What is CrossBrowser Testing? To define, cross browser testing simply means to test application extensively on all web browsers, be it on computers or mobiles, so that it behaves consistent across all browsers.
Today web applications are accessed on various platforms (Windows PC, Mac PC, hand handled devices etc.) and each platform use multiple browsers (Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari etc.). Every browser has its own HTML rendering engine which displays the same web page with slightly different page and text formatting. Similarly every browser differently interpret the JavaScript and its possible that it may not work similarly on all browsers. There is wide distribution of users on each platform and browser and it’s extremely important to make sure the web application properly work on all browsers.
Customer facing applications are best suited to perform cross browser testing.
Why Cross Browser Testing is necessary?
There is no universal browser which everyone uses. End users have their choice to use browser which they are comfortable with
To enhance the user experience and thereby, business
To know if there is any bug
Prerequisites
Below given are the activities or tasks that may be considered prior to the execution of cross browser compatibility testing activity.
Determining the scope and amount of testing needed.
Listing out the targeted browsers for each different operating system including mobile browsers to maximize the pool of users.
Equipping the test environment with the different sorts of browsers as identified & needed above, along with other necessary tools & resources like mobile devices, etc.
How is Browser Compatibility Testing Performed?
It can be done manually- multiple machines, multiple OS’s and Multiple browsers but clearly, this leads to multiple investments and multiple challenges and increased test time.
So, lots of tools are available in the market to make this easier.
Here’s a handy cross browser testing checklist you can refer while testing your web project on different browsers and operating systems: