BrowserStack SDK - Overview and Benefits
Achieve enhanced stability, boosted performance, and seamless test management with the BrowserStack SDK
Using the BrowserStack SDK to integrate with App Automate offers significant benefits in stability, performance, and ease of management.
In this topic, you’ll learn:
- How easy it is integrating with BrowserStack via the SDK
- About the benefits the SDK offers in terms of stability, performance, and management
- How the SDK provides a gateway to exploring other BrowserStack solutions
Ease of integration
| Integration Steps | BrowserStack SDK | Manual Integration / Other Cloud providers |
|---|---|---|
| Webdriver changes to run tests on BrowserStack |
 Supported without any code changes |
 Requires code changes to change RemoteWebdriver |
| Sending test context to BrowserStack for reporting |
Supported without any code changes |
Requires code changes in test suite |
| Integration with BrowserStack Local |
Supported via config |
Requires code changes in test suite |
| Basic device parallelisation |
Supported via config |
May require code changes in test suite |
| Advanced parallelisation strategies* |
Supported via config |
May require code / architecture changes in test suite |
| Time taken to complete integration |
 Less than 15 min
|
Up to 4 hours, depending on your framework
|
Feature comparison
| Category | Feature | With SDK | Without SDK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stability | Error reduction | 35% fewer errors due to improved error handling | Higher likelihood of errors due to lack of advanced error handling |
| Idle timeout handling | 35% improvement, preventing premature session timeouts | Increased risk of premature session timeouts | |
| Page load issues | 17% reduction, ensuring smoother test outcomes | More frequent page load issues | |
| Performance | Hub allocation | Optimized for better latency and faster test execution | Potentially higher latency and slower test execution |
| HTTP timeout | Extended, allowing tests to run for over 15 minutes | Shorter timeouts leading to potential interruptions | |
| Test run management | Auto fail detection | Automatically identifies failed sessions for easier debugging | Manual identification required, making debugging harder |
| Binary management | Simplified, effortless local binary management | More complex, increasing difficulty of local testing | |
| Single file setup | Easy setup using a single configuration file (browserstack.yml) |
Multiple files required, complicating the setup process | |
| Efficient parallel testing | Configure and run parallel tests across multiple devices and OSes | Complex setup for parallel testing, making it harder to run tests across multiple environments |
Gateway to other solutions
BrowserStack offers a range of products for a comprehensive testing experience. Running application tests on App Automate is a significant part of the experience, but that’s just the start. You can also use:
-
Test Observability: Analyze, debug, and improve your tests.
-
Percy: Maintain visual aesthetics and integrity of your application with visual testing.
BrowserStack SDK is your gateway to all of these and more.
Conclusion
It’s true that some initial effort is required to adopt the SDK, especially if you are using BrowserStack without it. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs. The SDK reduces ongoing code changes and maintenance by handling many functionalities through configuration. It keeps you up-to-date with BrowserStack’s latest features, supports advanced parallelization and resource management for scalable tests, and integrates seamlessly with other BrowserStack solutions.
Next step
Now that you know about the benefits of using the SDK, let’s look at how the SDK works next.
Related topics
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