Mobile cross-browser web testing - testing

When building websites I commonly use tools such as Browsershots to ensure that my pages looks reasonably OK in the different browsers. I am however starting to get complaints about a heap of mobile browsers running on different portable devices.
My question is simply how do one best carry out mobile cross-browser tests ? (answers that does not require me to install a ton of different mobile emulators will be preferred).

DeviceAnywhere can do this, but not for free.

The answers are old.
Nowadays, there are many more options.
Check out "Browserstacks", or google for "alternatives to Browserstacks". Some services offer (paid) automation for testing across devices.

http://validator.w3.org/mobile/ will provide you with several good advices, but won't provide any mobile devices' screenshots...
I'm afraid Felipe's right, the only way to know how your website interacts is to do it yourself.

Related

What are the pros and cons of implementing webRTC?

I would like to implement a video / audio call feature from a browser. The goal is to allow two users to communicate remotely without having to install a third part (when I say third part, I'm talking about a software or an extension on a browser).
I know WebRTC, which is very popular today and free. However, it is very difficult to implement and the documentation is difficult to understand (not very easy for a beginner).
Here is the official webRTC documentation, and honestly, where to start? https://webrtc.org/start/
If you have an experience about WebRTC, is it possible to share with positive or negative points? This would be very useful for the community.
Moreover, if you have experience with another library, I think it would be interesting to hear it.
There is no other way to develop a call service in a website without the use of WebRTC today.
The alternatives are:
Use WebRTC
Use Flash (which is... dead)
Use a plugin (which is... dying as a mechanism in browsers)
Use an app you download (not exactly a service in a website)
Node.js is the way to go, but you will need to learn some new technology, especially when it comes to the backend.
The servers you will need are:
1. The traditional web application server
2. A signaling server (the one you plan on using Node.js for - you can use that for the web application server as well)
3. A STUN/TURN server (for NAT traversal)
4. Maybe a media server, depending on your use case
For some alternative open source and commercial products, you can check this WebRTC Developer Tools Landscape

Is there a way to realistically test mobile performance of sites?

What's the best practice for testing the performance of mobile sites in a realistic way?
I'm not interested so much about the collection of the metrics per se, but more about how to drive real devices (iOS, Android) from selenium (or other). Or to use simulators that have similar characteristics (emulating CPU and memory of the targeted devices).
At least for Nokia handsets, you have the Nokia Remote Device Access available. http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Remote_device_access/
Not sure if the other manufacturers offer such a service with dev access on real devices on live networks.
I believe what your looking for is Selenium's built in AndroidDriver. It does exactly what you want:
Android WebDriver test can run on emulators or real devices for phone
and tablets.
Check out this link for more info
Edit: Here is the iOS driver
Good Luck!

Hybrid desktop/modern ui apps

As far as I understand, Microsoft wants to allow "having both desktop and modern ui GUIs" only available for web browsers (am I mistaken here ?).
Does that mean common apps will be developped twice ? With e.g Skype being available both as pure desktop app and pure modern ui app ? And if a user installs both, these both instances will share no data ?
I can't imagine them doing a shift towards gesture friendly uis/hybrid ui, and leaving full blown desktop apps (not toy/phone-like/game apps, that can live in one space only) with no integration/entry points inside modern ui. Or maybe they want to participate in that "kill full-blown desktop apps" movement ?
So is there a model for a desktop app developped in whatever GUI toolkit, that wants to have some minimal integration with a small HTML/CSS/JS frontend in modern ui, like for e.g providing a dashboard of favorite or recently accessed files, contacts, etc ?
Your first statement of "only in a browser" is not correct. Desktop applications don't change their current design paradigms. You can have browser-based apps on the desktop, of course. But full clients are still supported and still viable as a real solution to problems.
Your takeaway from that comment should be that desktop applications are not deprecated as people assert. The reality is, desktop applications are still the only solutions to many problems.
Your second question of shared data is not correct. Skype shares lots of data with its app companion. Not because of shared local storage, however; it is because of the services that it shares. My account and contacts are on the server. So, they share a lot.
Your takeaway from that comment should be that Windows 8 apps should not highly leverage local storage but should be built as service-oriented clients. To that end, your desktop applications should have already started to leverage this architecture, too.
Your third question (which is very cryptic) seems to be asking if a desktop application and a companion Windows 8 app can share or integrate with each other. The answer is yes. Not only can they share the same service, but file associates, custom protocols, and some of the non-Store manifest capabilities allow for this explicitly. Line of business applications should have a companion app, if you ask me. The integration points are many - though not every. But there is no other way to leverage the new capabilities of Windows 8 without introducing a companion app - even if that app does very little.
Your takeaway from that comment should be that Windows desktop applications and companion Windows apps are the preferred and anticipated development approach.
Best of luck, thanks for the question.

Browser testing - is it worth testing multiple operating systems?

I'm about to start some cross browser testing of a design.
In your opinion is it worth testing browsers across a number of operating systems? As the browser is using the same rendering engine will the design likely be the same or are there inconsistencies big enough to warrant testing on different platforms?
For example, is it worth testing IE9 on Windows 7 and Vista?
Is it worth testing Safari on Mac and Windows? If I do this is it worth testing on different versions of Windows?
If I test Firefox in Windows is it worth testing on Linux and Mac?
I don't think that different version of the same OS influence the page rendering of a given browser.
On the other hand, it would be wise to test the same browser on different OS' as some page elements are OS dependent. Take form inputs and controls for instance. Also Fonts are rendered different based on the OS.
A big YES.
I have seen both FireFox and Safari acting differently between Win, Mac and Linux systems.
Specially around places with significant JS and advanced CSS implementations.
I personally have not seen differences in IE within different Windows versions.
Short answer: Yes, especially if there's a lot of Javascript on your page.
Long answer. In my experience, testing web application on the same browser in different versions of Windows did not reveal any significant bugs, specific to an operating system. However it is very fruitful to test your app on Windows and non-windows OS.

Recommendations for automated testing tools for Windows CE and PDA devices

Is anyone out there aware of any good or even reasonable tools for automated testing on the Windows CE / mobile platforms. Potential tools that I am aware of include TestQuest, Countdown, SOTI pocket controller, and Eggplant. Are there any more that I have missed?
Alternatively, is anyone aware of a VNC or remote display tool for Windows mobile that replicates the Windows visual object hierarchy on the PC, rather than displaying the entire device as a single bitmap? If this could be done, mainstream desktop automation tools could be applied to Windows mobile.
N.B. I have already read this related question which is useful, but am looking for a viable off the shelf alternative. This post is following up on a number of related posts in the PDA/Embedded section of SQAforums.
I realize that your question is directly "are there tools to do the automated testing on CE", but have you considered perhaps aiming your automation at a version of the app which can be accessed from a standard desktop environment? In this way, you are open to all of the standard automation tools.
For example, I have worked on a few projects where we needed to perform automated testing for the device. In all cases, the RF device was really just a web browser connecting to a web based app. The same URL and simple forms could be plugged into a standard desktop browser and be automated by any of the usual automation toolsets. Automation never replaces manual testing, so what we did on those projects was automate regression testing of the same web interface that was used by the RF devices, but still do some sanity manual testing directly on the devices.
Also, with regards to the VNC/bitmap issue, I've been down that road before and agree that it is a nightmare. Using standard desktop UI automation on a VNC bitmap is not only unreliable and unmaintainable, but slow - in most tools, the CPU churns away searching the entire bitmap from top left to bottom right for the desired image. Really really slow.
Check Hopper, a test tool for Windows Mobile.