testing on different browser

Hi
Can any one please reply what does 'testing on different browser' means in real testing world?
Thanks in advance.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on August 28, 2008 at 9:48am: Hello.
Users will be looking at a website from Windows PCs, (Windows 98, XP, Vista...), Macs, etc., using different browsers. Because of a defect, a web page might display as intended on Firefox but the display could be corrupted on Internet Explorer. Or vice versa. Or it might display properly on IE7 but not on IE6. Then there are other browsers, such as Opera and Safari.
So you will need to test the website using several of these combinations. How many combinations? A business decision - depends on the application - online banking applications obviously will need more than someone's blog.
Apologies if I have misunderstood your question and answered at the wrong level.

Regards,
Brian
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Permalink Reply by Bhavini Shah on August 28, 2008 at 10:37am: Hello Brian
It gives me much clear picture now. Thanks for the reply.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rosie Sherry on August 28, 2008 at 10:36am: Also known as 'compatibility testing'.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Aruna on August 29, 2008 at 7:18pm: Hi Bhavini,
Testing on different browser means compatability testing on browsers. The application can be run on any browser like IE, netscape etc.. but the content appearence on different browsers should be the same.

Suppose few customers give the requirements like the application should perfectly work on different versions of IE but may not support netscape. In this case the developers doesn't concentrate much on netscape but concentrates on diff versions of IE. When you run the application on IE it works perfectly but when you run the same on netscape the images may give problem or the content may not look properly (adds some junk characters etc).

Basically this is what the testing on different browser means. If the requirement says the application should be compatable to all versions of all the browsers then it should properly work on all versions of all the browsers. The tester must test this type of requirements on all versions of all the browsers.

Hope you understand.

Aruna.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Crowther on August 30, 2008 at 2:25pm

Hiya Bhavini,

Question answered by the other folks here however if you want to make an informed decision on which browsers to use you can refer to these sites:

* http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
* http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/articles/gbs/

You may be asked to test on every browser in existence which is both tricky and mind numbing. Use of these sites can make it clear why you may ask to drop IE5.0 for example. Of course if your customer or organisation has already decided then your sunk, err... I mean home dry.

With 'Cross Browser Compatibility' testing think hard about what you don't have to test on every browser. For example will spelling change across browsers? Not unless there's browser specific content. Are the images, logos, Icons going to change? If not, don't test them because you'll be there all day, maybe longer.

For this type of work use a Test Objectives Matrix such as the one attached. If you're unclear on how to use it email me.

Mark.

Attachments:

(CD-PS-009) Test Objectives Matrix.xls, 45 KB

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Permalink Reply by James Christie on August 31, 2008 at 3:52pm: I guess the discrepancy in browser usage stats between Mark's link and my figures (see below) is down to the user base. I think the users in the survey he refers to were more savvy and technical (hence their preference for open source over Microsoft). Unfortunately (and unprofessionally) I didn't keep a note of the source of my figures, because it was in incidental point in an email.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michele Smith on August 30, 2008 at 4:29pm: Hi,
On the Video tab of the Software Testing Club, there is a video called "Browser Compatibility Testing Risk Analysis" which was contributed by Brent Strange. This is a good video to watch for more "Insight" into the subject.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hue on August 31, 2008 at 9:00am: I've tested projects on different browser...
This test prove that the AUT is compatibly on different browser...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark Crowther on August 31, 2008 at 2:07pm: AUT?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Christie on August 31, 2008 at 3:21pm: YAT (yet another TLA)

Application under test - at a guess?

This question raises the issue of what browser should be used for the functional testing, and how much effort should be put into the compatibility with other browsers.

I did a quick bit of research a few weeks ago for a prospective client, and I've pasted it in here.

Historically the UK has been more dependent on Explorer than the rest of the world, especially the US. The trend is definitely moving against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. A couple of years ago Explorer had 93% of the UK browser market. It’s safe to assume that figure has fallen back since then, and the UK is catching up with the rest of the world.

The application developers should be able to tell you what proportion of your website users are using each browser, and that should guide the standards for supporting each browser, and the level of testing required for each one.
The current global figures (early 2008) are;
Explorer 7 - 40%
Explorer 6 - 38%
Firefox - 16%
Safari - 3%

Presumably the default position in most companies would be to use the latest version of Explorer. By implication you'd hammer that in the functional testing, and then perform some more cursory testing as "compatibility testing" with other browsers.

Frankly, I don't think that is good enough, unless one has taken a risk based decision based on the target market, and the consequences of embarrassing mistakes.

You can get different results between Explorer 6 and 7, never mind between Explorer and Firefox or Safari. These differences could make your website look amateurish and poorly tested to owners of browsers you didn't consider to be "standard". It could even make your application almost unusable.

It would be impractical to replicate the full functional testing across all the possible browsers, but knowing where to draw the line is a tricky exercise, that has to be taken on a case by case basis.

Still, if testing were easy, it wouldn't be very interesting!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by raj on August 31, 2008 at 8:56pm: Hi,
I am new to this forum and hate to divert the discussion. Quick question. Should this testing involve performance of the application? How to measure the performance of the application in different browsers?
thanks
Raj
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