Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Mobile Testing, Android App Testing.
Fergal
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Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by Fergal » Wed Nov 11, 2015 11:39 am

Is it possible to use Ranorex (5.4.1, running on Windows 7) to test a website on a mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) using Android's Google Chrome browser, i.e. without using RXBrowser?

If so, are there any guides available on how to get started?

Thanks!

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by odklizec » Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:23 pm

Hi Fergal,

I'm not testing on mobile devices, but as far as I know, there is no way to use built-in browsers because there is no way to instrument them? And without instrumentation, there is no way to use them with Ranorex. This is why there is RxBrowser ;)
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by Support Team » Thu Nov 12, 2015 9:05 am

Hi guys,

Exactly, built-in browsers can’t be instrumented. Therefore, we introduced the RxBrowser in order to enable web testing on mobile devices.

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by gilbar16 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:34 pm

Testing using the RxBrowser should be okay as long as the web app you are testing behaves the same way as it does in the built-in browsers of the devices used. If not, then how do you explain that to your bosses?

If the RxBrowser for Android devices behaves differently than the RxBrowser for iOS, for example in one of our apps, then there is a problem unfortunately.

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by Fergal » Mon Nov 16, 2015 10:16 am

Thanks for your replies!
gilbar16 wrote:Testing using the RxBrowser should be okay as long as the web app you are testing behaves the same way as it does in the built-in browsers of the devices used....
That was my concern, I'd prefer to test a mobile website in the same browser its visitors are using.

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by krstcs » Mon Nov 16, 2015 2:51 pm

RxBrowser uses the same HTML/JavaScript engines as the built-in browsers. For iOS, that's Safari, for Android, that's Chrome.

So, you SHOULD be seeing exactly the same behavior in RxBrowser as you would in those browsers.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by odklizec » Mon Nov 16, 2015 3:04 pm

Well, I understand their pain. The thing is, that no matter the web engine is the same as used by native browsers (Safari and Chrome) some things look and work differently in native browsers. Most probably because of some internal magic done in native browsers? Unfortunately, there is no way to work with native (non-instrumented) mobile apps in Ranorex, no matter if it's web browser or calculator. This is OS security measurement and there is nothing Ranorex can do about it.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by Fergal » Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:52 pm

Thanks everyone!
krstcs wrote:RxBrowser uses the same HTML/JavaScript engines as the built-in browsers. For iOS, that's Safari, for Android, that's Chrome.

So, you SHOULD be seeing exactly the same behavior in RxBrowser as you would in those browsers.
krstcs, it was a post you made (almost two years ago) that raised my concerns re mobile testing on a device. I'm assuming a lot has changed re the RXBrowser, since you made that post?

Thanks again!

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by krstcs » Mon Nov 16, 2015 6:16 pm

First, I don't test web sites anymore (and I never really messed with mobile web browsers even then).

Second, the issue I was trying to address was more about the fact that websites should be build to browser agnostic standards, including responsive design. If they are developed correctly then the browser won't matter (not that this ever REALLY happens... :D ). So, as far as that point, I don't think anything has really change, and it's still mostly valid.

However, I think that RxBrowser has matured a lot since I made that post, so there are parts that may not be as accurate/valid anymore.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by gilbar16 » Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:08 pm

krstcs,

That was very good "Wishful Thinking" for saying "So, you SHOULD be seeing exactly the same behavior in RxBrowser as you would in those built0in browsers."

I wish it is that way too but unfortunately, it is not like that with one of our mobile web apps. In iOS, for example both iPad and iPhone, scrolling the contents of a page moves the contents of the body of the page along with the buttons or links that are supposed to stay at the bottom of the page. So, whatever controls (text fields, radio buttons, etc.) are covered/unseen due to these big buttons, they remain covered as the buttons move along on the screen. Another issue is with pop ups.

In the Android version of RxBrowser, it is not an issue since the behavior of the app is similar to when run in Chrome or Safari.

In your old post, you were talking about "User Agent Switcher". Can you provide more details on this?
I assume it is not an emulator but maybe a simulator?
If it is a simulator, then it probably works like the simulator we use called Keynote MITE. (a stand-alone app, does not require Firefox)

Well, I should do some research on this "User Agent Switcher" anyway since it comes in different flavors for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and maybe more.

Thanks.
Gilbert
Last edited by gilbar16 on Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by krstcs » Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:28 pm

User Agent Switcher is a plugin/extension for Firefox, specifically. You can find it on the Firefox plugin site.

To understand User Agent Switcher and what it really does, you have to understand how a browser works when you point it at a web page.

The browser has a set of information that it sends the web page about what kind of browser it is, what it's version is, etc. This is kind of a hold-over/throwback to the days of IE6 and (original) Opera, when the different browsers did not use any kind of standards for parsing HTML. The browser sends this information to the web server upon initial connection to the website to let the server know what the browser's capabilities are. This allows the server to serve different versions of the site depending on what browser the user is using. This information is known as the User Agent String. Modern websites still use the info because it's there, even though it could probably be done away with if your HTML and browser were both strictly HTML 5 compliant.

User Agent Switcher changes the default User Agent String in Firefox (there may be other, similar plugins for Chrome) so that the website thinks your browser is something different than it really is. You can use this to make the server think your browsing from a Samsung Galaxy S5, an iPhone 6S, etc., so the server will serve specific versions of the site to your Firefox browser.

For our purposes, this allows us to write the tests as if FF is the only browser we use, but use a data-driven approach to make the server think we are using other devices.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by krstcs » Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:47 pm

Oh, one other thought.

Firefox has an optional mode called "Responsive Design View" (Ctrl-Shift-M) that allows you to specify the dimensions of the view-port of the browsers rendering pane. It also allows you to simulate Touch events on the page when you click, instead of firing click events. You can set the dimensions to anything you want.

Using this in conjunction with User Agent Switcher allows you to see the site from the perspective of whatever device you want.

You can then use data-driven testing to set specific combinations without changing your test.

The ONLY downside here is that you are testing through FF the whole time, even though your site might think your browsing with Chrome or Safari. So, your server may send the page the way Chrome wants it, but you will actually SEE it the way FF renders it. I don't think that is too big of a deal, but most testers would cry foul about it because they want to see it through the actual browser (even though the logic is tenuous for the need for doing that). I would always suggest that a manual tester should go through the site on a couple of different browsers to make sure it actually looks right, but for automating functional regression, there really isn't a need to do that.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by gilbar16 » Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:07 pm

Since we know Ranorex only works with RxBrowser, this is could be a solution to use Ranorex to test drive a mobile web app using another browser.

Seems like User Agent Switcher for Firefox have not been updated since 2011, according to some reviews, and the Chrome version seems to be a lot newer. Hmm...which one to try first?

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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by krstcs » Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:24 pm

I've still got UASwitcher installed in FF and it works great. May be one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." things.

But, if I were just starting out with it, I'd likely try the Chrome one first.
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Re: Test a website on a mobile device, without RXBrowser?

Post by Fergal » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:49 am

Thanks for sharing all of that krstcs, it is very helpful for someone like me who is just starting mobile device testing.