Mon, 2005-06-27 17:53
Ok. I couldn't really think of any other place to put this, since it's sort of a site checking question.
How do people check their sites on so many different browsers and platforms? I'm assuming that some people may actually have access to machines with IE 4.x - present, Mac IE, Netscape, FF, etc on them, but if I've only got one machine that has current versions of FF and IE, how can I check these others? Is there something for Firefox that can make it change rendering engines to act like other browsers?
In an ideal world, I'd like it if there were a FF extension that emulated most browsers that still hold some meaningful share of the market (all the browsers that are recommended for testing, at least). If such a beast exists, I would much like to know where to get it.
Thanks!
Mon, 2005-06-27 18:08
#1
Question about IE and FF
Hi Bill
There are a few things you can do. You can download older versions of IE (can't remember the link but someone'll come up with it). Or you can use browsercam.com - they'll let you take screenshots of your site in lots of different browsers and on different platforms. It's fairly expensive but it does have a free trial period - so worth looking at that.
There's also this place: http://fundisom.com/g5/ that's a free Safari emulator.
Mon, 2005-06-27 18:15
#2
Question about IE and FF
The latest version of the web developer extenson for firefox allows you to emulate the IE5 box model
http://chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/
There are other IE5 bugs in which case you can d/l a copy to test with here:
Mon, 2005-06-27 20:04
#3
Question about IE and FF
The site containg legacy browsers:
browsers.evolt.org
Most of us have IE6 and Firefox installed, along with maybe Opera. Mac users have Safari and IEMac (the crap one 
)
I agree with browsercam; I've never used it, but I've heard it's good.
To see what your site looks like in Lynx (a text browser), Google for 'view site in Lynx'.
Mon, 2005-06-27 22:55
#4
Question about IE and FF
Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely look into your suggestions. I probably won't go with browsercam.com for now, if only because I don't really have the funds, but I'll keep them in mind for the future.
Tue, 2005-06-28 08:23
#5
Question about IE and FF
Quote:
IEMac (the crap one Very Happy)
That's a bit harsh, it's not crap as such, it's parents just abandoned it whilst growing up and never quite finished it's education.
Anyway that's besides the point, the point I wanted to make was about browsercam, whilst it seems on the surface to be usefull and it is in general it's no substitute for testing on real browsers. The problem with it is that it produces static screens, you have no idea what will happen if you resize browser, interact with page, hover over stuff.
From my perspective it's ok to check if the page totally falls appart of not but that's about it and for the price I think it's too much to test just this.
Tue, 2005-06-28 08:30
#6
Question about IE and FF
True, true.
If needs be, you can always ask forumites who use a mac to have a quick butchers at your site.
Tue, 2005-06-28 09:03
#7
Question about IE and FF
briski wrote:
Anyway that's besides the point, the point I wanted to make was about browsercam, whilst it seems on the surface to be usefull and it is in general it's no substitute for testing on real browsers. The problem with it is that it produces static screens, you have no idea what will happen if you resize browser, interact with page, hover over stuff.
There's the remote access option with Browsercam - you can log into a PC or Mac with a range of browsers and then see how your site actually works/doesn't work.
Don't know if this is included in the free trial option though.