Testing a software or websites in different platforms or different browsers is a challenging job for designers and software testing people. There is lot of online tools available to make it convenient the effort of testing.
This article helps you to get some idea about the different website testing tools available to test the site or software across different browsers.
Refer this small checklist whenever you come across website testing tools for different browsers as well as operating systems:
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1) Validation of CSS.
2) Testing XHTML or HTML.
3) Testing web pages with JavaScript enabled and disabled condition.
4) Testing web pages for function like Ajax and features like JQuery.
5) Test and Evaluation of Font sizes.
6) Changing the resolution of display and testing page layout.
7) Testing alignment and images
8) Test cases dealing with Footer and header portion in the web pages.
9) Alignment of web pages- that is left aligned or right aligned
10) Different styles adopted for web pages
11) Date and Time format.
12) Special HTML character encoding
13) Page zoom-in as well as zoom-out functionality
And certainly you will not miss these points
14) Testing software or website across different OS like Apple, Windows, MAC, Redhat, Fedora, Centos etc
15) Testing the software across different websites like IE, Safari, Chrome, Mozilla and Opera
Dozens of configuration testing sophisticated tools are there in the internet. Some of them are given free of cost where as others are having a token cost for using. The selection of these websites is mainly decided by the browser platform on which you have to test the web pages. Using these tools help you minimize testing the software across different browsers. You can save your time, man power and other pecuniary cost also. Advanced softwares require high performance tools specific to it. For all the general purpose websites, these testing tools available online are more than sufficient to test all intricate points.
Following are the list of online software testing platforms that we are introducing to you. These tools can be used to test the software across different browsers.
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Spoon Browser Sandbox
Spoon Browser Sandbox is a popular online testing platform. You can test your WebPages across a wide arena of platforms like IE, Opera, Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox. You don’t have to download and install the software on the PC. Everything can be done online. (Please make a note that latest version of the website doesn’t support IE among the different platforms in which you can test the software.
Browsershots
Another key player in the online testing industry is Browsershots. It helps you test your Internet pages across a large domain of OS and Browser versions. It is one of the popular and widely used platforms. Because it is famous for its advanced features and highly customizable front end You may use this software for different browsers, OS, different screen resolutions, different color option, and different browser script status like JavaScript. You can even test the flash videos with this software. You just have to type the website url address in it and enter the required test conditions. The tool will do the remaining test for you.
This software may be used to ensure the performance of the system across around 61 websites. The software will do the specified test on all the browsers and on different OS platforms and will give a consolidated report.
The main disadvantage of this site is the time delay taken to test a webpage. The time taken to do the specified test cases is very high and often the test cases will result in time run over error.
The main browsers that the software will support include IE, Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Minefield, Netscape, Safari, and Opera. The site is constantly updated for the newer releases of the browsers and so the users need not worry about it.
IE NetRenderer
It is one of the widely used tools. It is used to check the performance of the custom build websites over different browser and operating system platforms. It can be used to test the sites in multiple versions of Microsoft IE. You just have to select the required version of IE from the list and enter the url of the required website to be tested. You may immediately see and verify the snap shot of the webpage that you have entered. Additional test cases can be carried out based on the requirements.
An additonal option for testing with Firefox is also available. For that you have an add-on available called “IE NetRenderer”.
IE Tab
This sites gives an additional add-on plugin to test IE browser through Firefox and Chrome. This option can be enabled with a single mouse click. This is one of the best tools available online for it gives the best result about the GUI update in IE all being done with just one click through Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome web browsers. One disadvantage is that add-on plugin is available for only higher versions of Firefox, say above 6.0. It is one of the mostly recommended tools for testing IE, Mozilla Firefox and Google chrome.
IE Tester
Lot of options is available to test a web page view through different versions of IE. One of the most popular sites used exclusively for testing the webpage through IE is “IE Tester”. It has multiple options that allow you to experiment the software on different versions of IE all being done through a single application. It supports IE version from 5.5 to 9 and also multi operating system testing can be carried out for software Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP
Microsoft SuperPreview
This tool is mainly used to test the web pages across different browser and Operating system platforms. It mainly concentrates to bring out layout issues and multiple version of Internet Explorer and other browsers. You can parallel test the websites in multiple browsers all at a time. The software ensure how the display page is rendered effectively in different browsers and compare the result with other normal screen- shots that you have already with you.
There is a dedicated version available for Internet Exploer “Expression Web Super Preview”. It gives a correct presentation of how the page gets rendered in IE 6, IE7 and IE 8. There is an independent version for each release of IE. You can test the webpage depending on what version of add-on plug-in you have activated on your browser.
Presently you can download the software Beta version specially designed for IE.
One more option is also available for you that are by enabling “Virtual Desktop”. Using this you can test live performance on different web browsers and multiple OS. This virtual machine setup can be installed on your office premise intranet with different OS imprints and browser through remote testing through TEL protocol.
Online Paid Tools for testing websites across multiple Browsers packages
Browsera
This is a testing tool used to test the web pages automatically across multiple platforms. The main advantage of this tool is that it tests the web page’s minute elements against multiple browsers. It also testes the websites and web sites for GUI lay out and browser script related errors.
Cross Browser Testing
The tool permits you to take multiple test cases with different OS and browser versions. You just have to enter your details and login to site, select the required OS you want, select your required browser for which the software is to be tested and start your analysis. It also allows you to test advanced features like Ajax, Scripting languages like JavaScript and the functionality of flash under different browsers. You may also ensure the performance of your website under different browsers through automated testing screen shot device mechanism. Free use of this software under trial license is available for a around 1 week testing.
It’s your turn now
These are the details of the free testing sites and paid testing sites for testing the performance of the websites across different browsers. You can go through all these sites and decide for yourself the best one on the basis of your requirements. Each tool has its advantages as well as disadvantages. So the final selection of the testing tool depends on individual perspective.