Ask HN: Best cross-browser testing service?

1 point·bdclimber14··4 comments

I'm starting to get more in to polished web apps and find cross-browser testing a nightmare to say the least. What services of setup do you use for testing?

Bonus question: Do you test for IE 6, or have you finally crossed that off your list of supported browsers?

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You must support IE6 as bugs in IE6 got workarounds in all and every js code. Unfortunately still 50% of the web is IE6. If you ignore, you'll probably alienate most of corporate users.

I don't use a service, I self check against all browsers. I have each open in their own window or VM.

However there is one self service where you submit the url and they will render it on all known browser permutations. http://browsershots.org/

Well I think 50% is a bit of an exaggeration... but I see your point. We had an onsite customer demo and cringed as she opened IE6. It wasn't pretty.

I'm on a Mac. I can't imagine the time I'd have to invest to setup VM's (or buy separate machines?) for each IE6, IE7, IE8 and soon IE9, because you know they don't play nice together :)

If you're on a PC, how do you run a Mac VM for testing Mac versions?

Another side note: How do you deal with testing the ever-increasing number of pages in a web app? If I do a site re-design, there's hundreds of page "templates" that I have to make sure look good. What about true cross-browser regression testing?

Take a look at http://browserseal.com - it has some unique features for automation testing and it also comes with standalone versions of all major browsers

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