The Importance of Cross-Browser Testing in Modern Web Development

Cross browser testing is a type of software testing where the tester is assured if the website or the web application looks and works well in many different browsers, on many different platforms and different versions.

This testing is important because the same website could appear differently depending on the browser used such as Chrome, Firefox or even Safari to mention but a few as each browser implements HTML, CSS and JavaScript differently.

The purpose of cross-browser testing is to make sure that everyone has the same experience on a website or web application, no matter which browser they use. A common misunderstanding about cross-browser testing is that it only involves a few browsers.

In reality, it includes many versions of those browsers, different operating systems, and various devices. This creates a lot of different combinations to test. Currently, there are:

• Over 9000 different devices
• 21 different operating systems (including older versions)
• 6 major browser engines (Blink, WebKit, Gecko, Trident, EdgeHTML, Chromium) running many browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and more.

Thus, at the same time, the specified characteristics give approximately 63,000+ possible combinations of browser, device, and OS. As you can see, all these combinations require a tremendous amount of testing and thus it is recommended to concentrate on those that are essential for a specific business. Some companies resort to using automated testing tools in order to be able to test more combination.

In this article, we will explain cross-browser testing, how it works, and how testers can solve common problems they face during testing.

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Why Is Cross-Browser Testing Important for Your Software?

As described above there are currently thousands of possible browser - device - OS combinations, which makes the web browsing experience very diverse. A lot of organizations are accustomed to conducting most of their website testing on Google Chrome.

However, as of April 2024, Chrome holds 63.45% of the browser market share. This means that by focusing solely on Chrome, nearly 40% of users who use other browsers might be overlooked.

1. Maintains Brand Reputation: It is always good for the reputation of the company to have its website perform seamlessly on all these browsers. Coherent functionality and look leave a positive impression that demonstrates users of your product’s professionalism and reliability.
2. Security Assurance: Internet browsers’ security standards are also not the same. Cross-browser testing also ensures that your application conforms to high-security standards on all platforms, thus ensuring that your client’s data is safe hence promoting trust.
3. Compliance with Standards: This guarantees that your application conforms to web standards and practices. This way not only do we get better compatibility, but we also ensure your application will be safe from coming browser updates.
4. Reducing Browser-Specific Problems: Each browser interprets web content in unique ways. Cross browser testing also ensures that browser issues are detected and tackled at an initial stage to enhance usability.
5. Validating API Integrations: Checking API integrations Another aspect of cross-browser testing is API testing, the main goal of which is to ensure that the APIs used by an application work without any issues across various browsers as this is important for the proper functioning of many web applications.

How to do Cross-browser Testing

• Identify Target Browsers and Devices: Start by determining your target browsers, devices, and operating systems. Use analytics data, market research, and usage statistics to guide your selection, including different browser versions.
• Define Your Test Cases: Identify key functionalities to test across browsers, such as forms, dropdowns, buttons, navigation, multimedia elements, and JavaScript-based functionalities. Develop detailed test scripts for these functionalities.
• Start Testing: Begin with one browser, checking all features, then switch to another browser and repeat. Test both user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) elements.
• Manual or Automated Testing:  Manual testing involves navigating the website or application on different browsers to spot issues, which is effective for visual discrepancies. Automated testing uses tools to test across browsers efficiently and consistently, especially for larger websites.
• Use Cross-Browser Testing Tools: Utilize tools like Selenium, BrowserStack, and CrossBrowserTesting to automate testing across various browsers, devices, and operating systems.
• Report and Fix Bugs: Document issues found during testing, categorize them by severity, and ensure web developers address and fix them.
• Retest and Validate: After fixing issues, retest the application to validate the solutions and ensure no new issues have been introduced.

Innovative Testing Techniques by Market Leaders

1. Automated Cross-Browser Testing: Cross-browser testing can also be done using Selenium, Cypress, or Playwright among others. This is crucial for small businesses as it eliminates or reduces costs associated with performing automation testing manual work thereby improving the efficiency of a business.
2. Visual Regression Testing: Include the use of Percy or Applitools to check for visual diffs and make sure that the layout is correct across browsers/devices.
3. Parallel Testing: Perform these tests at the same time on all the browsers with the help of tools such as BrowserStack or Sauce Labs. This accelerates the testing process, while guaranteeing to the coverage at the same time.
4. Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD): Cross browser testing should also be included in the Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline using Jenkins, or CircleCI, and so on to perform these tests on every code update.
5. API Testing Integration: Invest in API testing as part of cross-browser testing so that the backend services are efficient across the browsers using Postman or REST Assured.
6. Security and Performance Testing: Including moreover security and performance testing tools as OWASP ZAP and Lighthouse to find security flaws and optimise loading automate testing times for a secure and fast usage.

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Most common cross-browser compatibility issues and how to fix them

The websites should be viewed properly on all browsers for the user to enjoy the same experience irrespective of the browser he/she is using. Below are some of the common cross-browser problems that web developers encounter and how to solve them.

1. JavaScript Compatibility Issues

JavaScript execution differs between web browsers and this might make features like animations, form validations or dynamic content updates, not to work or function in the desired manner.

How to Fix It

• Use Feature Detection: Use modernise  for example or any other library that you can use to first detect whether a feature is available before using it or not and possibly providing another way of getting to the content if the feature is not available.
• Polyfills: Apply polyfills such as Babel and Polyfill. io to add support of the JavaScript features for older browser engines.
• Frameworks and Libraries: The use of JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as jQuery since they automate testing  already contain cross-browser compatibility.

2. HTML5 and CSS3 Support

Some programs even do not support certain features of HTML5 and CSS3, which results in such problems as missing elements in the code, wrong layout rendering or broken functionalities of some features.

How to Fix It

• Graceful Degradation and Progressive Enhancement: It is crucial to design the website to work worse in older browsers and better in modern ones but work in all browsers.
• Polyfills and Shims: For the purpose of this comparison it is acceptable to use polyfills like the HTML5 Shiv and shims to emulate HTML5 and CSS3 support in older browsers.

3. Performance Differences

Speed differs hugely from one browser to other software testing development  and its affects the loading time and the animation of the web page and the total feel and touch of the website.

How to Fix It

• Optimise Resources: Narrow down the size of CSS and JavaScript files and use small image size and directories for large browser caching.
• Performance Testing: Use tools like Google Lighthouse and Web-Page Test in order to decide and analyse the quality at different browsers.
• Code Efficiency: Minimise the number of scrips and style as they may slow the processing of your Website in future.

4. Handling Browser-Specific Bugs

However, some may only manifest themselves in certain browsers because of the rendering engine of the browsers in question.

How to Fix It

• Browser-Specific CSS: Use CSS hacks or conditional comments to target browsers that you do not prefer to support.
• JavaScript Workarounds: Make use of the JavaScript patching solutions in order to overcome the browser related problems.
• Community Support: Conduct a search on the community forum or browser documentation to help solve specific bugs that come with the browser.

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Industry-Specific Cross-Browser Testing Case Studies

1. E-commerce Platforms

• Scenario: An online retailer with a diverse customer base using various browsers and devices.
• Approach: Implemented cross-browser automate testing to ensure seamless shopping experiences across all platforms.
• Outcome: Enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced cart abandonment rates, leading to increased sales and revenue.

2. Banking and Financial Services

• Scenario: A bank offering online banking services accessible via different browsers and devices.
• Approach: Conducted extensive cross-browser testing to ensure secure and reliable access.
• Outcome: Achieved compliance with industry regulations and boosted user trust and engagement.

3. Healthcare Applications

• Scenario: A telehealth platform providing virtual consultations and health monitoring.
• Approach: Performed cross-browser testing to ensure compatibility and reliability across devices and browsers.
• Outcome: Improved patient satisfaction and adherence to telehealth services, fostering better health outcomes.

4. Educational Technology

• Scenario: An online learning platform offering courses and resources to students worldwide.
• Approach: Implemented cross-browser testing to ensure accessibility and functionality on all browsers.
• Outcome: Enhanced user experience and engagement, leading to higher course completion rates.

Cloud-Based Cross-Browser Testing: End-to-End Solution

To perform cross-browser testing a number of operating systems, browsers, and devices must be used which in turn presents a countless number of options. It is practically impossible to test all these combinations. Manual testing while using a test tool that is set up locally might not have the ability to handle the amount of tests to be run.

Characteristics of Cross-Browser Testing in the Context of Cloud Environment

1. Ready-to-Use Environments: Some of these platforms are provided with preset structures. You just decide the environment you want and then perform your test cases.
2. Immediate Test Execution: As for the requirements for the necessary infrastructure, you can begin testing as soon as possible without any difficulties.
3. Pay-as-You-Go: It means that one can access as well as pay for the testing environment when required and hence; it is cheaper to use.
4. Remote Accessibility: Most of them are web-based and do not require a team to be physically in one place Manual testing, thus are suitable for distributed/remote teams.

Benefits of Cloud-Based Cross-Browser Testing

1. No Infrastructure Setup Required: It is very cost efficient since there is no need to establish a physical structure and provide for it.
2. Access to Real Devices: In-fact, you get the real feel of analysing on actual devices rather than having the feeling of emulators.
3. 24/7 Online Availability: Automate Testing environment is always provided online, so it is possible to test any time of the day and night.
4. Scalability: This is very flexible and efficient depending on the testing needs of an organization or an individual.

Best Practices for Cross-Browser Testing for Seamless User Experience

1. Use Automated Testing Tools

Some of the best cross-browser testing tools that can be used are Selenium, TestComplete, BrowserStack among others to enable efficient automation testing. This helps you to conduct multiple tests at a time helping you save a lot of time and effort in testing.

Test automation also makes testing much more efficient but most importantly makes tests reusable, and standardly reproducible. additionally, integrating integration testing with these tools can ensure that your application functions correctly across different browsers and environments.

2. Test Responsiveness

Check that your website is truly responsive and adapts to various screen sizes and resolutions. After loading the webpage, test its ability to respond to different devices and orientations to maintain site quality.

Tools such as ‘The responsive mode’ within browser developer tools or services like BrowserStack can be useful here. Incorporating integration testing into your responsiveness checks ensures that the website integrates well with various devices and platforms.

3. Perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Include actual users to test and obtain feedback on the aspect of usability and possible problems that may be particular to the browser being used. User acceptance testing will also facilitate the realisation of assessing the users’ desired site to make certain that the website meets the expectations of the target group.

so end-users feedback can often expose conditions that might not be noticed during the unit or functional tests, such as performance issues, or usability impairments.

4.Stay Updated on Browser Trends

Monitor the-browser market-share to better understand the changing behaviour of the users and focus on the right browser technologies. It is recommended to update your testing plan with new browsers’ versions and features from time to time.

In this way, current information on the availability of browser renders guarantees that your testing is current and viable.‍

5. Document Test Cases and Results

Document test cases in detail of the browsers and devices that were used, problem faced and solutions provided. Recording the outcome of tests is useful to review the results of the tests and for being certain that the tests have been carried out in a similar manner within the various environments.

Documented test cases also serve as a baseline for future integration testing and help in identifying similar issues in subsequent testing cycles.

Conclusion

Cross-browser testing is an essential aspect of software testing development that ensures your website or web application performs consistently across a multitude of browsers, operating systems, and devices.

This comprehensive approach to testing not only helps maintain a high standard of user experience but also protects your brand reputation, ensures security, and complies with web standards.

If you encounter challenges or need expert assistance in implementing a comprehensive cross-browser testing strategy, our team at Alphabin is here to help. With our extensive expertise and cutting-edge tools, we can ensure your applications deliver a seamless and consistent user experience across all platforms. Don't let browser compatibility issues hold you back – reach out to our team today and elevate your web applications to the next level.