MultiBrowser

Since the majority of people stay online large parts of the day, websites need to properly function and show up on most devices, if not all. Developers have the tedious task of writing compatible code with all kinds of platforms, devices, and browsers and testing pages out. Luckily, a faster and efficient alternative to this is to use MultiBrowser.

The application comprises of several tools which can be used independently in your tests. More than this, having a particular web browser on your computer is not mandatory, even though the core feature is to test the style and functionality of a page in multiple environments.

This is accomplished through a neat technique which allows you to download stand-alone, virtualized, single-file web browsers corresponding to the popular ones. This both prevents your computer from being at risk, but also keeps it clean since the stand-alone browsers are solely used for testing here.

You start off in the browser launcher window, which is fitted with links to all other counterparts, namely the Responsive Design Screenshots tool, Mobile Browser Emulator, Video Recorder, and Browser Downloader.

In case there aren’t any other browsers than the default or want to use stand-alone versions, you might want to first fire up the Browser Downloader. Here you can choose to download recent versions of popular browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, or Internet Explorer, but also legacy browsers and old versions. Note that you can launch any installed edition of your browsers, just to broaden your testing capabilities.

If you’re only interested in the visual layout of the page, then simply head over to the Responsive Design tool. It launches in a separate window, which lets you choose from a whole range of desktop browsers and mobile devices fitted with different resolution settings. You can also add a custom device which merely requires a name and size specifications.

Running a test makes the application virtually open up the target page in all simulated environments and provide screenshots. You can view them in different modes.

Aesthetics don’t represent the only area of interest, and the application also includes debugging tools. The mobile browser emulator lets you visually inspect pages on different devices, but also access and manage developer tools, touchscreen emulation, web page source, and HTML5 validation.

The mobile browser emulator tool can also be used to test network and geolocation functionality. You can choose the connection method from a dedicated list. All of these functions can be recorded with the built-in, straightforward screen recording tool.

Last but not least, the application comes in handy even for your early projects, because it integrates into Microsoft Visual studio to provide an advanced performance analyzer and to benefit from Visual Studio’s debugger in MultiBrowser.

Bottom line is that it’s not really your fault if your device doesn’t properly display particular pages. This process needs to be well-established in early stages of page development, and MultiBrowser is just the right tool to ensure compatibility with the majority, if not all mobile and desktop environments out there.