Cross Browser Testing in Selenium Webdriver – Testsigma

When you build a web application, it must work well across various OS platforms and browsers. In simple terms, verifying the web application’s performance and compatibility is necessary. In recent trends, automation testing is a top-notch framework that automates the effort of manual testing. Selenium is one such tool that fits well in this scenario. In this blog post, let’s understand how to perform cross browser testing using Selenium WebDriver.

It’s not fair to ask users to access your application with a specific browser. To reach out to the maximum number of users, you need to cater to all the devices and platforms they use. Since there are various web browsers in the market, the choice of usage should be left to the user. Different users use different browsers based on their comfort. It’s the job of the test engineer to ensure that the application works well on all the widely used browsers. This urges the need for testing the application code on different platforms. This is where cross browser testing comes into the picture, the type of testing which verifies that a website works accurately in all browsers.

The main goal is to verify that the website you’re developing runs perfectly on all targeted browsers and operating systems. Testers can either run manual tests or use automated tools like Selenium WebDriver. It helps save you time, as you need not reinstall your browsers multiple times.

Cross Browser Testing Using Selenium

As mentioned earlier, Selenium is the most popular automated testing tool for various functions. Browser testing is one of the many features supported by Selenium.

1. Selenium WebDriver enables you to automate test cases on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers.
2. You can integrate the TestNG framework with Selenium WebDriver to run your test cases on different browsers.
3. You can analyze performance for cross-browser compatibility.

Read on Selenium Based Automation Testing to gain deeper insights into the various components of Selenium.

How Does Selenium Help with Cross-Browser Testing?

• Selenium WebDriver works with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer, ensuring your application behaves consistently across all major browsers.
• Simulates real user actions like clicks, form entries, and navigation to detect browser-specific functionality or layout issues.
• Enables testing on different operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux, supporting a broader user base.
• Allows writing tests in various programming languages (like Java, Python, C#, etc.), making it easy to integrate into existing workflows.
• Allows running tests in parallel across multiple browsers and environments, speeding up test execution and improving coverage.

Step-by-step Guide on How to Perform Cross Browser Testing in Selenium

Here, we will discuss how to do cross browser testing in Selenium, the setup required, etc.

Step 1: Set up Your Environment

• Install Java/Python (based on your preferred language). Download and configure Selenium WebDriver.

Step 2: Choose a Test Framework

• For Java, use TestNG or JUnit; for Python, use PyTest or unittest. These frameworks allow parameterization for different browsers

Step 3: Write Browser-Specific Code

Example in Java (TestNG):

1
2
3WebDriver driver;
4
5@BeforeMethod
6@Parameters(“browser”)
7public void setUp(String browser) {
8    if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase(“chrome”)) {
9        System.setProperty(“webdriver.chrome.driver”, “path/to/chromedriver”);
10        driver = new ChromeDriver();
11    } else if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase(“firefox”)) {
12        System.setProperty(“webdriver.gecko.driver”, “path/to/geckodriver”);
13        driver = new FirefoxDriver();
14    } else if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase(“edge”)) {
15        System.setProperty(“webdriver.edge.driver”, “path/to/edgedriver”);
16        driver = new EdgeDriver();
17    }
18    driver.manage().window().maximize();
19}
20
21

Step 4: Write Your Test Case

1
2
3@Test
4public void openGoogle() {
5    driver.get(“https://www.google.com”);
6    Assert.assertEquals(driver.getTitle(), “Google”);
7}
8
9

Step 5: Run Tests for Multiple Browsers

• Use a testng.xml file or command-line parameters to execute the same test across multiple browsers.

Step 6: Analyze Results

• You can check the output in the console or use test reports (TestNG, Allure, Extent Reports) to verify which browsers passed/failed.

Best Practices to Do Cross Browser Testing in Selenium

Some of the best practices to consider while performing cross browser testing in Selenium:

Best practices	Reasons
Selecting the right libraries and frameworks	The most recent CSS or JS frameworks might not be compatible with all browsers. This is important to remember while creating web apps because browsers have various rendering engines. Before using these libraries or frameworks, check browser recommendations to discover if they support them.
Employ relevant JavaScript libraries and task runners	Because JavaScript is a crucial component of web app development, it is critical to employ the appropriate JavaScript resources that fulfill site needs and provide consistent browser compatibility.
Identify and analyze your browser’s OS configuration	To effectively perform cross-browser testing with Selenium, you must know the required browser versions and operating systems. We recommend prioritizing combinations likely to be used by the largest segments of your audience.
Optimize for Internet Explorer	Internet Explorer does not support advanced CSS styles and frameworks, which can distort design elements. To solve this problem, create a separate style sheet for IE and add some hacks to the doctype.

Cross Browser Testing in Selenium – How Testsigma Can Help?

Modern teams need automation testing to build and deploy bug free applications efficiently. Achieving test automation is complicated due to multiple framework setups, complex coding, etc.

Testsigma, a unified test automation platform on a cloud, simplifies and accelerates automation testing for web applications, mobile applications, and APIs. With Testsigma, test engineers, QA team, and business users can create, run and maintain automated tests easily. Simply put, anyone can test high-quality software with zero coding skills.

Using simple English commands powered by NLP (Natural Language Processing) engine, you can write tests in minutes. With NLP and Integrated API testing capabilities, teams can achieve in-sprint test automation with minimum effort. With Testsigma, maintaining different servers, operating systems, and mobile devices is no longer a problem.

It comes in two versions. One is free for a lifetime and meant for basic apps. The second one is the pro version which is free for 21 days and later charges a monthly fee.

One can run tests in parallel on different operating systems, browsers, and browser versions. Testsigma offers more than 200 Android and iOS operating systems to run tests. This is how the platform replaces the effort of coding with simple English instructions and built-in functionality.

Conclusion

Cross browser testing lets you check for website compatibility. Selenium is one such automated testing tool, which serves this purpose. It’s up to the developers to deliver an end-user experience that’s consistently delightful across a multitude of browsers and devices.

Testsigma is a fully-managed test automation platform that includes all the core features of the open-source platform, without any infra-requirements. It offers enhanced security, extensive test lab, project and review management, powerful reporting capabilities, etc. Organizations can therefore consider using Testsigma to have a hassle-free and extensive testing process, especially as a cross browser testing tool.

Thus, this brings us to the end of our post on Cross Browser Testing using Selenium WebDriver. If you have any questions or suggestions, drop them in the comment section below.

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