Today we’re excited to launch BrowserSwarm– a new tool that helps web developers automate how they test their JavaScript projects across devices and browsers.
What is BrowserSwarm?
BrowserSwarm is a partnership by Microsoft, Sauce Labs and the open source team of AppendTo that helps developers automate how they test frameworks & libraries across browsers. It’s powered through the cloud, allowing developers to save time setting-up multiple browser or device testing environments and precious server resources.
Web frameworks and libraries are the “building blocks” of the web found in every developer's toolbox. Hundreds of these new JavaScript projects are built by the open source community every year – sometimes in late-night hackathons and shared at places like JSConf or on GitHub – to simplify coding for common patterns like the web layout, user input, animations, game physics, even the process of detecting features in older versions of Internet Explorer. Few truly innovative experiences on the web is without some type of framework.
Like testing websites across various devices and browsers, framework authors must also ensure their latest works well and performs reliably for developers to have full confidence in adopting it for their own sites. Most top JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, dojo, prototype and Modernizr – used by over 50% of the top traffic websites worldwide – have enough resources to perform testing regularly. But what if you’re a startup building a new framework? Testing is probably the last (but necessary) thing you want to do. So – just like the free testing tools and resources on modern.IE that help developers of public-facing sites or line-of-business web apps – we are partnering on BrowserSwarm to help the developers that build stuff for developers – the framework authors. We want to help reduce the time spent testing frameworks (and the sites they service) so that developers have more time to innovate on the web.
How does BrowserSwarm Work?
You set-up an account in minutes. BrowserSwarm connects directly to your team’s code repository on GitHub. When you publish your latest project, BrowserSwarm automatically runs it against Unit Testing Frameworks like QUnit in the cloud-powered browsing session using Sauce Labs’ automated testing platform. You get a “fix list” report across browsers, including modern and older versions of Internet Explorer.
How to add your Project to BrowserSwarm
Begin by setting-up an account in minutes:
1. Tell us who you are
2. Add your GitHub repo
3. BrowserSwarm completes the installation
4. Publish your latest code
Less time testing, more time building ________.
Partnerships like BrowserSwarm represent an entirely new chapter in IE’s long history – cutting edge IE11 performance, free tools on modern.IE, automatic updates, modern web standards, and advanced touch capabilities for example. Whether you’re a developer building the next framework or you design and build sites, share with us how we might continue to help you spend more time building what matters most to you and your users.
Questions? Suggestions? You can reach out to us @IEDevChat