Efficient ways to test cross-browser functionality?

Question

I'm interested in finding out how people are testing for cross-browser functionality( for css and javascript)?

Do you use any tools? ...interesting methods, besides just opening IE/FF/Safari etc...

Answer 1

The web site BrowserShots.org is great for this.

If you are using Mac OSX, you can also try Alkaline. From their site:

Windows browsers on your Mac

Alkaline tests your website designs across 17 different Windows browsers right from your Mac desktop in seconds. No need for virtual machines, Windows licenses, or any messing around with Windows Update.

They have a plugin for Coda and TextMate.

Answer 2

a good article about the various ways to test versus IE. i like the SuperPreview tool the most, but IETester is very nice as well. i usually develop for FF, then adjust to IE. i find that its much easier this way, as IE clearly has the most compatibility issues.

Answer 3

I am using IETester (http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage) at work. But quite frankly - I do most of my tests inline: FF3 running the administrator on the site, and Opera as the non-authenticated user, IE6 from Windows2000 as IE backup (vmware), IE7 on XP/SP2 or IE7 on Vista (2 different physical machines).

Then konqueror and chrome (again, once in a while...) and IE8 when I bring my laptop to work.

Yes, there is no silver bullet (tm). Do test, and have lot's of hardware + software.

Answer 4

For Javascript there's Selenium. Write test once, run it automatically on IE and Firefox (there's partial support for other browsers).

Answer 5

Yet another option would be BrowserSeal. Since it is an application and not a web service, it is much faster compared to pretty much everything else.