Mobile web (app) testing

You dont have the neccessary mobile device at hand but you’d still like to test your web project ? Here a little guide.

First impression: The mobile readiness tests

To get a first impression about what mobile browsers will think of your page, when they have to load it there are some nice pages out there helping you out on this:

• W3C Mobile Check
• MobiReady – has even little JAVA emulators

Quick and dirty: Browser with adjusted view port + fake user agent

If you wanna have a look on your page from mobile browser perspective but don’t have a mobile device on hand you can try the following setup:

• Firefox
• “Webdeveloper toolbar” plugin by Chris Pederick : view port size functionality
• “User agent switcher” plugin also by Chris Pederick + a list of mobile user agents

The first quite small but handy list of mobile user agents I found in the blog article by George Trifonov on user agent strings – thanks for those.

For a not just a little more but quite complete is this list: the ultimate user agent list on Zytrax.com.

Still dirty but even quicker: basic emulators

There are a few simple emulators out there, that make it possible to have an instant view on the project without any additional effort.

• iPhone: iPhoney, TestiPhone
• iPad: iPeek
• S60: DotMobi Emulator

Quite clean approach: real emulators

But as long as you don’t get the real device in hand there is nothing as good as an emulator to get a real impression of what will actually be happening when your web app is loaded on a mobile device.

And before I just steal it from a great article: a list to 20 different mobile emulators in this must-read article on SixRevisions. You’ll find it in the bottom of the article.

Finally: real remote devices

There are services out there that give you the possibility to run your web app (or any other app) on a real device and control this device remote via the web.

• Device Anywhere (I did testing for Symbian and Blackberry phones with that service. It is quite capable but not really cheap for the average developer)
• Perfecto mobile