be treated as a mandatory prerequisite before software release.
As for cross browser testing, automation plays an important role and for that, you need the best cloud-based platform. Trusted by more than 600,000 users, LambdaTest facilitates automated and live interactive cross browser testing on 3,000+ real browsers and operating systems online. Some features include the newly launched two Hypertest for blazing-fast testing speed, live testing, testing online Selenium grid, integrated debugging, geolocation testing, and so on. You can sign up for free and try it out to check how it works with your existing frameworks.