What is Web Design Cross-Browser ?

How to Test Responsive Web Design Cross-Browser Compatibility

What is Responsive Design, and how does it work?

Responsive Design allows websites to 'adapt' to multiple screen sizes while maintaining usability and user experience. Depending on the viewport, text, UI elements, and photos, rescale and resize.

Developers can write a single collection of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code for different devices, platforms, and browsers using responsive design. Responsive design is device-independent and adheres to the common development principle of "Don't Repeat Yourself" (DRY).

But there's a lot more to it. Making an existing site responsive can be difficult, but the advantages of engaging in responsive design early in a project far outweigh the effort required.

The evolution of responsive design and the basic components that make it function are discussed further.

Responsive Design's Evolution

Most users had one browser (Internet Explorer) on one operating system in the late 1990s when browser wars were practically coming to a (short-lived) end (Microsoft Windows). They only had one computer (a desktop) with screen sizes that were reasonably uniform across the board. Designing websites for these requirements didn't include abstracting discrepancies between a range of browser engines, platforms, and devices; instead, it could be done with static-size components.

Web designers eventually started to create components with percentage-based measurements relative to the viewport. This method required the components to be displayed in the browser window. The word "fluid architecture" was coined to describe this theory.

In 2010, Ethan Marcotte wrote an article on 'Responsive Web Design.' The article addressed the different devices that readers used to navigate the internet, which meant that they had to account for screen sizes, browsers, orientations, and modes of interaction when producing content for them. This article altered the way web designers approached their work.

By the end of 2016, smartphone browsing had exceeded web browsing. This stressed the importance of approaching web development from a mobile-first perspective.

Today, over 9000 different mobile devices are on the market, each with its own dimensions and graphics processing capabilities. In its search results, Google prefers mobile-friendly websites. Without a sensitive website in 2019, you will not be able to optimize your online scope.

Setting the Scope for Responsive Web Design

Take a look at the target market and audience before developing a sensitive website. The goal is to discover:

How do your users get on the internet? Examine your website's traffic analytics and combine them with the information from the Test on the Right Devices study to determine the top ten browsers/devices in your target market.

What are the website's 'core' features: These must look the same on all browsers and computers. Anything else can be tweaked in subsequent iterations.

How to Check for Cross-Browser Compatibility in Responsive Web Design

Sensitive Web Design (RWD) is a concept coined by Ethan Marcotte in 2010 to describe how web pages should be built and developed to conform to various screen sizes, platforms, and orientations. The aim was to build web pages that looked nice on all platforms and screens of different sizes.

Previously, people could only use a desktop computer and a small number of browsers to access the internet. Mobile devices now account for 50% of all web page views worldwide. As a result, having a mobile-friendly website is advantageous for companies, but it is now a requirement to thrive in a highly competitive market. Businesses must use responsive web design to ensure that their websites are configured for various screen sizes and resolutions.

The three most crucial elements of responsive web design are as follows:

1: Layout: When creating a responsive website, the layout is the first thing to consider to resize to any width dynamically.

2: Media: The media, such as photographs or videos, is the next critical part of a completely responsive website. The media must modify their size or resolution in compliance with the requirements.

3: Typography: Another significant element that developers frequently neglect is typography. To be easily adaptable and readable on mobile devices, the font size should be proportional to its parent container's width.

Putting Responsive Web Design to the Test

We reside in a world where everybody has a smart device, which means that everyone can access any website from anywhere using their device. Responsive testing is just as critical as responsive web design for companies to ensure that their web applications are visually and functionally compatible across browsers.

Here are a few main features to look for when conducting browser testing:

• Validation of HTML
• Validation of CSS
• Jquery and Ajax features
• Different resolutions of the page layout
• Validation of page and font sizes
• Alignment of image and page material
• Formats for dates
• Header and footer sections

Cross-browser testing is important for ensuring that your code and design decisions negatively impact your users.

Manual testing in all research settings takes a significant amount of time and energy. Furthermore, implementing Continuous Testing and Continuous Delivery solely by manual testing is nearly impossible.

It's best to use an automated cross-browser testing platform if you don't want to miss your deadline. Cross-browser testing is one of the most inconvenient tasks for any software tester. However, thanks to all of the Cross-browser Evaluation resources that are available online, testing efforts can be minimized.

There are various free and paid browser testing tools on the market. Depending on your specifications, you must choose a browser compatibility test tool.

If cross-browser testing is an important aspect of your web project, you'll need to set aside a specific amount of time, resources, and money to test your website through a variety of browsers.

Top 10 Cross Browser Testing Tools In 2021

Check out the following list of cross-browser compatibility testing tools for testing your website on different browsers:

1: TestComplete

Automate the browser compatibility checking process for various configurations and operating systems.

Characteristics:

TestComplete is a user interface functional test automation tool for developing and running tests on any web application.

Without any setup or configuration, run experiments in parallel across 2000+ real environments.

In TestComplete's device cloud, you can get real-time access to the new computers, resolutions, browsers, and operating systems.

To easily build automated UI tests, choose from a variety of programming languages, such as JavaScript and Python, or use TestComplete's script-free Record & Replay feature.

2: CrossBrowserTesting.com

 Your website will be checked on over 2050 different desktop and mobile browsers.

Use Selenium, Appium, or your other favorite frameworks to test and debug on live remote computers interactively, view your website in multiple browsers at once, or run automated tests using Selenium, Appium, or your other favorite frameworks. Parallel testing and integrations with continuous integration tools like Jenkins enable agile teams to test more quickly.

Characteristics:

• You can run single or parallel screenshots and regression tests with CrossBrowserTesting.
• You can get access to almost all of the app's features using its simple REST API.
• It allows you to use developer tools and plugins like FireBug and Chrome Dev Tools in full.
• With Selenium and Appium cloud testing, your team will be able to increase the automation pace.

3: LambdaTest

LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool that makes it easy to test your web app or website's compatibility. On LambdaTest's scalable cloud grid, you can run automated Selenium scripts or even perform live interactive testing in real browser environments.

Characteristics:

• Using a scalable Selenium grid with 2000+ browser environments to run Selenium automation tests.
• Automate the website's screenshots and sensitive checking.
• SSH Tunnel can be used to test your locally or privately hosted website.
• One-click error logging to Asana, BitBucket, GitHub, JIRA, Microsoft VSTS, Slack, Trello, and other bug tracking software.
• Chat support is available 24/7.

4: Browser Shots

Browsershots let you test a website through multiple browsers and operating systems. Because of its features and customization options, this is a popular browser compatibility testing tool.

Cross-browser compatibility tests can be run with a number of customization options, including browser type, operating system, screen size, colour depth, JavaScript status, and Flash enable/disable options. Simply enter the URL of your website, pick the compatibility test parameters, and submit the test request.

These steps must be repeated for each exam. This free browser compatibility test service helps you take your website's screenshots in many browsers and operating systems. It works with 200 different browsers.

This service's main disadvantage is the time it takes to view the results while using several browsers, and it often displays a timeout error.

Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, SeaMonkey, Arora, Dillo, Epiphany, Konqueror, Lynx, Luakit, Rekonq, and Midori are just a few of the browsers that are supported in all versions.

5: Turbo Browser Sandbox

The Turbo Browser Sandbox lets you use almost all of the most popular web browsers without having to install them on your computer. All common browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, can be run directly from the web on your machine. Spoon Browser Sandbox was once a free service, but it is now a paid service that supports the majority of browsers.

6: Internet Explorer NetRenderer

This is a free online browser compatibility checker that can be used to test websites on nearly all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. To begin making the website, simply select the Internet Explorer version from the drop-down list and enter your URL. You can check the screenshot of the page under test right away.

There's also a Firefox add-on called "IE NetRenderer" that lets you make the web page you're reading right now.

7: Browsera

This is the perfect method for testing the website's cross-browser templates and scripting errors.

It is said to be an automated browser compatibility testing tool for checking a website's elements across multiple browsers. This service can be used to check a website and all of its pages for layout and scripting errors.

Characteristics:

• Look for issues with the style.
• Check for JS errors.
• The whole website can be checked.
• Checking of dynamic pages
• Can test pages that are protected by a password
• The best thing is that there is no need for installation.

8: IETester

If you want to inspect browser compatibility on Internet Explorer versions, there are several options available online. IETester is one of the choices that allows you to test your website on all of the new Internet Explorer versions with only one application.

IETester is a free browser testing application that can be used to monitor websites on Windows 7, Microsoft Windows 8 desktop, Vista, and XP using Internet Explorer 11, IE10, IE9, IE8, IE7, IE6, and IE5.5.

9: BrowserStack Live

BrowserStack Live is a browser testing and smartphone framework. It is one of the most extensive browser compatibility checks since it helps you to test your website on over 2000 browsers.

Using their cloud platform, you can test your website on real Android and iOS devices. This tool can also be used to monitor websites on various operating systems and real-world mobile devices.

Characteristics

• There is no requirement of setting up anything. It can begin testing immediately in the cloud of real devices.
• Covers almost all real mobile device browsers and over 2000 desktop browsers.
• A network that is safe and confidential.
• Devices that are social (no device lab or virtual machines).

10: Ranorex Studio

Ranorex Studio is a complete web application and cross-browser testing solution. Test a wide range of web technologies and frameworks, including HTML5, Java, JavaScript websites, Salesforce, Flash, Flex apps, and many others. Cross-domain iframes, components in a shadow DOM, and hybrid desktop apps based on the open-source Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) and the JxBrowser are all supported by Ranorex.

Characteristics:

• The following are some of the features:
• Even for web elements with dynamic IDs, reliable object recognition is possible.
• For efficient test development and maintenance, use a shared object repository and reusable code modules.
• Testing based on data and keywords.
• Customizable test report with video reporting of test execution – see what happened during a test run without rerunning it!
• Parallelize cross-browser tests or spread them through a Selenium Grid with Selenium Webdriver support.
• Jira, Jenkins, TestRail, Git, Travis CI, and other software are all sponsored.

Conclusion

The choice of a good cross-platform tool is dependent on your needs since each browser compatibility testing tool has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.