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Browser Tests, Services and Compatibility Test Suites

Thursday, October 4, 2007
Cross-browser compatibility is still one of the most complex issues when it comes to web-development. Web standards usually guarantee a (relatively) high degree of consistency, however no browser is perfect and particularly older browsers have always been quite good at surprising web-developers with their creative understanding of (X)HTML/CSS-code. Still you need to make sure that (at least) most visitors of your web-site can use it, navigate through it and find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.

Browsers Tests Are Necessary
The truth is that a) you never know who might type in your url in his/her navigation toolbar and b) the browser-environment is still very quirky and the risk of inconsistent presentation is simply too high to ignore it. For instance, different browsers and operating systems use different techniques for rendering fonts (Win vs. Mac on handling fonts). The font size isn’t identical on different platforms and some fonts might not be installed on the user’s system.

Worldwide browser usage: IE6 dominates; IE 7 has already more users than Firefox 2. Stand: 01.10.2007. Source.

Firefox on Linux doesn’t display web-sites as Firefox on Windows does. As bonus web-developers have to cope with dozens of versions and, of course, Internet Explorer 6 — 46% of browser usage share, which is a true godsend for hardcoders and hackers. It’s almost impossible to keep all possible problems in mind — a detailed test helps you to identify the critical issues — also and particularly if these are the smallest details of your layout.

Browsers Tests: What Can You Do?

In fact, browser inconsistencies are hard to deal with, and to be able to deal with them you have to know what the problems are and what browsers render your site in a quite creative way you probably haven’t expected. To ensure the (more or less) identical presentation in browsers you need to verifiy its consistency in a number of browsers — before going live with your project.

And to do just that you can either install a number of web browsers or use web-based browser test services; the latter provide you with an instant remote access to the browsers (via Virtual Private Network (VPN)) or instantly deliver the screenshots of your site

  • in different browsers (Mozilla family, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, mobile Browsers),

  • in different screen resolutions (usually 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1200×800)
  • and on different operating systems (Mac OS, Linux, Win).

The effect of your changes can be observed instantly — although you don’t have the browser installed on your PC.

Let’s take a look at some useful services, web-tools and applications you can use to keep an eye on the cross-browser presentation of your site in older, current and new browsers.

Problem Case #1: Internet Explorer

By default you can install and run only one version of Internet Explorer on your PC. However, usually you need at least two versions (IE 6 and IE 7) to cover the most quirky bugs in the most used browsers out there. You can use Microsoft’s Virtual PC to run multiple browsers simultaneously. But it doesn’t have to be that complex — alternatively you can use TredoSoft’s Multiple IE’s package.


It is not difficult to follow the instructions and get any version of Internet Explorer (IE3, IE4.01, IE5, IE5.5, IE6) running in standalone along side other versions. All versions are included in the installation package (10 Mb). Please notice that the package doesn’t always work properly; for instance, sometimes IE5, IE5.5 and IE6 crash unexpectedly. Still the tool is useful and better than nothing. The installer works in Windows XP, Windows Vista users have to use Microsoft Visual PC 2007.


If you’d like to test your site in Internet Explorer 7 without installation you can use ieCapture. (Usually) no queue, instant results — and for free.


Problem Case #2: Safari

Also only one version of Safari can be installed under Mac OS X. The current version of the Web Kit Framework determines the rendering of web-sites. Multi-Safari offers 10 Safari-versions (1.0 to 2.0.4), which can be installed along side other versions.
Multi-Safari offers a dozen of Safari versions.

Problem Case #3: Linux

If you need to test your web-sites in browsers which run under Linux — for instance for your intranet — you might want to check out Knoppix or Ubuntu. With Knoppix you can run Debian GNU/Linux in 5 minutes. In both cases you can start Linux from your CD-ROM. No setup and no installation is required.

Smashing Magazine in Ubuntu’s Firefox

Knoppix has Konqueror and Mozilla already preinstalled; Ubuntu has Firefox 2.0 already “on board”. The free download is possible via BitTorrent or FTP (in both cases 700 Mb); you can also order a free CD.

Browser Tests: Online-Services & Tools

If you have critical issues with your sites you might find it extremely useful to install multiple versions of web browsers on your PC. However, if you need to find your way through some minor inconsistencies you might use web-services and web-tools instead. The choice is quite big, however most services aren’t free.

IE Web Renderer



IE NetRenderer allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5. The Mixed- und Difference-Views instantly display the differences in site presentation (IE6 vs. IE7) overlaying both screenshots upon each other.

Browsershots


The tool lets you test your web-sites not only in Firefox, Opera, IE and Safari, but also in some exotic and not so popular browsers (Dillo, Epiphany, Flock, Galeon, Konqueror, Seamonkey) — they can be relevant for intranet. You can adjust the width of the screen size (640 - 1600), color depth (8 - 32 bits per pixel) as well as the JavaScript-, Java- and Flash-support.

When you submit your URL, it will be added to the job queue; so it depends on the server load when you can observe the taken screenshots. Therefore it’s useful to set a bookmark and visit the site later — the tool offers neither e-mail- nor RSS-notification. You can also download all screenshots in a .zip-file. And there is some nasty advertising. We’ve got a fake security message (pop-up) on load.

Litmus


Formerly SiteVista, this web-based application doesn’t only provide you with the screenshots of your web-sites, but also offers you the management of your compatibility tests. The screenshots are created in 30 different browsers within seconds; you can also see your entire page from top to bottom, not just the area visible above the fold which is similar for other services. The service also includes a version management tool, and a bug tracking system.

The tool currently generates screenshots for 17 browsers under Windows and 6 browsers under Mac OS X — more browsers will be added shortly. The tool isn’t as comprehensive as other services, however the price is quite high - 39$ per month for an individual license. What is interesting is that you can also generate screenshots of your email newsletters as they appear across email environments Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2002, Outlook 2000, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL Mail.

Browser Photo

The service offers screenshots of Internet Explorer, Opera, FireFox and Safari under Windows, Mac, and Linux. This results in 24 possible combinations. Price: 15$ for one time use, $150 per domain/year for unlimited use.
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