Cross-browser testing | The Key to a Perfect UX

The Importance of Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Testing

Have you used the internet in the last 24 hours? How about in the last 5 minutes? In today's world, the internet has become an indispensable tool, making user experience key to the success of any website or application. Therefore, ensuring a satisfactory experience across different browsers is crucial. This is where the functional testing we'll discuss today comes into play: Cross-Browser Testing (CBT) and Cross-Platform Testing (CPT).

CBT involves testing a website or application across a variety of popular browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, to ensure it displays and functions correctly on each one. CPT, on the other hand, extends the scope to different operating systems and devices, such as iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS.

The importance of CBT and CPT lies in the diversity of browsers and platforms used by users. If a website does not function correctly on the user's chosen browser or device, it is likely that the user will experience frustration and abandon it, which can negatively impact the business's reputation and revenue.

The Browser Wars: A Turbulent Origin

Public internet browsing began in the early 90s. After Nexus, the first browser in history created by Tim Berners-Lee, considered the "father of the web" within CERN, everyday users began exploring the internet with Mosaic, the first browser to display images embedded with text back in 1993.

Following Mosaic, in order of appearance, came Netscape, Internet Explorer (as part of Windows 95), Opera, Mozilla, and the rest is history.

As expected, there was fierce competition among all of them. Additionally, each browser interpreted HTML code differently, leading to incompatibilities and user frustration. This period is known as the "Browser Wars," and Cross-Browser testing emerged as a tool that helped developers at least identify these incompatibilities to minimize them, a task sometimes extremely difficult due to the diversity of technologies.

Web Standardization and the Emergence of the W3C

Shortly after creating the web, Tim realized the need to establish universal standards to ensure its interoperability and growth. In 1994, he founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and promotion of open web standards.

The W3C has played a fundamental role in the evolution of the web by creating and maintaining standards for various web technologies, including:

• HTML: The base language for creating web pages, defining their structure and content.

• CSS: A style language that controls the appearance of web pages.

• JavaScript: A programming language that adds interactivity and dynamism to web pages.

• XML: A markup language that facilitates the exchange of structured data between different systems.

• Protocols like HTTP: The rules defining how web browsers communicate with web servers.

Web Platform Test (WPT) and the Interop Initiative

At the dawn of the 21st century, with the exponential growth of the internet, it became clear that W3C's efforts were not enough and the web (or rather its users) continued to suffer from compatibility issues. In 2005, the W3C took a significant step to address these issues with the launch of the Web Platform Test (WPT) initiative. This online platform offers a comprehensive set of automated tests that evaluate the implementation of web standards by different browsers.

The interoperability reports published by WPT provide valuable information about the state of compatibility between browsers. This information is invaluable for web developers and testers, as it allows them to identify and correct compatibility issues early in the development cycle, ensuring that their web pages display and function correctly across a wide range of platforms.

Notably, the InterOp initiative, led by Mozilla, complements WPT's work by fostering collaboration among browser developers to resolve specific compatibility issues. How are these issues identified? The goal is for browsers to adhere to standards for CSS, HTML, JS, Web API, and more. A set of automated tests evaluates standard compliance in 26 areas. The results are displayed in a table with links to the tests. The "Interop" column represents the percentage of tests that pass successfully in all browsers, ensuring the interoperability we seek.

Automation Tools and Device Farms

The advancement of CBT and CPT has been driven by the emergence of automation tools such as Playwright, Cypress and WebdriverIO, which allow automated functional testing on a large number of devices and browsers. These tools can leverage device farms like Sauce Labs, BrowserStack and TestingBot, which offer access to a wide range of devices for testing in real environments.

The combination of automation tools and device farms brings to light all the flaws of a web development, for better or worse, precisely by executing comprehensive navigations on many platforms in a short amount of time. The results obtained from these automated tests help teams detect potential compatibility issues with web standards and resolve them before going live.

The Future of Cross-Browser Testing

We all agree that the evolution of the web is unstoppable, and we do not know what the future holds. The role of CBT and CPT will be shaped by the continuous evolution of web standards, new technologies, and the growing diversity of devices and platforms, requiring continuous adaptation. However, SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) must adapt even more to embrace these changes and leverage the available tools and methodologies to ensure the best experience for the end user.

Where is CBT heading? Currently, we have the following key trends on the horizon:

• Cloud Testing: Cloud testing platforms will become more popular, offering greater scalability, flexibility, and access to a wide range of devices and browsers.

• Low-Code and No-Code Testing: Low-Code and No-Code testing tools will allow developers and testers without technical expertise to perform cross-platform testing more easily.

• User Experience (UX) Testing: Integrating UX testing into the CBT process will ensure that interfaces are intuitive, usable, and accessible for all users.

• Security Testing: Security testing will become part of the CBT process to identify and prevent vulnerabilities across different browsers and platforms.

• Artificial Intelligence: AI will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in validating new developments. However, its applications in this field are currently in an embryonic state, and over time we will see its applicability.

At Redsauce, we understand the importance of staying updated in these crucial areas of software quality. Our team is equipped with the latest technologies and updates to ensure your application works perfectly on any browser and platform. If you seek to guarantee an impeccable and consistent user experience, trust Redsauce to take your project to the next level.