What are main features of Silk test?

The Borland silk test automation tool is said to possess all the features and qualities that an ideal testing tool is said to have. Therefore, in this article we shall focus on the features of the Borland silk test automation tool.

1. It is quite easy for use since it is possible for the business users to create the automated tests without requiring any actual software coding.
2. Further the silk test automation tool takes lesser time for its deployment i.e., it can be deployed fast which in turn enables the software testers to keep an appropriate pace with the rate with which the development takes place.
3. It's third most important feature is its flexibility while use which in turn enables the software developers to create tests in an integrated development environment that is chosen by them only.
4. The fourth feature of the silk test is that it provides the role based test automation. Usually it happens that the domain experts, business analyst, developer or automation engineer – all of these people have their own way of working i.e., they have a tendency to work with different interfaces such as some may work with a visual interface, others with script based or some others with interfaces that are IDE powered. The silk test automation tool provides each of them with a suitable interface with which they are comfortable. Thus, in a way a kind of empowerment is granted to the users so that they can participate in the testing process with confidence and ensure that their critical applications go through a continuous validation.
5. Fifth most popular feature is the cross browser web testing by silk test. Most advance web 2.0 applications can be verified for their functionality very well before you are able to launch them with confidence. Using silk test automation tool, one powerful script can be used for carrying out testing in  a number of different  browsers as well as browser versions as well as in locales such as the following:

a)     Microsoft internet explorer

b)     Mozilla firefox

c)     Google chrome

d)     Html 5

e)     Fx

f)      Ajax

g)     Microsoft silverlight

h)     Java and so on.

Even the embedded technologies can tested very well at speeds that are non -parallel with that of the any other software test automation tool.

6. Sixth feature is the support for the .net and java platform and scripting language. With silk test, it really does not matters now that whether you go for vb. Net, C#, java which are industry standard languages or you go for 4test language of the silk test. Using any of these you can improve the working of the silk test in whichever environment you are working up on. Both visual studio as well as the eclipse is supported by the silk test and it takes care that they can be well integrated with the acceptance tests and unit tests frame works such as fitness e.
7. Seventh feature of the silk test is its powerful recorder. The powerful recorder of the silk test has got many powerful features which enable the quick capturing of the reusable as well as the common sequences of the test steps. There is also a provision of the easy modification and customization of the sequences so that they can be reused in the test automation frame works.
8. The eighth feature is the debugging feature of the silk test. The debugging feature of the silk test consists of some powerful debugging capabilities which enable one to step through the automation sequence and check out what is actually happening there. 

How to perform Cross platform testing and Cross browser testing using QTP?

Two types of particular testings can be performed easily using the quick test professional and they are mentioned below:

1. Cross platform testing and
2. Cross browser testing

What is meant by cross platform?

Cross platform can be defined as an attribute that can be given to a software system or application that can be operated across multiple computer platforms. Today there are two types of cross platform softwares available as mentioned below:

1. Softwares that require individual compilation for each platform that is supported by them and
2. Softwares that require no individual compilation and can be run directly on any platform that they support.

For a software system or application to be entitled as cross platform software it is required that it operates successfully on both the following:

   1. More than one operating system and

   2. Computer architecture.

- Checking a software whether or not it is cross platform compatible is a time consuming activity since all the different operating systems come with a different API or application programming interface. 

- Whenever a software system or application is designed as such that it can support multiple platforms, the demand for its quality assurance increases dramatically. 

- For ensuring this quality the cross platform testing is carried out.

What is meant by cross browser?

- Cross browser is an attribute for web sites, web applications, client side scripts and HTML constructs which are able to perform well in the environments or browsers which have the required features and also in the browsers and environments which lack those features. 

- Today, there are many browsers available and all of them are used by the end users for accessing the same web site or web application. 

- Therefore, it has become equally important that the web site or web application must be able to function properly on all web browsers. 

- This is ensured only by carrying out the cross browser testing.

- Also, the same request made on a web site or web application is handled differently by different browsers.

- Cross browser testing not just tests the client side of the web application but it also tests the server side behavior of the web site or application. 

- Therefore, there are two types of cross browser testing:

1. Server side cross browser testing
2. Client side cross browser testing

Now coming to how the cross platform testing and cross browser testing is performed using quick test professional. For performing these two types of testing in quick test professional you need to create separate actions for operating systems as well as browsers. 

How Cross Platform Testing is performed in QTP

- The cross platform testing can be facilitated with the help of built-in environment variable in quick test professional since using it one can dig up the information of the operating system. 

- Later, the actions recorded on this particular platform can be called. 

- On the other hand, using the actions created for the browsers you can extract the browser information. 

- The actions that are relevant to that particular browser should only be called. 

How Cross Browser Testing is performed in QTP?

Before beginning with the cross browser testing you need to get the type of browser that you are using by following an example mentioned below:

Browser( “core values”)

For getting a particular version of a browser,

getROproperty( “version” )

- Any dynamic browser changes are not allowed in quick test professional while the scripts are in running mode. 

- These scripts need to be configured for the current browser. 

- Also, you should set up the driver scripts in the beginning itself so that you can easily change your configuration settings whenever required. 

What are different cross browser testing tools?

Cross browser testing as we all know forms an essential part of cross browser testing. Today there many tools available in the web market which are able to carry out effective cross browser testing.

Cross browser testing tools present us a virtual method to check how our web site performs on the various different browsers available today and whether or not it functions properly?

Using cross browser testing tool you can easily check how your website looks on different browsers by working form just one system. Depending on the cross browser compatibility of a web site, it behaves differently with different browsers.

If you were to test yourself that how your web site behaves on different browsers, it will consume a lot of your time and effort. Then why not go for automated web browser testing tools? They are a great time saver and very reliable to work with.

Many cross browser testing tools are available like:
- Browser shots
- Browser lab
- Browsera
- Super preview
- Browser box
- Luna scape
- Selenium remote control
- IE tester
- Sauce labs
- Xenocode browser sandbox
- Cross browser testing.com
- Browscramp
- Litmus
- Net renderer

You can test your web sites using these cross browser testing tools and these cross browser testing tools test your web sites and applications on all the latest versions of the available web browsers.

SOME ASPECTS OF CROSS BROWSER TESTING TOOLS
- Some testing tools allow you to debug and test scripts of your web sites like CSS, AJAX, flash, HTML and JavaScript etc. allows you to explore the browser features and compatibility.

- Some of the available cross browser testing tools provides readymade test cases, so there is no need to waste time in setting up your test cases. You can straightaway start testing your web site.

- This will actually cut down the testing time and you will be able to spend the saved time by focussing upon the other aspects of your web sites that need to be improved.

- These cross browser testing tools are fast and you get the results in minutes.

- Some browser tools offer remote VNC sessions.

- They provide live browser tests so you have the ease of testing your web site from anywhere.

- You just have to provide the testing tool with the URL of your web site and select the browser for which you want to check your web site and hit run. That’s it! You will get instant results.

- Some of the cross browser testing tools provide a way to test the compatibility of the functionality and features of the web site across a variety of web browsers.

- After all it is necessary to test web site's features and functionalities rather than only look.

Lot of web designers are struggling with the problem of cross browser compatibility. Most of the cross browser testing tools offer services free of charge and are quite reliable and also easy to operate.

- To use some cross browser testing web site you may need to connect to their web site via a VNC client or you can use an applet.

- Once connected, you can fully test your web site interactively using their system.

- Few cross browser testing tools are windows program like IEtester.

- Such a tool allows you to test only the versions of internet explorer and not more than that.

- Some cross browser testing tools though offering excellent services, charge you a fee. The fee does not sounds too much if you look towards the positive side i.e., to the excellent and in depth testing options that they offer.

What are different aspects of Cross Browser Testing?

Cross browser can be defined as the ability of a web page, web site or web application to run easily on all the browsers i.e., the web site, web page or application should have a good browser compatibility.

Many people confuse between cross browser compatibility and multiple browser compatibility.

Multiple browser compatibility is the ability of a web site, web page or application to execute efficiently on many browsers simultaneously. If a web site, web page, or application is having good browser compatibility, it is able to run on all browsers and without any loss of performance.

Maintenance of standards of performance is essentially necessary. All the browsers are then able to render that particular web site or application.

1. Cross browser testing is a no new methodology and has been in use since the web development started.
2. But, nowadays cross browser testing is used rarely since the modern versions of the browsers already have built in support for scripts like CSS 1 and HTML and so the browsers do not require any kind of proprietary extensions to attain the quality of cross browsing.
3. Another reason is that nowadays DOM manipulation methodologies which are way more compatible than cross browser compatibility testing are being used for the development of client side scripts.
4. The main browsers that a web page, site, application or a script needs to support include the following:

- Internet explorer
- Netscape
- Mozilla Firefox
- Google chrome
- Safari and
- Opera

These days only a little of cross browser support is demanded. The emphasis is on improving compatibility. The World Wide Web consortium introduced in 1997 a browser scripting language called “ECMA script” which was supposed to improve the cross browser compatibility of the browsers. It was after this only that the W3C started working up on DOM techniques.

1. Cross browser testing forms an essential part of web testing or when application testing, so it needs to be focused up on.
2. There are several testing tools available in the market today to carry out automated cross browser testing.
3. There are so many web browsers available today, and so the end users are not using the same browser.
4. A variety of browsers are in user which calls a need for testing of web sites and applications.
5. This need can be fulfilled by cross browser testing.
6. Client components like applets, flex, flash programs, AJAX and java scripts may behave differently when accessed through different browsers.
7. Also for every browsers hands end user’s request in a way that is different from the other.
8. Web developers need to make sure that the web sites and applications they are making are compatible with all the browsers and deliver exactly the same performance on any browser.
9. Testing a website or application for a single browser is of course not beneficial.
10. Cross browser testing involves testing of web sites or applications on both the sides i.e., client side and server side.

There are following kinds of engines:
- Gecko is used in Mozilla Firefox browser.
- KHTML is used by conqueror web browser.
- Presto is developed by opera and is used for opera browser.
- Trident or MSHTML is used for Microsoft developed browser “internet explorer”.
- Web kit is used for Google chrome and safari. It supports other browsers also.

Layout engines play a very important role in cross browser testing. They are basic entity that needs to be tested when you want to improve the cross browser compatibility. A layout engine is a web component that takes web contents and formatting instructions as input and displays the formatted content on the web page.