Web Site Development and Testing

How to Test Web Page Compatibility Across Different Browsers Monitor Resolutions and Operating Systems

If you are interested in streamlining your web compatibility testing efforts, there are several solutions to your problem.

The ideal one is obviously to have in-house as many PCs and other computers necessary to simulate all of the different operating system and browser combinations. Of course this solution is very expensive and difficult to build and maintain. But keep in mind that in the end, this is THE ONLY WAY to do this effectively.

No automated tool presently is able to accomplish this work in a reliable and timely fashion outside Browser Photo.

All other tools and services offer only a part of the whole compatibility testing requirement although they do so for free.

In the end, outside Browser Photo, or an in-house custom solution, I would hire a team specialized in Web testing and handle them this quite difficult and time-consuming task.

Here is my suggestion:

Browser Photo http://www.netmechanic.com/ browser-index.htm
This is a professional paid service provided by NetMechanic, which provides you with screenshots or digital images of your web site as "seen" across over on 16 internet browser and computer combinations, including Opera, Netscape, Internet Explorer and AOL, and across different screen monitor resolutions. Read more about it at:
http://www.netmechanic.com/ browser-index.htm#features

Pricing is as follows: $ 135 a year for one domain $ 15 for one time testing of a web page

Take a tour of this tool at:
http://www.netmechanic.com/ browser-photo/tour/index.htm

Free solutions you can try are:

a) http://www.anybrowser.com/ ScreenSizeTest.html which offers a handy battery of screensize tests for both Mac, PCs and WebTV

b) Web Site Viewer http://www.anybrowser.com/ siteviewer.html
This free online tool allows you to view any online web page you have under different HTML implementations such as HTML 2, 3.x, 4 and under WebTV standards.

c) Browserola used to be a compatibility testing tool that is no longer supported. You can still download a version here: http://www.codo.com/download/ browserola/brola101.exe

d) Dreamweaver offers facilities to test your web page under different browsers and OSs.

e) Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer at:
http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html

f) JimTools Window Size Viewer http://www.jimtools.com/windowopener.html which allows you to view URLs at different screen sizes. It has several nice options like the ability to optionally display your tested web page in a browser where you can control which elements of the browser window are displayed (standard buttons, address bar, status bar, scroll bars, etc.)

g) DEja vu Browser Emulator http://www.jimtools.com/windowopener.html Which will emulate these following browsers: Line text mode browser NCSA Mosaic Mosaic Netscape Mosaic Netscape Netscape Navigator Lynx Internet Explorer Hot Java

 

 

h)Browser Archive Almost all old browsers can be retrieved from: http://browsers.evolt.org

i) Browser Resolutions 1.1
http://www.axistek.com/downloads/ BRSetup.exe

This tool allows you to test any web page at different screen resolutions. Browser Resolutions is freeware utility that helps webmasters to see how their sites looks in different resolutions. Available resolutions are 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 and WebTV.

To preview web page in different resolutions with Browser Resolutions application, follow these steps:

1. Run the program.

2. If your Web page located on the hard drive, press button "Browse" and select file on your disk. Path to this page will be displayed in the edit box. If the Web page located on the web, paste or type it's address in the edit box manually.

3. Press the button labelled with the desired resolution. Your page will be opened in a new browser window, sized to be looking like if it would be viewed in full screen mode in the corresponding resolution.

l) Secret access to Website Garage Tune-up service.

Though this once famous and historical online service is NOT available anymore to the public, there is still a secret way to tap into it, which I have discovered recently. Here it is:

Go to:
http://www.whitelines.net/html/step3.html

Scroll down the page until you see the title "Performance test". Input in the box there the exact URL of the Web page for which you want to test its compatibility across different browsers. You will get a Tune Up Summary Report containing a section labelled "Browser Compatibility". By clicking on the "Browser Compatibility" title you will be able to see a detailed report on all those HTML tags in your Web page code that may create compatibility issues across different browsers.

To see a Web site that scores "Excellent" under this test, input: http://www.useit.com