If you’re a web designer who also takes on the task of turning your designs into working web pages, you’re bound to face the challenges of compatibility from browser to browser and operating system to operating system. Web browsers read HTML and CSS (and other) code differently, causing differences in layout and functionality. Something that looks perfect in Safari on the Mac could be broken in Internet Explorer version 6 on the PC, and broken for different reasons in Firefox, and so on.
Screen Captures
BrowserCam is a paid online service that allows you to view your web pages across different platforms and browsers, either by automatically taking the screenshots of your choice or by accessing computers remotely.
The primary and most powerful function of BrowserCam is to take multiple screen captures at once, based on many parameters. The process starts by entering the URLs you wish to capture. They can either be entered one-by-one or BrowserCam can “crawl” automatically. This powerful feature allows you to set how deep the system with crawl for pages (i.e., 2 sub-levels beyond the home page). You can also enter a username and password to gather captures from secured sites that you have access to, which is very helpful for websites in development.
After entering one or many URLs, you move on to setting the parameters for the screen captures. This starts with the file format of the captures themselves (BMP, JPG or PNG), how many times to scroll down the browser for each capture (great for long pages) and what resolution to capture at. Multiple browser sizes can be selected allowing for a set of captures at 800x600 and another at 1024x768, for example. Next, you choose what browsers to capture with. For each browser, several of the major releases are available in several operating systems. For example, Internet Explorer is available in versions 6, 7 and 8 in Windows XP, version 4 in Windows 98, and so on. You can even select if Flash is installed or not.
Available Parameters
The available browsers are:
- Explorer
- Mozilla
- Firefox
- Safari
- Konqueror
- Opera
- Netscape
- AOL
- Camino
- Chrome
The available operating systems are:
- Mac OSX 10.3
- Mac OSX 10.4
- Mac OSX 10.5
- Windows 2000 Professional
- Windows 98
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP
- Fedora Core 6
After selecting all options, BrowserCam goes to work, and once captures are complete presents them as thumbnails. Captures are available as they are completed, so you can view parts of a set as they finish. Each thumbnail is noted with the browser, operating system and browser size, and when clicked lead to full-size versions.
Remote Access
BrowserCam remote access lets you access and use computers with different configurations. Rather than simply taking screen captures, remote access allows you to continuously test within a specific browser and operating system, which is extremely helpful for troubleshooting layout issues. Since you are using a working computer, it also allows you to test functionality such as rollovers, Flash and forms. While BrowserCam recommends using a third-party viewer to use remote access, they do supply a JavaScript viewer and tests proved it is adequate for browser testing. The combination of screen captures and remote access makes BrowserCam an extremely useful tool, especially for those without access to a variety of actual or virtual computer setups.
BrowserCam Pricing
BrowserCam offers a variety of plans based on your needs. While it is expensive relative to many web services, it does offer a lot of value. Plans range from $59.95 to $99.95 per month, with a $20 per month discount for committing to a minimum of 3 months. This brings to costs to $39.95 per month for just browser captures to $79.95 for browser captures, remote access, and “device capture,” which allows for mobile device screenshots. The plan I found to be the best value was the “Classic” plan, with browser capture and remote access for $49.95 per month. An annual plan saves even more with a rate of $499.95, though it is a large up-front commitment.