It is almost impossible to deny that automation testing is one of the most important trends in the modern application development and testing industry. This is because the complex infrastructure of the application has become completely dependent on advanced testing practices. This is because, with the help of test automation, it is possible to verify the proper functioning of thousands of elements present in a modern application. Moreover, automation testing allows the application developers to cross-check the combined infrastructure of the entire application and all the elements added together. While using automation testing, the application developers can integrate various tools and platforms to improve the efficiency of the testing process further. These solutions also help the app developers to improve the quality of the app undergoing the development project.
So, in this post, we’ll look at some of the most essential aspects on how cloud-based solutions might help automated cross-browser test scenarios. We’ll also learn about some best practices that application developers and testers can use during this process. Finally, we’ll wrap off this article with a rundown of various platforms and tools that can help with this process.
Understanding Automation Testing
Automated testing is a crucial method that replaces manual test benches with a reliable system. This system utilizes a text file that contains essential data to imitate human interactions and generate a comprehensive report. The report provides valuable insights into the app’s usability, stability, and functionality. It’s important to emphasize that application developers must modify the test file during the development process to ensure that the final report aligns with the app’s requirements.
While using test automation, app developers can write test cases in many well-known programming languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and many others. It is also possible to reuse a huge segment of the existing automation test data in future app development projects. However, test automation has a massive drawback. This is because the app developers have to invest significantly during the initial setup process. This will cover the expenses for various plugins, libraries, and dependencies that are crucial for the stability of the automation test cases. So, we recommend the app companies have enough revenue resources and investments to justify this transition.
Diversity of the Device Market
The Internet’s early days only offered desktop platforms for program access and web browsing. However, with user demand, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches have entered the market, contributing more than 53% of total Internet traffic. App developers must recognize the significance of these devices for market reach and ensure full interoperability for all programs. But this task is challenging due to the greatest variability in the mobile platform market. Currently, Android, iOS, and Windows are the three most popular mobile operating systems.
For reference, we can consider the data that in the Android platform, more than a thousand new devices come to the market every year. Moreover, all of these devices are unique in terms of hardware, screen size, or any other software parameters. So, it becomes almost impossible for the application developers to generalize the test cases. In the typical market, the only accurate solution was to set up and maintain a physical device testing lab. These labs consist of multiple devices for verifying the application’s performance based on various parameters like low bandwidth, low battery, or user interaction errors. However, this is a very expensive and hectic process. Currently, the market provides various innovative solutions that can substitute for the need for such a lab.
Elaborating Cross-Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing is the new market standard for ensuring the best end-user experience for customers. This is because, with the help of cross-browser test cases, the application developers can ensure that the app remains stable irrespective of multiple changes in the operating system, device version, or any other web browser parameters. Cross-browser testing also ensures the application’s functionality on older versions of the target browser. With the help of cross-border test cases, application developers can create multiple combinations of different devices and browsers to ensure the stability of the test cases. This is a very important parameter, as various market studies show that more than 75% of audiences do not update their browsers or devices frequently.
The integration of automation testing with cross-browser testing can massively boost the capabilities of an app development company. This is because, with the help of automation testing, it is possible to run multiple instances of cross-browser test cases 24 hours around the clock. Moreover, automation testing removes the risk of human-related errors that can arise in these test cases. We can understand more about the influence of test automation in cross-browser testing in the latter part of this article.
Automated Cross-Browser Testing with Cloud Based Solutions
We structured the process of automated cross-browser testing with cloud-based solutions into various parts to make it easier for new developers and testers. These are their names:
- The first step in this process is to choose a cloud-based testing platform, as thousands of such options are easily available in the present market. Some of the common cloud-based testing platforms, such as LambdaTest. To understand the influence of these platforms in the testing process, let us use the example of LambdaTest:
LambdaTest is an intelligent unified digital experience testing platform for web applications. While using this platform, the application developers can use parallel test execution to improve the efficiency of the test cases by multiple times. LambdaTest can execute automation test scripts from various well-known frameworks and test suites like Cypress, Selenium, and Playwright. It is worth mentioning that this platform can execute the Selenium test cases on more than 3000+ Environments, including real device clouds. LambdaTest also maintains an activity log for all the ongoing test cases. This platform Is also suitable for verifying the performance of web pages that have local hosts servers. More than 10000+ enterprises and 2 million+ users rely on LambdaTest for their testing requirements.
- The next step in this process is to set up the testing environment based on the selected cloud-based testing platform. It involves configuring the test scripts and selecting the browsers and the target devices. During this process, the application developers also have to specify the testing parameters for initiating and executing the test cases.
- Next, it is time to develop or adopt the test scripts for initiating automated cross-browser testing. Depending on the testing platform that the developers have chosen, they have to make the necessary changes regarding the platform’s testing framework or API. This is because most cloud-based testing platforms support various popular testing frameworks like Appium or Selenium. So, the application developers can reuse the existing automation test code.
- Finally, it is time for the application developers to develop their first automation test script for cross-browser testing. This is a very simple process, as the app developers only have to initiate a new test file into the core project directory of the target cloud-based platform. In this regard, we would also like to advise the application developers to specifically rename the test cases according to the target elements to avoid any confusion during the testing or debugging process.
- With the help of cloud-based platforms, the application developers can select the browsers, versions, and operating systems depending on their preferences and requirements of the application undergoing the development project. So, it is very important to choose from a wide range of combinations to ensure comprehensive cross-browser testing coverage. Moreover, certain cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest offer real device testing to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the test reports.
- After the application developers have created the automated cross-browser test case and configured the testing parameters accordingly, it is time to execute the test case in their native environment of the cloud-based platform. For this process, the app developers only have to execute the run command in the terminal window. Now all that is left is to wait for the automation test case to complete execution and display the final test report. Based on this report, the application developers and testers can move on to the debugging process to remove any bugs and errors that might be present in the framework of the application.
- After the application developers have run the test cases and debugged the errors, it is time to re-run the entire process all over again. It is very important to repeat this process until all the errors have been successfully removed from the application. Now it is time to forward the app to the production phase so that it can be released to the end users. We would also advise the application developers to re-run the automated cross-browser test cases after they update any feature in the application framework. This is because new features often tend to break the functionality of the existing ones.
Finally, we would like to advise the application developers to always refer to the documentation that comes with their preferred cloud-based testing platform. It will provide various resources or specific instructions like setup, usage, and configuration.
The Conclusion
The primary motive of this article was to spread proper awareness regarding automated cross-browser testing and the influence of cloud-based solutions in this process. We also created a basic guide that can help the automation testers to write their First Test script for automated cross-browser testing. As we all know, proper knowledge regarding automation testing trends and innovations can massively boost the development capabilities of modern testers and developers. So, we would like to request the app development companies to conduct seminars and awareness campaigns to distribute this knowledge regarding test automation. It is also important to have a definite knowledge of the target audience’s requirements and customize the application accordingly. Lastly, the app developers should choose the correct test automation platform that can complement their project requirements and preferences.
