The demand for cross-browser testing has rapidly increased over the years. With innovative mobile phone models coming up constantly, the demand for cross-browser testing is expected to soar even higher. Whenever any developer codes a website, it needs thorough testing to ensure seamless performance and adaptability to all screen sizes and resolutions. Today, more than 80% of people in the global market prefer mobile phones for online research or shopping. In such a scenario, your website must function best across all cell phone models in a steady layout. Not only does the user interface matter but also a smooth rendering of the components is important. Hence, cross-browser automation testing is highly important in the entire process of development and deployment. Let’s check out some of the upcoming trends and predictions in this field.
What is Cross Browser Automation Testing?
Contents
- What is Cross Browser Automation Testing?
- What are the Trends and Predictions For Cross Browser Automation Testing?
- 1. Mobile Testing Will Evolve and Get Fully Automated
- 2. Selenium Will Dominate The Market
- 3. Headless Browser Testing Will Step Into Popularity
- 4. Visual Testing for Comprehensive Verification
- 5. Containerization Streamlining Test Environments
- 6. Shift-Left Testing Enhancing Quality Assurance
- 7. Blockchain Testing Will Emerge As a New Trendy Variation
- 8. Microservices Architecture for Modular Testing Frameworks
- 9. API Testing Integration for End-to-End Testing
- 10. Accessibility Testing for Inclusive User Experiences
- Final Words
Cross-browser testing is the method of testing web applications and websites for optimal performance. The main purpose of these tests is to guarantee that the website being tested renders correctly across different devices, browsers, and screen sizes without any errors or issues. There are two methods to cross-browser testing – manual and automated cross-browser testing.
With manual cross-browser testing, QA testers manually check the web applications on different mobile screens, tablets, desktops, laptops, etc. They also interact with the application extensively on various web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, and also on web browser versions. They go through different web pages, check all the features, and try to create a list of test cases to be taken. The purpose of manual testers is to ensure the correct performance of the website under all of the test cases.
The release of new editions of web browsers every year and the entry of new mobile devices nearly every week make the situation quite hard and laborious. Additionally, productivity is decreasing as it becomes seemingly difficult for teams to test out all the use cases simultaneously.
Therefore, cross-browser automation testing becomes effective in the overall Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process. In SDLC, different tools and frameworks are used to automate the whole testing process. The test scripts that use Selenium, TestCafe, WebDriver, and others, simulate the human interaction process, and go through the different functions of the system in an automated way, across various devices and browsers.
What are the Trends and Predictions For Cross Browser Automation Testing?
1. Mobile Testing Will Evolve and Get Fully Automated
With the current rate of innovation and releases by different brands, it is predicted that there will be new models and designs coming up almost alternate days from some or the other brand on a worldwide basis. Recently, in the last few years again the age-old foldable models like Samsung Galaxy Fold or Motorola Razr took an entry into the market with totally new screen dimensions.
Moreover, new features catering to AI integrations and Voice recognitions are becoming trendy day by day. In such a scenario, a thorough mobility testing will be necessary. In fact, in future, there must be a dedicated team of QA testers who will work on cross-browser automation testing solely for mobile devices. This will be the only method to ensure that there are no unforeseen situations in the production releases.
For mobile testing, LambdaTest would be the most reliable tool in the market. It offers a test execution and orchestration platform that reduces go-to-market time and enhances user experience.
2. Selenium Will Dominate The Market
In some years, Selenium will transform to become the ultimate standard tool for cross-browser automation testing. The businesses focussing on Selenium-based testing will keep on working on its features to improve integration processes and streamline the testing procedure.
It is expected that in the upcoming years, the selenium testing services will become more popular and demanded, parallel testing will also be enhanced and the integration of the CI (Continous Integration) tools will improve.
3. Headless Browser Testing Will Step Into Popularity
Headless browsers are just like the other browsers available in the market. The only difference between them is that in headless browsers, you won’t find anything visible on the screen. The program is executed on the background and you can keep up with it through any operating console or a command line interface.
This is one of the advanced versions of cross-browser automation testing. With this type of headless browser testing, all the test cases are executed without the browser being loaded or any kind of visible user interface. There is a direct interaction with the webpage, so it totally cancels any chance of unstable solutions. Instead, it makes the operation faster, smoother, and more reliable.
This type of new trend in automation testing is based on the “shift-left” design mindset and is the next milestone of Quality assurance which will become highly popular in the upcoming years. Headless browser testing eliminates the need for unit testing, saves time, and speeds up the deployment process.
4. Visual Testing for Comprehensive Verification
Visual testing will be especially important as cross-browser automated testing advances. Visual testing is about the actual way websites look across different browsers, in contrast with functional testing, which is about verifying the working of the functions.
Automation tools will capture screenshots of web pages and compare them on pixel level, checking the similarity in layout, design, and visual elements. This will help us to notice flaws that functional testing might miss, as it solely focuses on the functionality of the app, such as misaligned elements or incorrect colors. Visual testing is used in automation workflows so that testers can confirm the right operation and a visually consistent user experience between browsers.
5. Containerization Streamlining Test Environments
Containers (e.g., Docker) will provide easy methods of creating automation testing environments across browsers. Testers will package what is needed for testing into containers configuring the setup would be simple.
These containers can be set up rapidly and will perform predictably in diverse environments. with container orchestration tools like Kubernetes, the whole process of managing and scaling test environments will be platform-independent and it will also allow CI/CD pipelines and resources to be managed properly.
6. Shift-Left Testing Enhancing Quality Assurance
Cross-browser automation testing will start moving towards the left in the software development lifecycle and will become one of the major components in DevOps practices. The test automation framework will be closely linked with the version control system and CI/CD tools, allowing for automatic testing after every code change.
This move will make it possible to detect compatibility issues at an early stage, which, in turn, will lead to faster feedback loops and better communication between developers and QA squads. The applications will become better and faster to appear on the web.
7. Blockchain Testing Will Emerge As a New Trendy Variation
Since 2023, the popularity of Blockchain technology has stolen a notable amount of attention in the Technical World. The usage of this technology is found in several fields, especially in the financial domain and data security. The major use case of blockchain testing is to ensure that the performance of the website is safe and secure.
For e-commerce web applications, blockchain testing plays a critical role, helping to secure payments. Blockchain testing also checks out the load capacity and the ultimate scalability of the website. With an agile approach, this is one of the best methods that eliminates any defect in the decentralized ledger.
8. Microservices Architecture for Modular Testing Frameworks
Microservices-based architecture is becoming a favorite choice of automation testing frameworks in cross-browser environments as well. This way the tester can reduce the test cases into a variety of smaller services, each dedicated to a single testing aspect.
Features like the modularization of test components allow testers to create libraries of reusable tests that can be kept in good order and updated. This means code reusability across projects and teams which can result in easier test maintenance and better collaboration among the testers working on different modules.
On top of that, by using a microservices architecture, testing at a larger scale can be done more efficiently by scaling the testing efforts where and when this is needed the most.
9. API Testing Integration for End-to-End Testing
Cross-browser API testing is vital for proper end-to-end testing execution as it is gradually integrated into automation testing workflows. APIs are the pillar of web applications’ modern functionality, as they bridge the gap between frontend UI components and backend services.
API testing, besides UI testing in automation frameworks, allows testers to check the performance of both frontend and backend components when used together with the help of various browsers. This approach helps to conduct comprehensive end-to-end testing that allows us to find integration issues at their early stages in the development cycle.
10. Accessibility Testing for Inclusive User Experiences
Accessibility testing is more and more becoming a component that is crucial for cross-browser automation tests. Along with the increasing availability and necessity of digital inclusivity and compliance with accessibility standards issued as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), automated testing tools have been developed that can assess web applications for accessibility barriers.
The tools we use evaluate various factors, e.g. keyboard navigation, screen reader readability, and color contrast across different browsers and devices. The early identification and rectification of accessibility issues can be done through automated accessibility evaluation, ensuring that the web applications developed are usable by all users, whether disabled or not or whether they use assistive technology or not.
Final Words
By now, you must have understood what is cross browser automation testing and its significance in the present time. With the current implementation of Cross cross-browser automation testing, you can ensure smooth and consistent performance of your website and web applications across all browsers, devices, and screen sizes. While testers need to upgrade themselves with the propagating demands in the market and adopt the future trends gradually, the future of cross-browser automated testing will mostly be driven by QA testers. With automation scaling up in the testing process, there is a lot that QA teams will supervise and correct.