ultimate virtual solution for testing <=IE8 browsers - testing

I need to know of a solution to run a local test server through a virtual guest. I am able to use Virtual PC as well as most the other solutions. My current workaround is to deploy to Tomcat on Windows 7 and test the main current browsers there. I am also able to mount share my Tomcat instance to Ubuntu so am able to run the same app without redeploying.
Currently I just invested on a Windows upgrade to be able to try out Microsofts ie8 and down VHDs but the best I am able to do with this is deploy to production server and then run the ie6, ie7 and ie8 browsers which is very time consuming.
Any suggestions or pointers for me? Ultimately a working solution to run these VHds or browsers in VirtualBox would be ideal for me, as I am familiar with it.
Related to my question I have come across some useful tutorials that may help others who find this question:
Virtual PC solution for legacy IE browsers in Windows 7
VmWare solution

You can just use one Windows version (XP, Win7 will be fine) and install IETester:
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

My solution is as follows & will only work with upgraded Windows 7 (not home premium).
Uninstall IE9 update to bring back IE8, IE9 seems to support css3 well, so testing in FF7 should be good enough for IE9.
Then follow this tutorial and repeat the process for as many virtual browsers you want. Note
I did include IE8 but don't use it as it's slower to run a virtual PC than native IE8 just in case I wish to reinstall IE9.
I use quirks mode in IE8 to test for IE7 and IE6 can go to Davy Jones Locker :D
When using xpmode, you must copy the xp disk each time without any updates and start process from scratch.
I also use VirtualBox to test Linux browsers as it's faster than Virtual PC and I share test server (Tomcat) so am able to run same instance without redeploying.
Hope this helps...

Related

Is it possible to run SikuliX on a host computer and have the script interact with virtual machine?

Currently running Windows 10 (native) and VMware Workstation 12 Player. I am running various LTS releases of Ubuntu in VMware.
I am wondering if there is way for me to run SikuliX on my main OS, Windows 10, and have the script interact with a virtual machine, running an Ubuntu OS, that I have open.
The quickstart documentation on the download site isn't very specific about the limitations of SikuliX on this topic. It simply says that you can't run it on a headless system (which VMware is not), and you need to have a monitor - the only problem is that I have no idea if SikuliX considers VMware to be a legitimate monitor or not.
I am aware of the fact that you can install Sikulix on the virtual machine itself, but this is not preferable as I would have to possibly reconfigure my VM settings to allocate more memory OR just deal with running the script at a slower pace.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The answer is yes, if you run SikuliX on a native host, it is possible to interact with the the interface of the virtual machine the same as running SikuliX on the virtual machine itself.
Now that I think about it, I should have probably tested this out before posting the question, but hey, if anyone has the same question as I do, now you know.

Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 Virtual Machine download link not working

I have been trying to download the MS Edge on Win 10 virtual machine from the dev.modern.ie website and I'm getting the same message in all the browsers:
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
My windows firewall is deactivated and I'm not using a proxy for my LAN, I have also tried cleaning all my browsing data but still getting the same error.
I really need to test a website i'm working with in Edge, is there a mirror or another link to download the virtual machines?
I was unable to reproduce the issue you're reporting when I initiated Microsoft Edge downloads for HyperV 2012, VirtualBox, and VMWare. This may have been a temporary issue that has since been resolved — please try again and let us know if the problem persists.
You can also test EdgeHTML (the rendering engine behind Microsoft Edge) by streaming RemoteIE to your Mac, PC, or Android/iOS device. While the shell of the browser will be Internet Explorer, the actual internals will be EdgeHTML: https://remote.modern.ie.
If you encounter further issues, please do not hesitate to remote them directly to me either here on Stack Overflow, or via Twitter.

Browser testing on Windows 8?

I have a Mac and I am deciding whether to install Windows 7 or 8 on Boot Camp.
Is it possible to test websites inside actual windows of IE6+ and older Firefox/Chrome/Opera browsers with Windows 8?
I tried bootcamping a Core 2 Duo iMac a year or so ago with Windows 8 and it would cause regular crashes. It looks like there is an updated to Bootcamp (I was running the previous version 4) which supports Windows 8 so you could use either option.
If you use Windows 7 (like I did), you can install and run Windows Virtual PC with different versions of Windows and IE. The cool thing is Virtual PC has something called Integration Features which allows you to launch specific applications (like IE) from the virtual machines without being in the virtual machines. (Think virtual applications)
I do this. I have one Virtual PC with XP and IE6. I cloned it, upgraded it to IE7 and then did the same thing with IE8. Now I've got a Windows 7 machine with IE9 and virtual browsers of IE8, 7, and 6. I also run older versions of Firefox on those cloned XP machines.
If you use Windows 8 you can do the same thing, its just a little different procedure (see my comment below) because Windows 8 uses Hyper-V instead of Virtual PC. I prefer Virtual PC because of the Integration Features, with Windows 8 you'll have to use the Hyper-V console but you can do the same thing.
You'll need a virtual machine within Windows 8 to run anything earlier than IE10, since Windows 8 only started with IE10.
There are some hacks to make pages behave a bit "like" IE6 (or other browsers), but I doubt they are going to work well now you're reaching all the way back from IE10.
Firefox/Chrome/Opera will work OK, as they aren't integrated into the OS.
There are a couple of options that might work for you better than installing Windows 7 or 8 on bootcamp:
Use a service such as BrowserStack. This costs money, but Microsoft provides 3 free months via Modern.ie
Install virtual machines on your Mac. Microsoft makes these available for free, also via Modern.ie

simulator or test environment for web application

I am working on a web app that will run only on firefox and on win / linux machine.
I have done that thing and now want to test with various environment like mac, android, opera browser etc.
My query is whether there is any test environment (simulator) available that will allow me to test the app on different platform without testing on real machine?
Thanks to all
You could give a try with a virtual machine like VirtualBox / VirtualPC / VMWare.
Some Windows versions are available freely as virtual machines images in the Microsoft site.
Not sure for the rest , as you write first
a web app that will run only on firefox and on win / linux machine.
...but then talk about mac and android.
For android, you could give a try with their emulator.
For Mac OS I am afraid that you won't find legal solutions.

What is your testing workflow for client-side web development on OS X?

What would be a good workflow on OS X for testing client-side code (HTML/JS/CSS) for browser compatibility and other issues across all major browsers?
I do my web development with Textmate (HTML and JavaScript), CSSEdit (CSS), and use Safari's Web Inspector, mainly for checking the JS console. I do have Parallels with Windows XP on it, but haven't tuned it for web development at all.
We develop on Macs too so what we usually do is testing and debugging in Firefox with the help of the Firebug plugin and the Web Developer toolbar. We then cross-check stuff in Chrome/Safari using Chrome's built-in Inspector in case of any discrepancies.
For testing on Windows we use a dedicated Windows machine that we can access through Remote Desktop which has some Virtual Machines running various versions of Internet Explorer (one VM for each would be nice, but we just use one for IE6, one for IE 7 and use the IE version that's installed on the remote machine as the third option).
A colleague of mine has a setup with VMWare and running IE right off his Macbook in a VirtualMachine.
As far as I can tell debugging in IE 6 is pretty hard, but some of the newer IE versions have a pretty decent Inspector similar to the ones in Safari and Chrome.