What is Cross Browser Testing? Uses and Functionality

What is Cross Browser Testing?

It is a process that involves the ability to test or simulate webpage content and interactions across multiple platforms, especially mobile devices. It is a set of techniques used to make sure that the web page or software you're developing does not show unexpected issues on different browsers. It helps identify the errors in the front end of a website before they are deployed to real users. By allowing you to test your site on different browsers, browser rendering engines, and specific web clients, it allows you to prevent issues from occurring as users interact with your website.

It is one of the most important stages in the development process because it takes into consideration all the different resolutions, browsers, and operating systems across the world. By doing so, you can ensure your website looks consistent no matter what device someone is viewing it from.

How Cross Browser Testing Works?

The steps involved in using cross-browser tests can be broken down into three main steps: defining the purpose of the test, creating test cases, and executing tests. The process of testing a web page or website using different browsers and operating systems. For example, you might want to test your website in Safari on macOS, a desktop browser on Windows, and Google Chrome. Or you might want to run tests on multiple mobile devices at the same time so that you can monitor how your site responds across a spectrum of devices and platforms. 

Other metrics involved in the execution of this testing involve the duration of the transaction or interaction on a certain page, step duration, time to load all contents, cumulative layout shifts, and largest contently paint aka LCP. 

Why Cross Browser Testing is Important?

It is an important step to making sure your website, mobile app, and third-party content work properly across all modern browsers. There are several types of testing techniques and tools, but conventional Selenium-based web apps tend to focus on using the same HTML layout across different browsers. This doesn’t give you the flexibility and control over each browser, which could result in code that looks similar but works differently depending on what type of browser is used.

The test can be a beneficial tool for many businesses. It allows for a positive user experience on your website no matter what browser or device visitors are using to connect with you. At the same time, it creates the opportunity for higher conversion rates, which translates to more revenue for your business.

Neglecting cross browsers can affect the core web vitals platform that measures the performance of your website, application, or mobile app. Every visitor to your site can impact how quickly and easily it is to find in search engine results. An intelligent indexing and monitoring system helps uncover issues that prevent consumers from finding your website, so you can develop an improved user experience to drive greater engagement metrics such as time on site and bounce rate.

Cross browser testing enables you to ensure your website works flawlessly across a wide range of web clients and devices. This ensures that you meet quality expectations on all platforms and devices, which increases your chances of creating an effective user experience, resulting in positive impressions for visitors and higher conversion rates.

While it is possible to manually test your web application in different browsers, this is not always practical or efficient. In many cases, both time and resources are wasted testing in multiple browsers that offer no differences in functionality. Cross-browser testing is a crucial task, no matter the industry you run your business in. Not only does it help ensure that you have a positive user experience for your users, but it also helps ensure a consistent experience across all browsers and devices. 

Automation of Cross Browser Tests: 

Web testing automation scripts involve scripting websites to load multiple browsers remotely. Developers can schedule testing, set up test pages, and perform different steps such as login procedures, account creation, entry dates, and page layouts. Developers who write automated scripts for cross-browser tests commonly use JavaScript to parse and run functions specified in the scripts. These scripts can check for errors, observe transactions and user actions on a website or application; run timing tests to identify performance bottlenecks; verify which elements are clickable and active; verify that links make sense on the page, or programmatically determine if a page is valid or not. Scripts that test different parts of an application or site may be made available in different formats (e.g., client-side JavaScript, server-side JavaScript). Scripts can be executed from remote servers to check whether a website or app works in an optimal way for users in different locations around the globe. 

Modern Techniques of Cross Browser Tests: 

Many organizations today use modern browser testing platforms to replace scripts with user-friendly web recorders that mimic the user’s experience of a website or web application. Without having to write any scripts or code, you can record a variety of user journeys. At the end of a simulated visit, these tools will sequentially display each step of the user interaction and capture metrics, as well as show you where any errors occurred. Simulate as many browsers and devices as possible to determine the robustness and stability of your web application.