Web Application Testing with BrowserStack

Today while looking for a machine running IE to debug a web application I was working on, a friend of mine referred me to a platform for testing on various browsers called BrowserStack. So I gave it a shot, and boy, was I amazed!

BrowserStack allows you test web applications on various browsers on multiple operating systems. Desktop and mobile devices are supported. The website provides a free trial so users can test drive it to see if it is to their liking. Registering for an account was quick and easy.

While testing I was able to use local urls, e.g. localhost:3000, saving me time. The app worked quite swiftly as well. The only critique I have of it is that the session times out rather quickly if there isn’t any activity.

So, if you are thinking about a good solution for testing web apps on multiple browsers, give BrowserStack a try. Visit their website to get started.

How to run benchmark with Siege

From time to time, as a web developer you may want to run http load tests against a website to make sure it can handle adequate traffic. An excellent software for this is Siege. So, first, install Siege. On a Mac you can do this using brew as follows:

brew install siege

Once installed, run your test using a command like:

siege -c 10 -r 5 -b http://somesite.com

This runs 5 requests on 10 concurrent connections against somesite.com.