Automated Cross Browser Testing is done to ensure that a website or an application works as intended not just across varying browsers but across multiple devices and platforms that users are likely to use.
Testing across a variety of browsers will reveal issues the developer may have left uncovered. Finding a bug at the user level is not welcome in a competitive world and the users may not necessarily stay and give a chance which in turn affects the business. Hence, Cross Browser Testing becomes very important to ensure cross browser compatibility of your website and application.
Why perform Cross Browser Testing? Here are a few reasons:
- CSS styles render differently across browsers/browser versions. Older versions of browsers are generally the most affected by unsupported CSS elements and new HTML tags
- It’s impracticable to sequentially test all browser-version-OS combinations
- JavaScript, AJAX requests, Applets, Flash, ActiveX may behave differently on different web browsers according to their rendering engines
- Browsers are not strictly standard compliant and browser vendors perform enhancements and release updates to stay ahead of competition which becomes a bane for the developers and also the testers who need to use different code to test compatibility.
You may check this article that discusses Why Cross Browser Testing is necessary.
With the growing number of devices, automating each application, let alone manual testing on multiple browsers to accommodate different screen sizes is not easy but, it is not advisable to avoid it. Manually testing an application on different test environments is difficult to do and eventually becomes a bottleneck in Continuous Delivery.
We can establish that Cross Browser Testing is a must to have for companies of all sizes. There needs to be an automated solution to address end to end cross-browser testing requirements.
What is required to ensure an effective Automated Cross Browser Testing?
Let us start by saying that instead of spending lots of time and resources integrating multiple tools like scripting tools, test environments and bug reporting tools, if automated, Cross Browser Testing solutions need to provide a test automation ecosystem with every essential element that makes Automated Cross Browser Testing easy, in-built for end-to- end Automated Cross Browser Testing requirements.
Essential elements for Automated Cross Browser Testing
Scriptless automated cross browser testing
The scriptless/less coding approach can speed up the process of automated cross browser testing and also maximizes the reusability of code with reduced maintenance. A Scriptless approach would be ideal for cross browser testing as writing tests for the same scenario on multiple browsers is exhaustive and time intensive. Automated Cross Browser testing tool must make it easy to write automated tests easily best if need be written just once and not having to write tests differently for different test environments.
Reusable step groups
If the automated cross browser testing tool can save time by using repeated test cases like application login and, you can easily reuse them on other test steps as well. Also, you would only require to develop a test case for a browser once, and you would be able to re-use it for multiple browsers any number of times.
Dynamic and Scalable Test Environments
Availability of realistic test environments is important to execute tests continuously. With the growing number of end user devices, it is required to have enough realistic test environments for application testing. Also, having multiple test environments will help run tests in parallel for faster feedback in a reduced time.
It is also important to use not just a single browser during the development process, however if the automated cross browser testing tool allows for testing even before an application is ready, the testers may check for compatibility in other browsers as well in parallel.
Parallel executions across many different environments
By running parallel cross browser tests, you can run through your entire test suite in only a fraction of the time. Being able to run multiple tests in more than one browser at a time(parallel) substantially increases your cross-browser coverage. With a broad selection of browsers, operating systems, and devices, we can ensure a seamless user experience on any browser.
Because parallel testing is faster, it allows you to execute test suites continually in a wider compatibility in the same amount of time without having to limit yourself to testing against only the most popular OS and browser combinations. Thus attain a better test coverage.
Unified platform for Web and Mobile Browsers
A unified framework that supports web, windows, mobile, web services, reports and database validations. A unified, extendable and secure Continuous Testing Platform is essential to help testers connect thousands of web, mobile devices with different device configurations, in one go.
CI/CD Integrations for Continuous delivery
Modern development best practices such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery require frequent executions. We need to ensure that the automated builds submitted by developers are designed to scale. If a change submitted by the developer causes one or more tests to fail, the team should be able to retest them on multiple device/browser combinations effortlessly.
Cross Browser Testing in parallel is a boon here to improve the CI workflow without any wait. An automated cross browser testing tool should allow for easy integrations with CI/CD tools and should be able to simultaneously run testing suites across different browsers.
Comprehensive reports for each test environment
It is not just enough to identify bugs found on the application that runs on every device, OS and browser combinations. There should be detailed reporting mechanisms with clear comprehensive analysis of a failed test.
The automated cross browser testing tool should help find failed tests, drill down to the environment with failures and take a close look at the failed test suites.
Visual Evidence including Screenshots and Video recordings
If the reports are better complimented with screenshots and videos, it would be easier for the team working at different levels of the project to understand what went wrong on which test environment. The automated cross browser testing tool must record videos of each test environment execution, take snapshots of bugs or defects, and must make it easy to share artifacts with the entire team.
Other Integrations
Team adopting Agile and DevOps workflows use CI integrations with tools like Jenkins. Not just that, integrations with Collaboration Tools like Email or Slack that involves the Developers, Testers, SMEs and end users would make the whole development lifecycle more transparent and Agile. This way anyone can suggest or point out anomalies, track progress and communicate better. If the automated cross browser testing tool also allows for easy integrations and sharing of actionable feedback immediately with the team will ensure an uninterrupted user experience on all browsers.
An ideal approach would be to choose an automated cross browser testing tool that has the ability to update and maintain browser versions automatically so that the developers and automated testers can focus on the application quality.
Check out Testsigma’s Comprehensive Effortless approach to Automated Cross Browser Testing that lets you test web applications over 1000+ operating system and browser combinations instantly available on the Cloud as well as on physical devices.
Also, you might want to refer a sample test case automated with the help of a fully automated cross browser testing tool.
Why choose Testsigma for Automated Cross Browser Testing?
Gain instant access to 1000+ real web, desktop, mobile devices
- Write Automated Tests Quickly Using Simple English
- Lets everyone write automated tests at least 5X faster using simple English. No coding skills required.
- Real Desktop & Mobile Browsers
- Run Tests on 1000+ Real Desktop & Mobile Browsers
- Test your web applications over 1000 operating system and browser combinations instantly available in the Cloud.
- Speed up Test Runs with Parallel Test Executions
- Run tests in parallel across many different test environments to cut down your build times.
- Continuous Testing for Agile and DevOps Teams
- Continuous Integration for Agile and DevOps Teams
- Shift-left approach and seamless integrations with CI/CD tools to ensure the quality of your applications in continuous delivery practices.
- Reports and Debugging Tools
- Comprehensive Reports and Debugging Tools
- Dynamic and customizable reports with text logs, screenshots, video recordings and many more to help you analyze results faster.
More than just test environments, It offers a comprehensive and fully automated cross browser testing ecosystem that lets one easily write and execute automated tests flawlessly on a massive device cloud.
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