How to Perform Online Debugging for Websites?

With the constant growth in the emergence of new mobile devices, developers need to ensure that websites are optimized to deliver flawless performance on mobile browsers. However, it is impossible for teams to ensure that a website is optimized for all possible device-browser combinations in the market. This is because the device-browser landscape is highly fragmented.

Given the fragmented landscape, developers are bound to encounter certain UI bugs for particular device-browser combinations. For example, a developer may encounter a rendering issue on Chrome for Samsung S20. In this case, developers need to instantly test and debug the rendering issue on a real OnePlus 8 device. Bear in mind, though that it may not be always feasible for teams or individual developers to access on-premise devices for testing.

Here’s where teams or individuals can perform online debugging for websites on real mobile devices.

Debug websites online on real browsers and devices. Start running tests on 2000+ real browsers and devices on BrowserStack’s real device cloud. Detect bugs before users do by testing software in real user conditions with BrowserStack. Get Started Free.

What is Online Debugging?

Online debugging is a feature that allows developers or testers to test and debug websites online directly through browsers in real-world conditions. Developers get instant access to DevTools, allowing them to inspect specific components for the desired device-browser combinations.

When doing so, one doesn’t need to worry about additional configuration.

As mentioned earlier, the web landscape is highly fragmented into an extensive range of device-browser combinations. Additionally, every browser has its latest and legacy versions which add to the complexity. This translates to a huge challenge for developers or teams to roll out web applications that deliver robust user experience across devices.

Developers or teams can address this challenge by using a cloud-based platform. Let’s explore how.

Debugging Websites Online using BrowserStack

Testing and debugging a website on the desired OS-device-browser combination demands a comprehensive test infrastructure. However, setting up an on-premise device lab requires a huge financial investment and may not be feasible for every organization. It is possible to avoid this by adopting cloud-based testing solutions for debugging websites online.

BrowserStack is a cloud-based testing platform that empowers developers or teams with the tools required to instantly test websites across 2000+ real browsers and devices. It allows users to run both manual and automated tests for web and mobile apps on real devices (Mobile and Desktop).

Get started with testing by entering the URL of the target website and handpicking the desired OS-device-browser combination. For example, a user can test a website on an actual Samsung S20 – Chrome- Android combination

The image below represents a glimpse of infrastructure available on BrowserStack’s real device cloud along with a live Chrome session running on a real Samsung S20 handset.

Run a Free Test on Real Samsung S20

Developers can also access DevTools to inspect specific components of a webpage. This makes HTML, CSS and JavaScript debugging on the target devices simple and convenient.

Apart from DevTools, users can leverage features like:

1. Device rotation – Allows users to test websites in different viewing modes (Portrait and Landscape)
2. Local Testing – Allows developers or QAs to test web-applications at scale on real devices and browsers without the need for hosting them on public staging environments. One can directly run tests from their development or testing environment.
3. Geolocation Testing – A website may be localized for specific geographic locations. For example, a food delivery website needs to display restaurants specific to a particular location. In such cases, teams can leverage this feature to verify whether the site is delivering expected results when running from different locations

As developers and QAs get the ideal test infrastructure at their fingertips, testing and debugging websites online becomes a breeze. Testing in real user conditions helps teams in delivering robust web applications much faster.