BrowserShots – Web Design QA Automated
I recently discovered BrowserShots.org and it has improved the quality of life of QA Engineers at Embarc greatly. Simply put:
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.
Working at an Interactive Agency as long as I have, I’ve seen how the Quality Assurance team has been required to maintain a small farm of desktop machines running all the most common browser versions. Switching from machine to machine to validate a properly formatted web page takes time. Trust me. This free service has automated a very manual process. Thanks Johann!
A recommendation that solves the same problem: buy a Mac, install VMWare Fusion (or Parallels), and create a few Windows virtual machines (one with IE6, FF1.5 and one with IE7, FF2+)
Using this solution, you can test in Safari, FF for Mac, Camino, IE6, IE7, FF for PC–all on one machine and at the same time!
The advantage: You don’t have to wait for browsershots which can be slow and can’t reach behind log-in.
The disadvantage: You have to buy a Mac.