Adobe® BrowserLab

As a web designer/developer, a key part of my daily work is testing sites and applications in a wide range of web browsers. These vary from old installs such as IE6, right through to new browsers such as Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome. As styling techniques and capabilities have moved forward, many older browsers are unable to correctly display various page elements. Perhaps the most troublesome source of many late nights spent testing and fixing is IE6, a browser still used by many large corporations.

IE6 is only available on the Windows platform, so testing on a Mac involves firing up software such as IETester on a virtual desktop via Parallels or VMWare’s Fusion. This is OK, but it can sometimes be a nuisance as you wait for it to load, often slowly. There have been attempts made online to offer a browser screen shot facility, whereby you type in the URL of the site you’re working on and static screenshots are served-up, letting you see positioning and layout of elements in various browsers. The concept is good, but in reality you’re often left waiting 30 mins or so for a result.

I recently heard about Adobe® BrowserLab, sofware that allows you to login, create a standard browser set (from a range of common types and versions) and then load up static screenshots of selected pages. The concept’s neat, and quick.

(1) Create your default browser set

(2) Type in a URL and wait for the screenshots to load in

(3) View the results

Pros:

• No having to fire-up a virtual desktop as accessible directly via a browser
• Slick interface with facility to compare screenshots, measure position of elements and use an ‘Onion Skin View’ (overlay comparision for different browser types)
• Free, at the moment

Cons:

• Screenshots only, so no facility for interacting with pages. It’s often necessary to interact with elements such as links, as some browsers (particularly IE6) have a reputation for messing with rollover states etc. Using BrowserLab alone currently doesn’t allow sufficient scope for thorough testing of user experience.
• No facility for testing local files (that I can find) – not ideal when a lot of initial development is locally based
• Site suggests that Adobe will eventually charge for this service

It’s the best of its type that I’ve seen so far, and will come in very handy for quick final checking of element positions. But, a one-stop-shop it isn’t, which means I’ll have to continue reverting to VMWare and IETester.