With the way we rely on online content today, organizations cannot imagine operating without a digital presence in the form of websites.
With the proliferation of browser types and their multiple versions available for customers to utilize, cross-browser compatibility of websites has become crucial as it needs to be ensured that every customer is catered to and all users are provided the same smooth experience while accessing the website.
Cross-browser compatibility can help broaden the customer base by offering them a well-functioning product no matter what device, browser, operating system, or a combination thereof, they are using. However, there are several issues that can arise when testing is undertaken for cross-browser compatibility.
Cross-browser compatibility issues List
The following highlight the areas which should be carefully dealt with by the development and testing teams:
- HTML/CSS validation
- Layout compatibility
- CSS Reset
- Issue of style sheets
- Outdated browser detection
- DOCTYPE error
- Vendor specific functions
- Using untrusted cross browser libraries and frameworks
- Lack of testing on real devices
HTML/CSS validation
The validation of HTML and CSS codes written during the building of an application may cause a hindrance for testers since each browser has its own way of reading and handling these codes. While creating the codes, developers might forget to include a closing tag, which is seemingly an insignificant error.
There are some browsers like Chrome that would autocorrect an omission of this type but unfortunately, a browser like Internet Explorer will not be able to auto-correct, rendering an erroneous code leading to issues in displaying the part of the application that the code was written for.
A simplistic solution for the testing teams is to use code validation tools that are widely available in the market. Some of these tools are powered by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and include Jigsaw CSS Validator and W3C HTML Validator, while there are others like JS formatted for HTML, CSS Lint, JS Lint, etc.
Layout Compatibility
With webpages being accessed from a diverse range of mobile devices each of which can have varied screen resolutions, organizations have to necessarily create and offer websites that are optimized as per screen size, resolution, and orientation. The application needs to render the correct layout in any given scenario. Browsers come with their own default layouts.
The practice prevalent among developers is to apply CSS resets to remove this default layout to be able to introduce their own designs into the applications. This can lead to cross-browser compatibility issues which can have two underlying reasons. It could be because of a lack of support for some layouts by modern browsers and/or their versions, or because of a non-responsive design, resulting in a webpage that isn’t a usable or readable version.
However, this issue can be resolved rather easily, which is by way of using floats. A float is an element/command used when writing the code which basically places a floating image inside a text box. Though it is supported by most browsers, it comes with its own limitations and is better left to be used for smaller elements within a webpage rather than for the layout of the entire webpage. There are tools that can be used for modern layouts and these are supported by most modern browsers. Hence, these tools like Flexbox and CSS grids can be employed by developers for effectively handling the layout of the website.
CSS resets
Each browser that we come across has a unique way of handling CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which gives rise to a different layout style. Every browser, hence, will have a default layout and for a website to run its own layout, this default needs to be superseded. If this is not done, each browser will end up having its own layout for the same website, which means a gap in cross-browser compatibility of the website/application.
This necessitates performing a CSS reset with which the design gets set to the default. This way all browsers get set to default. Developers do this by utilizing CSS reset style sheets. Some of the common ones used for this purpose include- Normalize.css, Eric Meyers CSS reset, and HTML5reset. CSS reset style sheet is basically a set of CSS rules that, when applied, remove the browser’s default formatting of the HTML elements. Developers can then take control of the layout design and ensure consistency across various browsers.
Issue of style sheets
As noted above, the use of cascading style sheets (CSS) is helpful when moving away from the default layout and introducing custom design elements into the web pages. As more design elements are added, style sheets can become bulky and a bit difficult to manage. Moreover, the look and feel of the web design might differ for the various browsers that the website is loaded on, since the mechanism of rendering varies for each browser.
A rather uncomplicated way around this is to keep style sheets separately for each browser that is to be intended for the website. The idea is to have a generic main CSS file common for all browsers along with browser-specific CSS files that are called upon with the use of conditional comments, to make adjustments that would result in consistent rendering across browsers.
Outdated Browser Detection
The pace with which technology moves ahead is by no means a slow one and the case of browser updation isn’t any different. Faster speeds imply that newer versions of browsers are constantly released, and these usually have many additional features. The issue here is that sometimes, upon using an older version of a browser, Javascript may fail to detect this browser. Developers occasionally run into this problem due to the use of obsolete java scripts.
The solution to this is available in the form of the Modernizer. The use of browser detection can be replaced by the modernizer, which is a JavaScript library that detects all the features that are present in a browser. The focus of the website can then be made to shift from the browser to the features available.
DOCTYPE error
While a common code is written for the rendering of the application or website on all browsers, a minuscule error like missing out the basic “DOCTYPE” command can cause the website to behave differently on various browsers, leading to inconsistencies which we want to avoid when working on cross-browser compatibility.
Older browsers and some obsolete versions need the DOCTYPE command in the code to be able to understand which version of HTML to look for, in order to read and execute the code. If it is missing, the website will not be rendered as intended. Let us briefly understand why: browsers operate in two modes- strict mode, wherein the error checks are stringent, and; quirks mode, in which the errors aren’t checked as rigorously and this mode is basically meant for supporting backward compatibility for older browsers and versions.
When DOCTYPE is missing from the code, the browser shifts to the Quirks mode stops performing error checks, and displays the webpage erroneously.
Fortunately, this also has a simple and quick fix, i.e., adding the following single line of code at the very beginning:
!DOCTYPE html
This ensures uniform rendering on all browsers.
Vendor Specific Functions
There are instances when developers include functions or add certain properties to some elements, in the code, that pertain to specific browsers only. For this, there are some standard prefixes to be added when writing the code, depending on which browser the functionality or property is being applied to. Over and above this, the code must include the function without any prefix as well, to make sure that there are no errors that creep into other browsers.
The most commonly used browser-specific prefixes, which are known as vendor prefixes, are as follows:
- Android: -webkit-
- Chrome: -webkit-
- Firefox: -moz-
- Internet Explorer: -ms-
- iOS: -webkit-
- Opera: -o-
- Safari: -webkit-
Using untrusted cross-browser libraries and frameworks
Websites often have certain third-party libraries and frameworks within them. In case wrong or untrusted alternatives to these libraries and frameworks are utilized, it can cause issues with cross-browser compatibilities like crashes and faulty executions. In order to avoid these snags, the best practice is to use well known, cross-browser compatible frameworks like the following-
- Angular JS and React JS, which are both web application development frameworks
- JQuery, a scripting library
- Foundation, a front end framework
- Bootstrap and Animate, which are CSS scripting libraries
As a safety precaution, it is recommended that the documentation of any library or framework that is being considered, be thoroughly checked. Information on cross browser compatibility is included in the documentation, and can save the developers a lot of headache later on, if this is done beforehand.
Lack of testing on real devices
No matter how thoroughly the testing is undertaken in virtual simulated environments that replicate the functioning of browsers and devices, nothing can compare to the superior results that organizations can gain by testing on real devices and browsers that will be used by the target customers.
However, the barrier to doing this successfully is the fact that testers will require a device lab that takes into account constant upgradations vis-à-vis new browsers, devices, operating systems and can give the testers access to the combinations of the aforementioned. This can be a cumbersome process involving enormous effort in terms of time and resources. But there is some software available in the market that provides a comprehensive real device cloud with all different browsers, devices, etc., and their combinations as well.
While there are numerous challenges organizations can stumble upon while striving towards cross-browser compatibility of their websites, there are fairly simple solutions that can be implemented to navigate through these challenges.
That said, it is advisable to take care of cross-browser compatibility in the development stage of the website itself, since it will be less complicated to identify hurdles and apply fixes. Cross-browser testing is of utmost importance to lend support to all potential customers having multiple points of access in terms of the browser they use.
Resolving issues related to cross-browser compatibility in the earlier stages contributes to enhanced results in the entire software development cycle, and speed and efficiency can truly make or break an organization in the highly competitive market that exists today.