B grade: IE 8 and 9 for Windows, Opera Mini.Test IE allows you to preview and test websites in all versions of Edge and. Accessibility passing common tests. A grade: Chrome and Firefox for Windows/Mac, Safari for Mac, Edge and IE for Windows (last two versions of each), iOS Safari for iPhone/iPad, Android stock browser (last two versions) on phone/tablet, Chrome and Firefox for Android (last two versions) on phone tablet.
![]() Virtualization softwareThe next best option is probably to make use of ‘virtualization’ software. A separate computer for IE8, IE7, IE6, Firefox 3.5, Firefox 3, Firefox 2, Safari 4, Safari 3, Opera 10, Opera 9 … and so on is simply not feasible. Of course, you could have a different computer for each browser, but that is not a very efficient or realistic option. VMware offers VMware Fusion for Mac, and for PC they offer the free VMware Player, which enables multiple OS installations. Mac users have the extra luxury of being able to run both Windows and the Mac OS simultaneously on the one machine—either by choosing which OS to use when they turn on the computer, or by installing virtualization software that allows Windows to run alongside the Mac OS.Various companies—such as VMware and Parallels—compete to offer the best virtualization software and their products are available for a very reasonable price (if not free): This option still leaves PC users with the problem of testing Macs (although, generally speaking, the main browsers for Mac are also available for PC and are generally very reliable, making testing on a Mac not really a big issue). (At least MS is doing something to acknowledge the pain it’s caused!) Modern.IE is a new (2013) offering from Microsoft that offers a range of tools for testing your websites in various versions of IE. They provide a handy guide, although you can’t debug any problems. You enter the page URL into a form field. ![]() ![]() Ie Emulator Firefox Download A PluginThe Mozilla Firefox Collection is much like the above, allowing multiple versions of Firefox to run at once. The Internet Explorer Collection, a downloadable package containing multiple, standalone versions of IE that can run at the same time. This service has been recommended by some influential people and if you can figure out how to use it, it’s all yours! (I don’t get it at all…) You need to download a plugin that allows you to view other browser renderings through your default browser, which is why I’ve listed it under download products. It is only available to Windows users. BrowserStack is a very handy online service that provides live, web-based access to all desktop and mobile browsers. (Warning, though—it’s a bit geeky, requiring knowledge of the command line.)Other than virtualization software, these services have a popular following: Browser-sync is a handy tool for keeping your work updated in all your browsers at once. PortableApps had a nice tool for running multiple versions of Firefox, Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. The Utilu IE Collection, “contains multiple standalone versions of the browser Internet Explorer, which can be used at the same time”. Another Microsoft tool for testing websites in different Internet Explorer versions is Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image, described as “VPC Hard Disk Images for testing websites with different Internet Explorer versions on Windows XP and Windows Vista”. Browsercamp allows you to test Mac page renderings in a wide range of browsers. Litmus is another handy tool you can register to use. Earl is a promising crowd-source service that ‘checks your web site on smartphone, tablet and desktop devices every day and notifies you when something looks wrong’. Although there’s obviously nothing as reliable as testing on the real thing, there are nevertheless some tools that can help a little: It supports many browsers (including mobile ones) and has some other interesting functions as well.Then there is the vexed issue of testing mobile devices, for which there is a far greater proliferation than for desktop machines. Multi-Browser Viewer is another interesting option. Mogotest is a comprehensive online testing tool that not only provides page views but site spidering, creation of page groupings, test histories, login for testing protected content, code analysis and validation, comparison tools, test scheduling, API access and more. BrowserSeal is “a fast and easy to use cross browser testing and screenshot tool”, including all the major browsers and also Opera Mini. Offers comprehensive texting for both desktop and mobile devices, as well as a whole bunch of other services including video recordings of the tests. You can also download the Android Developer Kit for testing Android rendering. Sauce Labs (mentioned above) includes mobile testing. However, tools like this—such as most of the others below—seem basically to provide a window the size of the device, rather than showing you how a page will really render on each device.) (For the iPhone and iPad, there is also the handy iBBDemo2, a simple, cross-platform tester by Blackbaud Labs that runs on Adobe Air. If you are on a Mac, you can download Apple’s iPhone/iPad Simulator as part of their iPhone and iPad developer tools—which does an excellent job of replicating the actual devices. (At time of writing, they are experimental and only available in Chrome Canary.) You can take srceen shots of any mobile using the free Mobilito service. You can also download Opera’s Mobile Emulator, which is quite handy. Opera Mini has a handy online testing tool for desktops, although you won’t necessarily know how Mini will perform in each different mobile device that supports it. A bit geeky, but a good option if that’s your thing. If you have your own mobile devices, you can quickly test designs on all of them by using Remote Preview, a tiny JavaScript based tool that refreshes all your devices at once. There are also tools for testing the performance of media queries (or rendering on different screen sizes), such as the Responsive Design Testing site (which works on live sites) and the Responsive Design Bookmarklet, a bookmark that you can drag to your browser’s toolbar and which is really handy for testing the effectiveness of your media queries.
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