When building a web application, developers must ensure it works well across various browsers and operating system platforms. Simply web application’s performance and compatibility must be verified. The most used web browser today is Google Chrome. It is said to be the most common web cross-platform browser for internet users in the world due to its abundant valuable features. Its extensive use and high impact globally make it essential to test all the websites and web applications on this high-rated browser to ensure that websites perform well.
However, performing multiple test cases manually on different Chrome versions can be challenging. Therefore this challenge can be overcome by automating the effort of manual testing on the Chrome browser using automated testing frameworks like Selenium which is specifically tailored for Chrome browsers. Selenium uses a separate executable server, called ChromeDriver to control Chrome.
This article will explain Selenium integration with ChromeDriver to perform cross-browser testing. We will start by explaining the basics of ChromeDriver, why it integrates with Selenium and what benefits it provides for cross-browser testing.
What is Selenium
Selenium is an open-source browser automation framework that provides various tools and libraries to focus on executing test cases on the applications by simulating user’s actions within the application. These test results help in quickly identifying the bugs in the application.
Selenium is not just a single tool; it’s a suite of tools which include-
Selenium WebDriver- A language-specific binding collection to drive a browser.
Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment)- An add-on that simply records and playback interactions with the browser.
Selenium Grid- It runs the tests against a vast combination of browsers and operating systems.
What is Selenium ChromeDriver?
Google Chrome is the most widely used web browser in the market, so the use of a ChromeDriver becomes a must. A ChromeDriver is a separate or standalone executable server that Selenium WebDriver uses to launch Google Chrome for testing websites on desktops including Windows, Mac, or Linux. It is developed by the Chromium team with help from WebDriver contributors. WebDriver here refers to a set of APIs used to automate web application testing.
Selenium ChromeDriver is an open-source tool that enables communication with Selenium WebDriver Chromium Protocol that is JsonWireProtocol and W3C Protocol to automate interactions with the Chrome browser for testing web applications. These two protocols are responsible for translating the Selenium-based commands into the corresponding actions on the Chrome browser. They are used to navigate between web pages and provide input to the same
The main aim of Selenium ChromeDriver is to launch the browser and perform the desired automated operations. The Selenium ChromeDriver now has added different capabilities like running tests in incognito mode, headless mode, disabling extensions, and pop-ups, etc.
Why use a ChromeDriver?
While working with web applications, there are many reasons to use a ChromeDriver. To start with, it is the fastest and more stable than many other driver options available on the market. It offers a wide range of features, including built-in support for locators, cookies, and extension management.
The ChromeDevTools interface provides various debugging and troubleshooting tools for ChromeDriver, which continually gets updated with new features and improvements. Additionally, with ChromeDriver, testers get the advantage of features like headless mode and automatic updates. Overall, considering using ChromeDriver for web application needs is always worth it.
Using it with Selenium, one of the most popular tools available for web automation takes its capabilities to another level. Selenium allows testers to control a web browser using code, which can be used for tasks like automated testing or web scraping. ChromeDriver helps to ensure that the tests run smoothly and reliably on the most popular web browser.
With Selenium testers don’t need to manually install the ChromeDriver as Selenium has an in-built Selenium Manager that automatically downloads and manages the drivers needed for testing. However, Selenium can only control browsers that have been specifically designed for automation, and Google Chrome browser does not have such an extension, therefore using a Selenium ChromeDriver can be controlled.
What is cross-browser testing?
It would be unfair to allow users to access the application with a specific browser. Since there are various web browsers in the market, the choice of usage should be left to the user. To reach out to the maximum number of users in this competitive world developers need to cater to all the devices and platforms they use.
Different users use different browsers to access the application based on their comfort. It is the tester’s task to test the application to ensure that it works seamlessly across all the widely used browsers. This urges the need for cross-browser testing, that is testing the website or application code on different platforms to verify that the developed website runs perfectly and works accurately in all targeted browsers and operating systems.
For this purpose testers can either run tests manually or use automated tools like Selenium ChromeDriver to save their time, as doing the same manually requires reinstalling the browsers multiple times.
Why is it important to perform cross-browser testing?
Browser vendors follow Open Web Standards, but they interpret them differently because each browser uses a different rendering engine to render HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in unique ways, for example, Blink for Chrome, and Gecko for Firefox. Hence only debugging a website’s source code thoroughly would not be enough to ensure the site’s proper functionality and that it will look and behave as expected across different browsers and their versions.
This is why it becomes essential for web developers to abstract browser differences. Cross-browser compatibility helps to verify that the website or web application functions correctly across different browsers and operating systems. Performing cross-browser compatibility testing helps to verify browser-specific compatibility errors so testers can debug them quickly.
Benefits of performing cross-browser testing
Having a great-looking website on most browsers leaves a strong impression, users access web applications through a myriad of browsers and versions. But during the website development process browser compatibility testing is often overlooked. When building a site developers usually focus on using one browser, especially Chrome, and may check it on a few other browsers but this is not acceptable for complex, and large-scale websites.
Hence, conducting cross-browser compatibility testing emerged as a mission-critical practice. It helps developers identify and fix compatibility issues before they deploy the website into production. This testing involves ensuring that the website works perfectly fine across different web browser versions and in different operating systems. This guarantees consistent user experience, improved user satisfaction, increased traffic, and drive conversions.
Understanding of Cross Browser Testing using Selenium ChromeDriver
Incompatibilities between browsers can lead to issues, like layout discrepancies and functional disparities. As mentioned earlier, Selenium is the most popular automated testing framework well known for its robust automation capabilities. Cross-browser testing is one of its many features.
Cross-browser testing is a little more work than regular application testing. It refers to testing a website in multiple browsers like IE, Chrome, and Firefox to check its efficacy on each. Testers can run cross-browser tests across multiple browsers manually but it would be exceptionally tedious and time-consuming. For example, while writing code for this, developers have to add extra lines for different combinations of browsers, they also need to install all the browsers and browser drivers to run the code on a wide range of operating systems to ensure confidence in the test results. As a result, the time taken for this becomes exponentially longer and tiresome.
However, if these tests are automated utilizing cross-browser testing tools like Selenium ChromeDriver, then the tests can be run simultaneously and in far less time, as well as it will prevent any issue arising from human error. Thus, providing a consistent and high-quality experience across all the devices and browsers that the user uses.
Selenium ChromeDriver enables testers to automate test cases on a wide range of browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers. It can also be integrated with the TestNG framework to run test cases on different browsers and analyze performance for cross-browser compatibility.
Issues with browser compatibility
Some of the common issues that testers may face during cross-browser testing are.
- Differences in rendering web pages.
- Acknowledging the diverse user preferences for web browsers.
- Inconsistencies in how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are interpreted and applied by browsers can lead to compatibility issues.
- Compatibility issues with third-party libraries and frameworks.
- Browser-specific bugs arise from form submission, caching, and more.
Best practices for Cross Browser Testing using Selenium ChromeDriver
Below are some of the best practices that testers need to adhere to while performing cross-browser testing using Selenium ChromeDriver.
Be selective while choosing libraries and frameworks
Web app Testing requires libraries and frameworks. Before starting the development process, keep in mind that the latest CSS or JS frameworks that help in creating the most vivid and dynamic user experience might not be compatible with all browsers since every browser has a specific browser rendering engine and they support different CSS properties. Therefore before using these libraries or frameworks use tools to check CSS properties compatible with each browser and read browser guidelines to discover if they support them.
Use proper Javascript libraries and task runners
JavaScript is an important component in web app development. Therefore choosing the right JavaScript resources that meet site requirements and offer compatible browser support is crucial to use the right JavaScript resources that meet site requirements and offer consistent browser compatibility.
Among task runners, there are multiple options available to choose from, however, Grunt and Gulp stand out as they can be automated according to requirements and also help in improving code quality after compilation.
Carefully identify and analyze the browser, and operating system configuration
effective cross-browser testing with Selenium QAs need to know the required browser versions and operating systems a site needs to be tested on. Each browser has multiple versions, and some browsers even update continuously. Thus, it is recommended to prioritize the combinations likely to be used by users globally.
Optimize for Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer does not provide support for advanced CSS styles and frameworks. This as a result can distort the design elements of the site when accessed via IE. The solution to this is to create a separate stylesheet for IE and add some hacks in the doctype.
Utilize automated browser compatibility testing tools
For running a successful compatibility test and saving time and effort during cross-browser compatibility testing, it is recommended to use automated browser compatibility tools that can test websites across multiple browsers and devices. LambdaTes is one such automated testing platform that provides deep insight into the web applications’ performance across various browsers by giving detailed reports on any compatibility issues found.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that provides testers flexibility to conduct both automated and manual compatibility testing for their websites or web applications at scale from various locations worldwide. The platform enables testers to perform real-time and automation testing over more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and browsers to simplify and accelerate the testing process.
Maintaining different servers, operating systems, and mobile devices is not a problem with LambdaTest. With its unified cloud-based platform testers can simplify and accelerate automation testing of their web applications, mobile applications, and APIs by running tests in parallel on different operating systems, browsers, and browser versions. This helps them reduce execution time, and increase performance, and coverage.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cross-browser compatibility testing is essential to web development, ensuring the website’s optimal performance and user satisfaction across diverse platforms. The importance of Selenium in cross-browser testing is remarkable and cannot be overlooked. It acts as a virtual testing assistant for testers seeking to simulate user interactions and perform thorough cross-browser testing; ultimately allowing them to identify and rectify compatibility issues and guaranteeing a uniform experience for all users regardless of their chosen browser.
This article discusses leveraging Selenium ChromeDriver for Cross-browser testing. By adhering to the above benefits of integrating Selenium ChromeDriver for cross-browser testing and its best practices developers can navigate the complexities of cross-browser compatibility with ease and provide a positive user experience. This also helps them ensure that their website functions correctly, looks visually appealing, as well as is compatible with all web browsers across.
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