The surge of digital transformation is directly impacting the overwhelming number of websites and applications getting launched. As per the records around 252,000 new websites are launched every single day. As we know that browser compatibility is the foremost concern for all the websites, cross browser testing must be given the highest priority to build compatible and running websites. The overwhelming number of websites and their updates, likewise the browser, os and device updates requires testing of application through multiple combinations of browsers, os and device, making cross browser testing a challenge. But as we know that cross browser testing is a very important part of web app testing, we need to find solutions to all the challenges offered by it and build strategies to increase the test coverage and minimize the errors. In this blog we will study the most basic challenges of cross browser testing.
Testing multiple browsers is complicated
Browser compatibility is extremely important inorder to avoid multiple GUI errors. But the frequently rising number of browsers is a nightmare for the QA team. Every browser is unique with its own system requirement hence it is challenging to maintain all the browser and its versions and their system requirements. As the browser version keeps on changing it becomes more difficult to upscale the cross browser testing game with impeccable website performance. As we know that every browser is different with its unique properties, it’s not necessary that an app working fine in one browser would work fine on another, also we need to match the browser-os compatibility with the app to ensure perfect website performance. Hence all these factors make cross browser testing extremely challenging.
Handling frequent browser updates:
To keep up with the pace of technology, everything needs to be updated and so are the browsers getting updated so frequently! Hence the testers are also continuously testing the apps, in order to avoid compatibility issues. The developers push the browser updates every 6-8 weeks and sometimes the browsers even auto-update. Everytime there is a new browser update, the testers need to change the test script to test the updated browser against the application. How can it be easy to change the test scripts so frequently, hence sometimes even the testers skip testing resulting in incompatibility issues like change in the UX design. Hence frequently updating browsers is equivalent to a nightmare for the testers.
Automating Cross browser testing
Nothing like automating cross browser testing, as it involves parallel testing of various device browser and s combinations simultaneously, increasing the speed of testing any multiple folds. But practically automating cross browser testing is not so simple of a task! The first step is choosing a suitable tool, which is in fact tricky! Even before selecting the testing tool you have to make a list of the browsers, devices used by your customer base. Based on the analytical results, you can make the list for commencing test activities. Though popular tools like selenium grid and selenium webdriver seem to be a perfect solution, there is a lot that goes into testing the app in the cloud platform. It involves preparing test scripts, definition the test script capabilities, t integrating various open source or any good testing tools like selenium grid, Responsive web design testing etc
Conclusion
As we know the best way to find a solution is to thoroughly understand the challenges. In this blog we have mentioned the three most repeated challenges that every organisation faces while cross browser testing. There are many teams who do not focus thoroughly enough on the challenge and land up building hazardous applications . For example, as we know that browsers and devices are upgrading frequently, we have to be aware of every small and big challenge associated with it. Getting the entire list of devices and browsers, finding the best tool to get the accurate list, getting an automation tool which can scale as well as remove the the devices and browsers from the tool easily is a challenge, having a tool that can provide the report of cross browser test runs is challenging. Having a tool that can provide all the solutions under one roof is a challenge, So basically the demand of requirements and the accuracy to which you want the apps to be developed increases the challenge. As challenges are so dynamic, you have to be on your toes and find the solution to the earliest. So do make a note of all the challenges we have defined, hope it helps you to build better applications!
