In software application development, ensuring its functionality is constant and similar across all browsers is essential. Internet Explorer is one of the common browsers being used by organizations. It is necessary to ensure a seamless user experience with Internet Explorer browser. This requires advanced Internet Explorer testing techniques as it will give developers insight into compatibility issues and other malfunctions.
However, testing for Internet Explorer online is a unique challenge. In this blog, let us explore several advanced techniques and strategies that can be used to ensure the effectiveness and compatibility of Internet Explorer.
Techniques and Strategies to Improve the QA for Internet Explorer
Here are some fundamental techniques and strategies to strengthen your QA for Internet Explorer.
Use of cross-browser testing tools
With cross-browser testing tools, developers and QA teams can ensure their applications work consistently across various platforms to eliminate the need to set up complex environments or manage physical devices.
Cloud-based platforms offer virtualized environments where you can run Internet Explorer online testing on different versions of Internet Explorer online, from the now-obsolete IE6 to the more recent IE11. This capability allows you to identify and resolve browser-specific issues early in development.
You can choose a cloud-based platform like LambdaTest to execute cross-browser testing. It is an AI-powered test orchestration and test execution platform that allows running tests across 3000+ real browsers, including Internet Explorer and version combinations. Using LambdaTest improves the QA process by automating tests across various configurations. You can simulate user interactions, test functionality, and verify design elements without the manual setup.
It offers additional features like screenshot comparisons and network profiling, providing comprehensive insights into your application’s behavior across different browsers and operating systems.
You can ensure a smooth and consistent user experience, reduce maintenance overhead, and maintain high-quality standards without the complexities traditionally associated with testing on Internet Explorer online with LambdaTest. This is invaluable for developers and QA teams committed to delivering compatible web applications.
Virtual machines and Containers
Virtual machines and containers are tools for creating isolated environments. This makes them a valuable asset for testing Internet Explorer online. You can simulate various configurations to test specific versions of IE without affecting your primary development environment. Tools like VirtualBox and VMware Workstation provide flexible setups where you can install different operating systems and browser versions to create a controlled space for comprehensive testing.
You can maintain multiple environments with unique configurations using virtual machines. This flexibility is essential when dealing with legacy browsers like IE, where compatibility issues are common. VMs allow you to test edge cases, run automated test suites, and even conduct exploratory testing without the risk of interference from other applications or system updates.
Containers offer rapid deployment and scalability. They enable you to package your application with all its dependencies to ensure consistent behavior across different platforms. Containers can be integrated into your QA process to improve the setup and teardown of test environments.
Using VMs and containers reduces the complexity of managing multiple versions of Internet Explorer online to ensure reproducible testing conditions. These tools let you quickly identify and address browser-specific issues, providing a smoother experience for users on legacy platforms. This approach is ideal for QA teams seeking to maintain compatibility across different environments.
Polyfills and Shims
When developing web applications, you must ensure compatibility across browsers, including older ones like Internet Explorer Online. A common challenge with IE is its limited support for modern JavaScript features. Polyfills and shims offer a solution by providing missing functionality to work on these outdated platforms.
A polyfill implements a feature not natively supported by a browser. It “fills in” the missing functionality to run modern JavaScript code without errors. Libraries like core-js offer a set of polyfills for ECMAScript features ranging from simple methods like Array.prototype.includes to more complex constructs like Promise or Symbol. You can maintain compatibility with older versions of IE with these polyfills in your application.
Shims refer to broader compatibility adjustments that include missing DOM methods or browser-specific quirks. They help normalize the behavior of different browsers to ensure that your codebase can function consistently across various environments.
Integrating polyfills and shims into your development process requires careful planning. It’s crucial only to include the polyfills and shims necessary for your application to avoid unnecessary bloat. A good practice is using feature detection libraries like Modernizr to determine which polyfills are required based on the specific IE version.
Using polyfills and shims effectively allows you to write modern JavaScript while maintaining backward compatibility with Internet Explorer online.
Conditional Comments and Feature Detection
Conditional comments are a feature unique to IE to include or exclude certain sections of HTML or CSS depending on the browser version. By using conditional comments, you can serve different codes to IE while avoiding any impact on other browsers. This is useful for implementing workarounds, loading polyfills, or addressing layout inconsistencies. An example of a conditional comment might look like this.
<!–[if IE 9]>
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”ie9-specific.css”>
<![endif]–>
Here, the specific CSS file is loaded only when the browser is IE9, allowing for targeted styling adjustments.
Feature detection ensures compatibility with different versions of IE. Libraries like Modernizr help you detect browser capabilities to implement features or load polyfills as needed conditionally. Unlike conditional comments, feature detection focuses on the browser’s abilities rather than its version to provide a more flexible approach to managing compatibility.
Combining conditional comments with feature detection creates a robust strategy for addressing Internet Explorer’s limitations. You can ensure a consistent user experience while minimizing the impact on modern browsers by adding specific versions and capabilities to your code. This approach is crucial for maintaining compatibility and providing a seamless experience across various environments.
Legacy Browser-Specific Code Branching
Legacy applications rely on Internet Explorer online due to organizational requirements or dependencies on older technologies. Maintaining browser-specific code branches can be a practical solution when supporting these applications. This involves creating separate sections of code or entirely distinct branches that isolate online logic specific to Internet Explorer to address its quirks without affecting modern browsers.
It can reduce the impact of IE-specific code on the overall application. You can manage browser-specific issues like compatibility and feature limitations without cluttering the main codebase by maintaining a separate codebase for IE. This isolation makes it easier to maintain and update code intended for modern browsers while supporting legacy systems.
To implement browser-specific code branching, you might use conditional logic or build tools that automatically generate distinct builds for different browser environments. Tools like Webpack and Gulp can help with this process to create build configurations tailored to different browser requirements. This flexibility is valuable when dealing with complex applications where IE-specific code could interfere with the overall functionality or design.
Compatibility Mode Testing
Internet Explorer’s compatibility mode lets it replicate older versions of the browser. It’s used in businesses to support older web apps and systems. Testing your application in compatibility mode is crucial to ensure it functions correctly when users activate this setting.
When users enable compatibility mode, IE emulates an older version, which can cause unexpected behavior, layout issues, or functionality problems. By testing in this mode, you can identify and address these issues before they affect your users. This is critical in business environments where compatibility mode is used to maintain continuity with legacy applications and internal systems.
IE has developer tools that let you switch between different modes to test compatibility mode.
This shows you how your app looks and works in older browser versions so you can find and fix problems with JavaScript, CSS, or layout. Automated testing tools can also mimic compatibility mode to run tests and check if your app works properly in these situations.
Compatibility mode testing should be part of a comprehensive QA strategy for Internet Explorer online. You can reduce the risk of unexpected issues and maintain a consistent user experience by ensuring your application works properly in this mode.
Manual Exploratory Testing
Manual exploratory testing is a comprehensive Quality Assurance strategy component when dealing with Internet Explorer online. While automated testing is essential for consistent, repeatable test cases, it can sometimes miss edge cases and unique issues specific to different browser versions. This is where exploratory testing shines.
Exploratory testing involves manually interacting with your application to discover hidden issues that automated scripts might overlook. Testers can investigate unexpected behavior, layout inconsistencies, and other quirks unique to IE. This method is valuable in uncovering problems caused by IE’s limited feature set and compatibility mode.
Testers should simulate real-world scenarios to interact with different elements and use a variety of user inputs to see how the application responds to conduct effective exploratory testing. This process helps identify UI issues, unexpected crashes, and other irregularities that might not be apparent during automated testing. In the case of IE, exploratory testing can reveal problems related to older CSS properties, JavaScript polyfills, or deprecated HTML tags.
Another advantage of exploratory testing is its ability to adapt to changing requirements. Testers can focus on areas of the application that require more attention to find bugs quickly.
Network and Performance Profiling
Network and performance profiling is critical in ensuring your application performs well in Internet Explorer (IE). IE has unique performance characteristics and may behave differently regarding network requests, caching, and rendering. Profiling tools can help you optimize your application to meet user expectations in IE environments.
IE’s built-in developer tools provide essential features for network and performance analysis. You can monitor HTTP requests, examine response times, and analyze resource loading to identify potential slowdowns. This built-in functionality lets you understand how your application interacts with the network and where delays might occur.
Third-party solutions offer more advanced profiling capabilities. These tools allow you to capture and inspect network traffic in greater detail to provide insights into how IE processes requests and handles caching. They can help debug complex issues such as resource conflicts, slow-loading assets, or inefficient server responses.
When profiling for IE, focus on common performance challenges like JavaScript execution, significant assets, and multiple HTTP requests. Consider using minification and compression to reduce file sizes and optimize load times. Look for redundant or unnecessary requests that can be eliminated to improve network traffic.
Profiling your application’s network and performance is essential to ensure it meets user expectations in environments where IE is still used.
Conclusion
While Internet Explorer is no longer a primary focus for many developers, influential QA testing for IE remains crucial for legacy applications and specific enterprise environments. By using these advanced techniques, you can enhance your QA process to ensure your applications are compatible even in challenging browser environments.
