Adobe release a free service to check your site's design cross browser: broserLab

[websonalized]

As a web designer I have to check my design in at least 7 different browsers. This can be headache...

Well, adobe just release BrowserLab. This online application lets me enter a url and indicate which browsers I want to use for the checking, and in a few minutes, it gives me snapshots of what was rendered in each browser I indicated.

neat uh?

[tylerhutchinson]

so is this an add-on to dreamweaver or is it a free program you can download? This could be handy. I hate checking in different browsers. What about mobile? Does it happen to render an image for phones and tablets?

[billbenson]

Looks like its a DW plugin:

https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#

It wouldn't make sense for Adobe if it didn't require one of their programs. I don't think very many designers here use dreamweaver. I know cb_creative does but I don't really recall anybody else? I hard code everything I do.

Actually its kind of interesting how few peoople use DW. Everybody used it years ago. Its how I started 10 plus years ago.

[Patrysha]

Browser Shots is a website that does a similar thing...you go in a type in your url and within a few minutes you'll have screenshots from all over the world from different systems.

[vangogh]

Browser Labs has been around for awhile now. It seems like a good service, though to use it you have to sign up and create an Adobe account. Browser Labs is currently free, but sometime next year it looks like Adbobe will be charging for the service. It's a good solution to browser testing if you don't have other ways to test across browsers and operating systems.

Browser Shots works well to get you an image of how your site looks in other environments, though sometimes I find it doesn't work perfectly. It also only gives you an image which you wait for so you can't make a quick change and then quickly see the results. it's good though and I often use it.

I can test pretty much everything on my Mac, with the exception of Internet Explorer. I test that by using virtual software to load Windows inside my Mac.

[Sam2012]

eggPlant is a good tool for cross browser testing however not an open source. Have the ability to test browsers across mobile and tablets.


Visit testplant.com

[cbscreative]

Hmm, looks like I missed this thread earlier. I've used Browser Lab a little, but I've found the built in Live View in DW (introduced in CS4) to be surprisingly dependable. It's rare for issues to show up later that Live View or local testing doesn't reveal. Like bill said, I do use DW, but I came at it from the opposite direction. The earlier versions of DW messed with my hard coding way too easily so I rarely used it before CS3 because it was too frustrating. From CS3 on up, DW has become a really good tool.

I still do most of my work in the code pane, but it's nice to have the design pane to quickly navigate to a certain area of the page or quickly edit some text. Another CS4 introduction that I found to be a great productivity boost is that any web page you open for editing automatically opens up all the associated files (like CSS) with it.

For Tyler's question, I'd have to check Browser Lab to see about mobile devices, but DW itself has growing support for all devices. I'm currently using CS5.5 and I can instantly check a page in any number of devices and screen settings. If there are any issues, the Inspect mode is extremely useful. It highlights all the code for any item on a page (including mouseovers and effects) and shows it to you in the code pane no matter which file it is in. If you have your CSS panel open, it updates in real time as your mouse hovers over page elements.

These tools work better if you're a coder because it helps to understand what you're looking at. When you're trying to track down why something isn't working the way you intended, it usually makes short work of finding the problem. In the past, I've spent lots of time looking for issues that I can sometimes identify now in a matter of seconds.

If you haven't worked with DW in a while (or ever) and you do very much coding, you may want to check out some of the video demos and tutorials on Adobe TV. Live View, Live Code, Inspect mode, and Multiscreen view will especially be of interest. If you're not so much into hard coding, DW is much better than the old days when they used to generate horribly bloated code. They've adopted a standards compliant approach and developed a much better program because of it. You can even validate and identify browser issues right within the program.

[vangogh]

One thing I'd add is that while tools like BrowserLab and all the others that allow cross browser testing are good and helpful, there's no replacing actually testing in the browser and on the operating system or device. Ideally all of us who build sites for a living will have different machines for testing. I realize that means purchasing multiple computers, but if this is your business it is a legitimate expense. It gets harder and unrealistic with mobile devices since there are so many, but you can check sites on friends devices or while window shopping in stores. I almost always check a site or two whenever I'm near a computer or mobile device that I don't have.

You're not going to realistically be able to test every device and configuration, but ideally you'll be able to test as many as possible directly from the source.

[cbscreative]

One thing I'd add is that while tools like BrowserLab and all the others that allow cross browser testing are good and helpful, there's no replacing actually testing in the browser and on the operating system or device. Ideally all of us who build sites for a living will have different machines for testing. I realize that means purchasing multiple computers, but if this is your business it is a legitimate expense. It gets harder and unrealistic with mobile devices since there are so many, but you can check sites on friends devices or while window shopping in stores. I almost always check a site or two whenever I'm near a computer or mobile device that I don't have.

You're not going to realistically be able to test every device and configuration, but ideally you'll be able to test as many as possible directly from the source.

Definitely, and I especially agree with the fact that testing on mobile devices is challenging. I do have 4 computers on site and deliberately keep them configured differently for this purpose. With mobile devices, it is impractical to have very many, so I do test on a couple I have access to and trust simulators for the rest. One advantage to keeping current with DW is the built in simulators which do a decent job of keeping pace with devices on the market. It's not the same as testing on real devices, but it's served well so far.

[MyITGuy]

I realize that means purchasing multiple computers, but if this is your business it is a legitimate expense.
VMWare Workstation (or VMWare Fusion for the Mac users) cares for the unnecessary computer purchases (Although you will still need licenses). Why dedicate so much hardware/space/cost to physical hardware when you can replicate the results in a virtual environment?

[vangogh]

I especially agree with the fact that testing on mobile devices is challenging.

One of the designers I follow (Jeremy Keith) collected a bunch of mobile devices. I think bought some second hand, probably saved things he and those in the office used. He set up a desk at his office with all the devices (http://adactio.com/journal/5433/) and invited anyone in the area to come by when they wanted to test. He posted about it on his blog and tweeted the invite.

It didn't take long for others to not only stop by, but add their own no longer used devices to the mix (http://adactio.com/journal/5446/). With just a little bit of effort they're building a nice testing lab.


VMWare Workstation (or VMWare Fusion for the Mac users)

Jeff I have Parallels installed on my Macbook. (Seems like every few months Parallels and VMWare Fusion out update each other until the other then returns the favor). It worked well, though it was always on the slow side. I think I needed a more powerful laptop. While I still have Parallels installed, I've switched to a different set up ever since I purchases a new Macbook Air. My old MacBook Pro is taking advantage of BootCamp to have both OSX and Windows installed. I mainly use it to do Windows testing. OSX is there more as a backup in case something happens to the laptop.

I like this set up better, but it does require an additional computer. For those of us who need to test on different computers and operating systems and browsers, it's good to hang on to older machines and set them up for testing.