Browser Compatibility for AngularJS Web Apps

Be it attending a video course on Udemy, doing a transaction using PayPal, or scrolling through emails using Gmail, AngularJS runs the show. Dynamic Web Applications that enhance the user experience with real-time functioning are built using Angular as a structural framework. Angular has gained traction with time, as reflected by the number of diverse companies using Angular has increased exponentially over the last decade.

Although it’s evident that Angular features are among the popular trends, it’s interesting to decipher the underlying factors that led to Angular gaining immense acceptance and adoption in the industry.

What is AngularJS Framework?

AngularJS, also termed Angular.js, is an open-source front-end JavaScript framework that is used for building websites, single-page mobile, and web apps. Developed by Misko Hevery and Adam Abrons in 2009, Angular has become one of the most popular frameworks in 2021, as per StackOverflow Survey.

For example, in a sandbox, JavaScript is free to add and modify elements on the page but might be restricted from accessing an external JSON file. This is because of a sandbox feature called same-origin.

Source: StackOverflow

Although AngularJS was developed originally as a for-profit project, it soon became an open-source library and is now maintained by Google. Now you can understand how AngularJS gathered such a strong community and became a benchmark for frameworks of web-based apps with Google’s patronage.

AngularJS also eliminates excess code by leveraging data binding and dependency injection. It enables the developers to use HTML as their base template language and allows them to extend HTML’s syntax for clearly expressing app components with only a few lines of code.

Did you know: How to make a Web Applications’ HTML5 code Cross-Browser Compatible?

Architecture Of Angular JS Framework

To understand how AngularJS works, it is important to discuss the architecture of the framework. AngularJS internally uses MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. MVC is a software design pattern that reinforces the web app development process. It promotes faster development, testing, and maintenance in the software development life cycle.

The most important feature of this architecture is its isolated application logic from the user interface layer.

Before the arrival of MVC architecture, developers would struggle a lot with integrating logic, but with Angular’s MVC logic, applications became easier to update, and development time was reduced considerably.

Source: WUSchools

Key Benefits Of AngularJS Framework

Now that we have seen how AngularJS works, let’s take a look at some of its core benefits:

• Code Reusability: With Angular’s MVC design and isolated components, developers can easily reuse code for new applications. This saves time and resources used to develop individual components of code from scratch.
• Efficient Architecture: Angular’s modular design capabilities and cross-platform architectures maximize sustainable development, and as a result, teams can deploy ready-to-use apps in minimal time.
• No Page Reload: AngularJS allows the functions such as getting new emails or submitting a registration form without requiring a page reload. Such real-time updates without page reload are due to the dynamic nature of AngularJS.

Browser Compatibility With AngularJS

Browser Compatibility is important to ensure a consistent user experience irrespective of the browser or its version that the user uses to access the AngularJS website.

AngularJS Supported Browsers

AngularJS support the recent versions of browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Safari for iOS, and Internet Explorer versions 9-11. These browsers are thoroughly tested by the AngularJS team and are fully supported.

It does support other browser versions that share a similar codebase. However, it is advisable to run Browser Compatibility Test for other Legacy Browser versions and make the workarounds to ensure that the Angular JS web app works seamlessly across different browser-device combinations.

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How to Test AngularJS Web App for Browser Compatibility

Let’s see how to deal with Browser Compatibility of AngularJS Web Apps, by testing a real AngularJS Web App: Gmail. This example tests the Gmail web app (https://www.gmail.com), using BrowserStack Live to cover different combinations of devices and browsers for a thorough cross browser testing.

Step 1: Enter the URL of the Gmail App that is under test, upon opening BrowserStack Live.

Step 2: Select the Device-Browser Combination for testing.

In this scenario, the user is trying to search for emails from Zomato and preview the list to ensure that the user experience is consistent across different browser-device combinations.

Here are the snapshots from cross-browser compatibility tests conducted on BrowserStack’s real device cloud (web apps loading on actual devices at our global data centers, for real user conditions):

Windows 11 on Microsoft Edge 11

Google Pixel6 12.0 on Chrome

Windows 10 with Firefox 98

iPad Pro 12.9 2021 v14.6 with Chrome

iPhone 13 Pro Max v15.1 On Chrome

Samsung Galaxy S22 v12.0 with Firefox

Test Result

As observed across different device-platform-browser combinations, the AngularJS web app of Gmail worked consistently with seamless functionality and provided the same user experience. Hence, it is evident from the above tests that the Gmail web app built using AngularJS is cross-browser compatible.

Run Browser Compatibility Test on Real Devices

Conclusion

AngularJS has been one of the best front-end frameworks available for developing dynamic Web Pages and Web Applications. It has a versatile and elegant set of resources that comes in handy for the development of extensive web apps as well as simple websites.

Moreover, AngularJS eases the coding process and offers strong support from an active community and Google development team that allows development in shorter time frames with lesser costs and an enhanced user experience.

By testing Cross Browser Compatibility of your Angular Application using BrowserStack Live, you can test on 3000+ real device-browser combinations of your choice, under real user conditions. This will help in identifying the bottlenecks and provide a seamless user experience that is consistent across different platforms, browsers, and devices.

Enjoy testing your application on 3000+ real devices and browsers in a safe and secure cloud!

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