Testing using multiple browsers

[SteveDingle]

Doing alot more web dev. these days and therefore need to start testing across browsers and I have a 2 questions.

1) I currently have IE, Opera, Netscape Nav, Mozilla.. any other browsers I should test with? (I don't have a Mac or Linux machine yet so can't use any of there browsers)

2) For Opera(for instance), there is a setting to have it "Identify As..[IE,Opera,Mozilla]" and I was wondering if anyone has any idea of the impact something like that has on browsing a site. For instance, what is actually happening, are there advantages in a browser identifying itself as something else.

Thanks!


Toodles,
Steve Dingle

http://www.dsbusinesssolutions.co.uk

D&S Business Solutions Ltd

 

[Mr3Putt]

Well, testing on a Mac with OS X and Safari will pretty much equate to testing on the most popular (I think) Linux browser: Konqueror... and vice versa.

Testing with Mozilla pretty well covers you for FireFox and Camino.

I don't bother testing for Netscape <6 anymore... I just put in a paragraph that will show up only to non-standards-compliant browsers, imploring them to step up to web standards.

You should, to the degree possible, test on multiple versions of browsers. So, IE4 IE3 IE5 both PC and Mac is usually helpful. But some of those are easily enough handled by the "non-compliant" paragraph mentioned above.

Bank of America's online banking website used to work with only a set list of browsers (IE4+, NS4+)... So, when I was using a Gecko, Mozilla or KHTML browser, I wanted to tell BofA that I was actually IE... or they wouldn't let me through the front door. Their site worked (mostly) fine, but they just didn't support other browsers.

That's about the only decent use I've gotten from spoofing my browser.

Of course, sites that load completely different scripts and css based on browser identity can be completely hornswoggled by a spoofer.. and the resulting page may not render well for you.

That's my 4 cents worth.

[red]Note:[/red] [gray]The above comments are the opinionated ravings of Mr3Putt. As such, Mr3Putt accepts no responsibility for damages, real or contrived, resulting from acceptance of his opinions as fact.[/gray]

 

[Vragabond]

http://danvine.com/icapture/

Use this website to check your site through Safari. It is free and very good. But usually Safari causes no problems. I care about Mozilla (Netscape, Firefox), IE6, Opera and Safari. If I can, I try to make it work for IE5.5 and IE5. Other browsers are too old and too little people use them to make it worthwhile to support them.

 

[SteveDingle]

Heya,

Thanks Mr3Putt, your comments are definitely worth 4 cents ( .05+ at least ;-) )

Thank for the link, I really didn't see myself setting up a Mac machine.. Linux is on the "plate" for next year though



Toodles,
Steve Dingle

http://www.dsbusinesssolutions.co.uk

D&S Business Solutions Ltd