CDAP - Resources and Tools Options

[bwelford]

Resources

The CDAP, as its name states, helps in the final stage of assessing how websites may appear to others. It is set up to get reactions from volunteers on how they see your website. It is intended to either flag problems or to suggest a clean bill of health. It is not intended as a place for intense discusson and resolution of problems. These are more properly handled within some of the technical Forums. However it is not a black and white question and there will be shades of gray involved. We hope it will evolve as its users find helpful.

In the same way, resources to handle problems are more likely to be found in other Forums. Here we will only provide a few pointers to resources. The most important link is that to the Sticky topic in the CSS Forum entitled "CSS Resource Sites.

Those who prefer to read a book may find the following two useful:
Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing With Web Standards (2nd edition) 2006
"The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks" by Rachel Andrew.

Tools

This Cross-browser Device Assessment Panel is only one approach to ensuring that your audience will see what you're beaming out to them. Others offer tools for this type of assessment or are working on other approaches and we are delighted to showcase some of them here. If you know of others that are effective, please add them to this thread and they will be added to this starting post.

Paid Software

At least three paid services are available.
BrowserCam
http://www.browsercam.com
NetMechanic
[url=http://www.netmechanic.com/browser-index.htm[/url]
Cross Browser Testing
CrossBrowserTesting.com

Browser compatibility tools check your web pages under different internet browsers.

Share/Freeware

iCapture - your site through the eyes of Apple's Safari browser.
www.danvine.com/icapture/
ieCapture - the PC cousin of iCapture
www.danvine.com/iecapture/ -
Skyzyx.com - Multiple Versions of Internet Explorer
www.skyzyx.com/archives/000094.php

Opera has launched a free Mini Browser to simulate how web pages appear on a cell phone. There is also a Demo Simulator.

Community efforts

Browsershots
Generates screenshots of how websites appear at 800x600 and 1024x768 resolution in six commonly used web browsers.
http://www.browsershots.org/
evolt.org - Browser Archive
A world community for web developers, evolt.org promotes the mutual free exchange of ideas, skills and experiences.
http://browsers.evolt.org/

Related tools

Lynx Viewer
Delorie online viewer enables you to view your site in a text browser.
www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
This may give a quick appreciation of what may be visible in simple small-screen devices.

This post has been edited by joedolson: Jul 24 2008, 09:38 AM

[Joshua Sciarrino]

Are there any websites to test a website in multiple browsers?

I don't mean screen shots, I'm talking about testing AJAX, javascript, etc. Dynamic things that entail a client...

Edit: Lol. If I clicked on all the links before I posted that. I might save myself time.

http://crossbrowsertesting.com is the solution.

This post has been edited by Joshua Sciarrino: Oct 24 2009, 01:31 AM