Comments on: User agent simulators?

Question: User agent simulators?

bradn — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:56:14 -0800

Does anyone know of any "browser simulators" for testing web sites on different user agents?

I came across this Opera Mini simulator.
Has anyone seen anything like this for other user agents, for example older IE and Netscape versions, as well as other handheld browsers?

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:00:17 -0800

There are plenty of proxies ans extension taht will chnage the user-agent sent by your browser.

If you actually want to see how pages render, a Firefox (under windows) extension can use IE's rendering engine within Firefox.

By: bradn

bradn — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:05:04 -0800

Thanks but I am more thinking about simulators of alternative or older browsers (the dreaded IE5), or simulators of different platforms (Mac.)

By: staggernation

staggernation — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:05:05 -0800

There's the BrowserCam service. Not free, though.

By: charmston

charmston — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:07:53 -0800

There's a Lynx emulator if you'd like to see what your site would look like in a text browser.

By: scodger

scodger — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:09:07 -0800

There is this add on for firefox to allow you to choose what your browser identifies itself as.

By: alan

alan — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:18:06 -0800

Well, since browsers are software you could just install the older versions on your box.

Here are instructions/a-hack to install IE stand-alone.

It's also worth looking into Virtual PC or VMWare to avoid mucking your real system up with old, unstable, crashy browsers.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:20:16 -0800

You can also install multiple versions of Internet Explorer on Windows.

By: suni

suni — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:36:31 -0800

opera allows you to "cloak" as ie and mozilla

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:41:25 -0800

The WebTV viewer is a WebTV/MSN TV emulator for Windows or Mac systems.

By: suni

suni — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:46:48 -0800

and this firefox extension allows you to use custom user agents in firefox (if i remember right you could write them yourself, there's a listing of user agents in wikipedia)

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:07:25 -0800

This guy's site allows you to check different resolutions.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:14:44 -0800

Browser Shots is an opensource equivalent to Browsercam.* It's free, but there is always a fairly large queue to wait in before your request is processed -- so it's not as useful for touching up bugs as browser cam is. Browsercam definitely rocks, and you used to be able to get as many trial accounts as you had email addresses (which is to say, infinite). I don't know if this is still the case (I don't use it on a regular basis).

If you DO plan on using it on a regular basis, however, I would encourage you to subscribe because 1) it's more convenient and 2) they provide a good service and it's the right thing to do. I def. recommend browsercam over installing a billion browsers on your box, but that's up to you.

* well, maybe, I haven't tested it so I don't know if it's as complete. The queue is always too long.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 11:04:16 -0800

You can also test platforms using emulators like Mac on a Stick or Damn Small Linux, both of which will boot off of a USB drive in Windows. Install a browser into the build, and you have the ability to test on different platforms without leaving your computer.

Using the user agent switcher in Firefox won't really show you how IE would interpret the site, it just shows you what code the site serves to IE. Same goes for Opera.

Evolt's Browser Archive (linked above) is your friend here. Get older browsers and test them. Except for IE it's pretty easy to run the old ones; I've tested using Netscape 1.1 on WinXP...

By: blag

blag — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 16:46:14 -0800

Seconding Browsercam - it's a fantastic service and well worth the piddly $15.

By: vitaly friedman

vitaly friedman — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 05:18:23 -0800

iCapture - see through the eyes of a Mac browser.

By: vitaly friedman

vitaly friedman — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 05:19:50 -0800

Another useful tool is iCapture - see through the eyes of a Mac browser.

By: letterneversent

letterneversent — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:09:07 -0800

I started a fundable group for Browsercam via a promotion Browsercam is running. 20 users basically pool up to get a year long subscription to browsercam for only $25.

Read more info here:

https://www.fundable.org/groupactions/browsercam-dih