Exploring Microsoft Edge Online: New Features for Testing Professionals

The world of software progress is driven by user experience: putting user experience at the forefront of software creation is something every software developer strives for. In this world, the crucial role of rigorous testing is undoubtedly recognized by all. Regardless of what testing specialist we might be, we always reach that perfection when the product can flawlessly operate on platforms and browsers, including Microsoft Edge online.

Despite this quest, Microsoft Edge finds itself in the middle of a struggle, and becomes a platform to be paid attention to and acquired by experts.

On the one hand, constant updates of browsers create risks, but, on the other hand, a variety of options allows to enhance users’ experiences. From simple mistakes in coding to the close watch of test managers on various phases concerning ease of use, there are several obstacles in the way of testers who desire to achieve perfection. No doubt, the mediation of technologies, including the whole set of instruments and the functions which correspond to the current test run, is certainly irreplaceable and absolutely necessary.

Understanding Microsoft Edge

Although Edge came out in 2015 and recently became a replacement for Internet Explorer, Edge belonging to Microsoft is Microsoft’s product which marks the first step into modern web browsing standards. In this regard, it started out being driven by EdgeHTML but from 2020 it has shifted to Chromium which refers to the web standards perfectly and thus has integrated it in a neat way. This was the start of the turning point which was a clear signal of a new era for Edge; in this era Edge got its context, or in other words becoming one of the competitors.

It is somewhat a rumor that Internet explorer is now the most commonly used browser and Edge has generated continual publicity since its launch. Still, Chrome is a key power, but Edge is surely coming close by, especially among Windows users who receive it for free along with new machines with the system. One of the beneficial aspects of the Surface Pro tablet is that it is a fully plug and play device with other Microsoft products.

Services such as Office 365 and OneDrive stay in sync with it. Hence, it becomes an indispensable product for everybody each day.

Testing on an edge browser like Microsoft Edge is invaluable because it offers the opportunity of testing for compatibility, which is one of the most important factors in browser performance. Considering a vast amount of user base and increasing market share, not giving a worthy consideration to Edge in testing workflows can lead to an existence of great output and presence of risks. Additionally, the need for a meticulous testing team arises due to Edge’s unique characteristics and evolving nature. The testers may encounter the modality compatibility issues or the variation in the performance which requires their attention, so that they can tackle those issues. By queuing as the first to test in Edge, developers and testers will fulfill assurance of perfection and transfer users to devices of Microsoft with a very high quality of experience.

New Features for Testing Professionals

Enhanced DevTools for Debugging and Testing:

DevTools is a set of web developer tools built into modern browsers, including Microsoft Edge, designed to aid in debugging, testing, and analyzing web pages’ performance. It offers a comprehensive suite of features such as the Elements panel for inspecting and editing HTML/CSS, the Console for debugging JavaScript, the Network panel for analyzing network requests, and the Performance panel for optimizing page loading times.

The latest version of Microsoft Edge brings significant updates and improvements to DevTools, enhancing its capabilities for testing professionals. These updates may include new features such as improved code coverage analysis, enhanced performance profiling tools, and better integration with third-party testing frameworks.

DevTools can be utilized by the testing professionals for a broad range of everyday tasks, eg. inspection and modification of source code (HTML, CSS) to uncover layout issues, debugging JavaScript which can help to detect and set right intermittent errors, analysis of networking to improve resource loading and executing Lighthouse tool to check web page performance and accessibility. For instance, the introduction of shortcuts for frequently used commands, demonstrating less commonly known tools for complex debugging, and offering guidelines on how to utilize DevTools features in testing pipelines are some of the practical tips that can make this process much easier and more efficient.

Immersive Reader for Accessibility Testing:

‘Immersive Reader’ is a function built in Microsoft Edge that allows one to have scouting immersion by removing all distractions and provides customizable text preferences like font size, line spacing, and background colors.

The tool is used in both accessibility testing and quality evaluation of web pages. Those testers can learn how the pages are being read and recognized by users with different cognitive abilities including dyslexia or visual impairments. Testers can validate whether there are certain page structures, text formatting and alternative text for images that make the website perceptible to those audience members with visual impairment.

Practical offers, featuring different use cases how Immersive Reader is put into use for accessibility testing with a focus on how envisioning the web and users’ experiences can be improved through these features. Sample cases could illustrate that the Immersive Reader was the tool that both identified accessibility barriers and mitigated them, and then the user satisfaction was increased as well as the compliance with accessibility standards in regard to the application.

Collections for Organizing Test Scenarios and Results:

Collections is a tool in Microsoft Edge which assists users in a collation of web materials, organization of content and thereby allow the user to be more satisfied with the visit. Users can set up a collection in two different ways: either by adding web pages, pictures, and notes, or by categorizing them with tags and syncing them across devices.

The Testing experts can use the collections module to categorize test flows, assemble testing resources, and collate the testing results to coordinate the painting and enhance the testing team via collaboration. Various projects could enable the repositories to house and organize tests, reference content, and feedback, to have better and quicker means of progress tracking and to share insights with the other parties.

Guidelines may include hints for assembling and organizing the collections, applying the tags and annotations for dividing and unifying the collections, and incorporating the libraries into already existing testing procedures ensuring higher effectiveness. Testers can tap collections to plan out testing routines, sum up test reports and use the insights to make the test development work.

Vertical Tabs for Multitasking and Cross-Browser Testing:

Vertical Tabs is a function available in Microsoft Edge that arranges tabs vertically on the side of the browser, thereby making the organization of windows better and giving the blend of tasks a simple experience. It offers better screen real estate compared to hitherto known browser versions leading to smooth and effortless management of multiple tabs at once.

Practicing professionals may apply the use of Vertical Tabs to work with multiple testing environments, compare testing results across various browsers, and effortlessly switch between testing tasks, increasing productivity and efficiency. Vertical Tabs are used by testers to manage test cases, reference materials and chat channels without creating a mess in the main browsing window.

‘Tips and strategies’ practicing ‘Vertical Tabs’ in the different browsers testing and how to ‘organize’ tabs by browsers version or platform and navigating between testing environments. Testers can use Vertical Tabbed interface in order to group related testing activities, such as regression testing, compatibility testing and exploratory testing and conveniently switch different browser configurations.

Built-in Site Compatibility Tools for Easier Testing:

The Microsoft Edge helps online professionals out immensely by delivering all the necessary tools and materials such as the compatibility mode settings, developer tools, and online resources to facilitate ensuring the websites are run right, hybrid, or in compatibility mode. These devices are giving their users an understanding of the synthesis issues as well as advice on the possible remedy of the issues.

Through these tools, compatibility testing is made simple, since they present insights into potential match problems and instill ideas on how to solve them, facilitating communication with software developers. Developers may employ compatibility mode settings of one or several popular browser versions in order to test their software and avert from the compatibility issues as soon as possible during the developing phase.

Practical guidance on how Microsoft Edge’s site compatibility features can be used by testing teams to identify and repair issues efficiently by the testing teams, which will lead to the end-user experience to be as smooth as possible within the different mobile OS environment. For instance, it might range from employing the F12 Developer Tools to explore the DOM model of web page elements, analyze HTTP requests as well as debug JavaScript code on the fly, to using the test-trials across LambdaTest as a single platform as this tool can simulate browsers and devices for ensuring the site’s accessibility to a wide range of visitors.

Also read – The Future of React Native: What Developers Should Know in 2023

Leveraging Microsoft Edge for Efficient Testing

Integrating Microsoft Edge into Testing Frameworks:

While there is a particular benefit of Microsoft Edge based on the vast list of the prevalent testing frameworks such as Selenium, Appium, Protractor and Puppeteer to mention only a few, users of this browser must be optimistic that they will deliver excellent performance. This blend, in return, guarantees smooth integration of Edge by QA professionals in their existing test environments, which opens up the chance to develop automated cross-browser and end-to-end testing solutions.

To achieve seamless integration of the latest edition of Microsoft Edge into their test frameworks, testing specialists must address this issue by doing the update to the latest version of the framework and corresponding WebDriver, Edge-specific configurations for options and capabilities, and using appropriate executables of the drivers for automation testing.

Optimizing Testing Workflows with Edge Features:

Professionals in the testing area could optimize efficiency by employing functions like DevTools, Collections, and Vertical Tabs of Edge. Developer Tools expose a powerful suite of diagnostics and performance testing options, while Collections act as extra memory and help you organize and share data. Finally, the Vertical Tabs improve multitasking effectiveness. Thus, adding these features to their testing workflows enables testers to develop learner testing processes and, consequently, to accelerate overall productivity.

Edge offers users customization options, such as tailoring browsing settings, extensions, or developer tools. These settings enable users to replicate real user scenarios in testing environments. Users can create customized browser profiles, craft testing site domains with defined configurations, and have access to built-in tools like network throttling, geolocation simulation and others; also, this ensures thorough testing coverage.

Addressing Common Challenges in Testing with Microsoft Edge:

Although the Microsoft Edge test covers multiple versions, some of the conventional issues relate to compatibility problems, performance restrictions, and the occurrence of atypical deviations. By doing error-diagnosing techniques like studying logs, reviewing JS code, and mapping the environments for the tests’ effectiveness, test specialists can overcome these problems.

Through community cooperation, the phenomenon of test anxiety can be addressed, as testing professionals can resource or provide support avenues where they share the lessons they learn with testers. Regarding this, we can summarize that the official documentation and user forums, in addition to the support channels, become a vital feature for our community by addressing some problems, acquiring tech information, and staying informed on new developments.

Also, there are forums, testing communities, and social networks that make networking, knowledge sharing, and joint action easier and more advanced. Using these assets, testers can upgrade their abilities, handle inconveniences, and formulate a path to improve the Microsoft Edge testing field.

It cannot be overstated how vital it is to test websites before deployment using cloud testing platforms such as LambdaTest for multiple reasons. This, firstly, offers an opportunity to work with different versions of the browser, operating systems, and so on that one cannot expect to be fully available to single testers or development teams. This provides a complete cross-browser compatibility testing that in return makes websites work with ease across several devices and platforms thus in the end user satisfaction and engagement also goes up. Furthermore, cloud testing platforms bring forth scalability to the testers by providing an opportunity to execute tests in many configurations all at the same time which makes testing processes faster and covers more grounds.

Moreover, cloud platforms make test executions much easier for the distributed teams which provide a centralized environment for test execution, result analysis, and bug tracking. bringing in features like real-time testing, collaborative bug fixing, and integrations with popular project management tools testers can interact and share knowledge in a very efficient way, therefore product development goes faster and product quality is also improved. With cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest being used by organizations, they can make sure that the web applications that they develop will work properly and are reliable too, meeting the specific needs and requirements of the users, which leads to the success of the business in the digital world.

Using LambdaTest to Test on Microsoft Edge Online

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets developers and testers perform manual and automation testing at scale on a remote test lab. This means developers and testers can use it to see how their web applications or websites perform on different web browsers and operating systems.

Here’s how devs and testers can perform testing on Microsoft Edge using LambdaTest:

• Real-time Testing: They can access a cloud-based environment and directly interact with their web app using a Microsoft Edge browser on various operating systems (Windows or Mac). LambdaTest offers a  “Real Time” section where users can choose their preferred OS and Edge browser version to test on.
• Multiple Edge Versions: LambdaTest allows testing on multiple versions of Microsoft Edge simultaneously. This ensures compatibility across different user demographics who might be using older or newer Edge versions.
• Locally Hosted Apps: LambdaTest also facilitates testing of locally hosted web applications on Microsoft Edge browsers. This is useful for internal testing apps behind a firewall or staging servers. They can use LambdaTest Tunnel for this functionality.
• Screenshot Testing: For WordPress users, LambdaTest offers a plugin that enables taking full-page screenshots across different Microsoft Edge versions. This helps in capturing the visual appearance of the webpages and identifying any rendering issues.

Conclusion

As testers in Microsoft Edge, we are required to fully utilize the latest innovation and be equipped with the skills to utilize tools like LambdaTest to handle the dynamics of web development. Microsoft Edge browser, featuring multiple tools to ease the tester’s job for testing functions, together with LambdaTest universal platform designed for mobile, cross-browser, responsive design, and automated testing, provides an easy way to cope with and overcome web development complexity.

This approach involves the utilization of these tools in the testing process to ensure excellent quality, conformance to accessibility standards, and compatibility among the major browsers and devices so that end-users have no issues when navigating the web-based application across various browsers and screen types. Jointly, let’s keep extending the frontiers of good testing principles and take quantum leaps of innovation by adapting new web development standards.