Still struggling to run your test cases on Safari for Windows? We strongly recommend you to ditch this option and start exploring other advanced processes like Safari browser online. Using this process, you can consider online services, cloud-based testing platforms, and specialized developer tools to run your web projects on multiple Safari browsers without actually having a physical Apple device.
Not familiar with Safari browser online? Don’t worry! We are here for you. Our article will help you understand why Safari testing is important, how to test websites on Safari, and the best practices to ensure that utilizing the full potential of a Safari browser online instance.
Why Test On Safari
Before we start discussing how to implement Safari browser online, we must have a clear understanding about why should we even bother about testing your web applications on the Safari browser in the first place:
● Huge User Base
Does Safari seem to be a small browser compared to Google Chrome or Firefox? While that might be true to some extend, it also has a huge section of audience. Why? This is because Safari is a default choice on all Apple devices including computers, smartphones, and tablets.
So, if your website does not function properly on this browser, you can lose a huge section of customers which will impact your subscription and overall your entire revenue.
● Browser-Specific Changes
Like any browser, Safari also has its own rendering behaviors and compatibility challenges. For example, in certain applications, it might not completely support certain CSS or JavaScript features that other browsers have already adopted. These can include certain advanced CSS layout properties,custom form controls, or WebRTC implementations.
Therefore, if you do not account for all these changes, your application might not provide the intended experience that you are trying to give to your customers.
● The Apple World
As we already mentioned earlier, all the Apple devices come with Safari by default. Although it is possible for the users to choose for an alternative browser, the functionalities that can be accessed with Safari are almost impossible to match with these alternatives. This is because Safari is deeply integrated within the Apple ecosystem and provides various features like secure password autofill, optimized power usage, and Apple Pay integrations.
So, while testing your application on this browser, you must ensure that all of these unique features are functioning properly on your target web app.
● Performance Changes
Safari has the Nitro JavaScript engine that is created to optimize the performance specifically on Apple hardware. So, these can lead to various changes in load times, memory usage, or rendering behavior.
This can be an even greater concern if you are using advanced APIs like the Web Audio API, CSS paint, or Service Workers.
Step-by-Step: Testing Websites on Safari Online
Excited about using Safari browser online for running your tests? Let us now divert our attention towards some of the major steps that you must follow in the correct order for the implementation of this workflow.
1. Choose a Cloud Testing Provider
The entire implementation process begins by choosing your preferred cloud-based platform for executing the test cases. For the sake of understanding, we will be using LambdaTest as our reference point:
LambdaTest is an AI-native test orchestration and execution platform that lets you perform manual and automation testing at scale with over 3000+ browsers, OS combinations and 5000+ real devices. Using this platform, you can also combine the Safari browser with automation test suites like Selenium for initiating automated QA testing and automated cross browser testing.
2. Access Safari in the Cloud
After choosing your preferred cloud-based platform and logging in with the required credentials, you have to select the device, browser, and operating system combination for running the test cases. For example, you can choose iPhone 14, iOS 16, and Safari to initiate the test processes.
Depending on your choice, the platform will create a test environment to run the test cases.
3. Enter Your Website URL
Now that you have successfully configured the testing environment, you can proceed towards the virtual Safari instance and type in the URL of the website that you are trying to test.
As soon as you hit the enter button, the system will load your website in a real or emulated Safari environment.
4. Navigate and Test
To properly ensure the accuracy of the test cases, you must interact with the website like a normal user. This can include clicking links, filling forms, and checking the responsiveness of multiple menus. You should also look for common issues like broken layouts, misaligned elements, or JavaScript errors.
Cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest will also provide dedicated developer tools and a built-in console view to help you with the debugging and troubleshooting steps.
5. Take Screenshots or Record Sessions
Most cloud platforms will allow you to capture screenshots or record the screen integrations for reference so that you can easily find the faulty elements. This will be a very important parameter to ensure the visual consistency of your web application.
Want a good news? LambdaTest will automatically create a comprehensive test report with multiple media elements like screenshots and videos. You can use these elements to quickly find the element that has failed and implement the required debugging steps.
6. Test Across Different Versions and Devices
You must remember that your target audience will not be using only one combination of operating system, device, and browser. Therefore, it is very important to repeat the same testing scenarios on multiple configurations. To simplify this process, you can use parallel testing that is natively available with cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest.
This is the process of running multiple testing scenarios on different machines and configurations at the same time. The proper usage of this parameter will help you to wrap up the entire test suite within just a few hours.
7. Document and Fix Bugs
The final step in the implementation process is to log any defects within the project management tool or issue tracking system. While logging these errors, you must provide adequate details so that you can have a reference point to avoid these errors in the future instances.
After fixing the errors, you can run regression tests within the same environment to ensure that the app is functioning as intended.
Security And Privacy Testing With Safari Browser Online
While you are using Safari browser online for implementing the testing process, you can use various features like intelligent tracking prevention, which can block or limit third-party cookies, and also cross-site tracking. This means that if your website relies on cookies or local storage for user sessions, you will see different behavior compared to other browsers.
To ensure that this above workflow does not break the performance of the app, you must implement the following parameters:
- It is very important to implement real user flows making sure that the cookies needed for crucial functionalities like login and cart checkout are functioning as intended.
- You should also check the functioning of third-party scripts if you embed analytics or add scripts. This is because these scripts can be hampered by Safari’s internal privacy policies.
- Finally, you must stay up to date with Apple’s periodic tracking prevention updates. You should also keep knowledge of ITP updates so that you can adjust the parameters of the website if and when required.
Accessibility Testing With Safari Browser Online
Since accessibility has become one of the most important standards of the entire world, Apple has ensured that any website running on Safari must implement all the required standards. To ensure that you remain compliant and not face legal actions or complete bans, you can implement the following parameters:
- Use Voiceover on MacOS and iOS devices to ensure that the website’s headings, landmarks, and alt texts are properly read out if required.
- In certain cases, specially abled Safari users will rely on keyboard navigation or alternative input devices. So, you must ensure that these interactive elements like buttons, command links, and forms are reachable using the keyboard.
- You must ensure that there is adequate color contrast on your web application so that the focus outlines or highlights are properly visible. This color contrast must be calibrated depending on Apple device’s special technologies like retina displays which can change the color difference and hamper the readability.
Tips For A More Efficient Safari Testing Workflow
Finally, we would suggest the testers to try and incorporate the following tips within their workflow to ensure that they have a more optimized software testing workflow while using cloud servers or remote testing solutions:
- You must document the devices, operating system versions, and Safari builds that you’ll be regularly using to run the testing processes. This approach will ensure that you don’t miss any critical components during the test implementation process.
- It is true that you simply cannot eliminate manual testing in the entire testing scenario, but you should also understand that automation will be the perfect option for repetitive testing scenarios like regression testing and large code base testing.
- We recommend you to maintain a library of JavaScript snippets or bookmarklets so that you can quickly debug tasks like checking media queries, analyze cookies, or validate all the layout elements present on the application.
- You can consider using tools like real user monitoring or analytics so that you can find out how many of your visitors use Safari and on which devices that they’re using this browser. This valuable data will help you focus all your testing efforts on these configurations to provide the best experience.
- Finally, you should regularly follow Apple’s developer news or Safari’s release notes. These resources will provide you with adequate information about all the new features or bug fixes that you can, in turn, implement within your testing workflow to ensure the proper functioning of the application.
The Bottom Line
Based on all the areas that we discussed in this article, we can easily say that testing your browser on Safari will be a very important point to deliver a smooth, high-quality user experience to your customers. The use of Safari browser online will not only be the perfect alternative for running Safari for Windows, it will also help elevate various advanced testing processes like automated QA testing.
By maintaining that your focus remains on responsive design, feature compatibility, performance, and accessibility, you can ensure that your end users have nothing but the best experience, irrespective of the device that they end up choosing.
You should also look out for various advanced integrations like machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence architectures to ensure that you’re further improving your capabilities of Safari testing so that your users can get an even better experience that was previously impossible to imagine with traditional testing practices.
