Testing Tools for Cross-Browser Compatibility

It is a fact that many people today are using different web browsers when surfing for information in the internet. And as a web designer and/or developer, it is your role to ensure that the web pages you've created are compatible for most of the commonly used browsers these days. The term used for describing this kind of work is the “Cross-browser Compatibility”.

Cross-browser Compatibility is defined as all critical elements of a website, web application, HTML construct or client-side script  being viewable in a particular browser. Due to the broadening of the browser market today, the cross-browser compatibility method claims that a website should support browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari in addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape.

Since this compatibility is in demand for web developers like you, here are some useful tools that will help you in testing and fixing cross-browser compatibility.


CROSSBROWSERTESTING.COM

This online site serves as a browser test center wherein you can check your website's cross browser compatibility. The site offers live testing configurations which allow you to test your website live via your browser and remote VNC sessions. And you can also interactively test your ajax, javascript, and flash on all operating systems. Moreover, with Cross Browser Testing, you can check your website's design across every browser.

The site is a huge time saver as well, for it reduces the wait time when requesting a Windows XP, Vista, or Win 7 configuration from around 60 seconds to less than 30 seconds.


BROWSER SHOTS

Browsershots is a free open-source online web application that tests your website's compatibility on different browsers by taking screenshots of your web pages rendered by real browsers on different operating systems. Once you submit your site, a number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to Browsershots' central dedicated servers for review.


BROWSER LAB
Browser Lab is an easier and faster way to do cross- browser testing that integrates with Creative Suite 5 or CS5. By using this tool, you can: fully preview your web pages across multiple browsers and operating systems; quickly and accurately test the web content with powerful diagnostic tools; save money with an online testing lab vs. dedicated testing hardware; and you can launch BrowserLab directly in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 to help avoid testing disruptions.

With Browser Lab, you can enjoy an always available, up-to-date testing lab without the hassle of maintenance or local upgrades.


SPOON BROWSER SANDBOX

This tool enables you to run several web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera without any installation. The Browser Sandbox is a great resource for Web developers and IT managers interested in testing upcoming Web browsers and technologies without the problems associated with installing a new browser on their desktop.

BROWSRCAMP

Browsrcamp allows you to test the compatibility of your design with Mac OS X browsers. Through this tool, web developers and designers can take control over a Mac OS X system pre-configured with all the Mac browsers. Browsrcamp is supposedly the easiest way to test every aspect of your website on Mac, including Javascript, DHTML, Ajax, and Flash.


LITMUSAPP

The Litmus application allows you to preview your campaigns across 34 email clients and devices in minutes. It will provide you screenshots of your email newsletter as it looks around all major email clients, therefore serves as a comprehensive pre-flight check for every campaign. Also, Litmus can see your email on the most popular mobile devices. It even lets you scroll your email on the device.

LitmusApp is the only service in the world to provide cross-browser landing page and website testing in addition to email previews.


ANYBROWSER SITEVIEWER

In some cases, web designers may have put a lot of time and effort in creating their websites, but that effort is wasted if majority of the Internet users are unable to view it. Some sites are even not usable at all by some users. That is why the AnyBrowser Site Viewer was created. This tool enables you to view your own site as your visitors do.

The tool lets you see HTML pages in different screen sizes. You can move from link to link viewing pages as they’d appear in a variety of browsers and check for text-only purity. Also, the Anybrowser Site Viewer allows you to select specific page elements.


BROWSERA

Browsera is used as a testing tool, not just a screenshot tool. It locates cross-browser layout problems automatically by comparing each browser's output. It also crawls the pages on your site and actually test them for layout inconsistencies and scripting errors. This tool runs entirely in the cloud, so there's no installation required.


NETRENDERER

IE NetRenderer is a free cross-browser compatibility testing tool. This allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5, as seen from a high speed data center located in Germany. This web rendering tool is also suited for web designers working on Apple iMac and Linux workstations. It enables to verify web designs natively on all popular Internet Explorer versions, without the need to set aside several physical or virtual Microsoft Windows PCs just for that purpose.