Yahoo! User Interface Blog (YUIBlog)

Graded Browser Support Update

July 12, 2011 at 8:55 pm by Jenny Donnelly and Matt Sweeney | In Development, Graded Browser Support | 21 Comments

GBS Changes

Specific changes for this update include:

• No longer assign experience grades
• Discontinued prescribing specific operating systems (except for mobile)
• Added coverage for Internet Explorer 9
• Added coverage for Firefox 4.†
• Added coverage for Firefox 5.†

Notes:

• The dagger symbol (as in “Firefox 4.†”) indicates that the most-current non-beta version at that branch level receives support.
• No guidance is given on iOS or Android OS device usage. The recommendation is that you choose the devices that are most representative of your user base for each OS.

Removing Grades from the Browser Test Baseline

This edition of the GBS update represents a departure from our previous updates in that we are moving away from mapping browsers directly to experience grades (e.g. “A-grade” and “C-grade”). Rather than prescribe what user experience is appropriate for which browsers, we’ll focus on defining an efficient baseline test strategy that maximizes test coverage and minimizes the testing surface. For example, IE6′s still-significant global marketshare warrants continued testing; however today’s GBS allows for the IE6 user experience to be different from the IE9 experience.

Removing Operating Systems from the Browser Test Baseline

In order to streamline testing and minimize resource requirements, we no longer specify which operating system should be tested on. The only exception is when the browser is tightly coupled with the OS version, in which case we refer to the OS version rather than the browser version (e.g. “Safari iOS 4″). This allows us to focus test coverage on browser versions, and minimize redudant testing across platforms. Issues with the same browser across versions are negligible, and generally related to higher-level OS differences, such as key handling and available fonts. Code that is known to touch upon cross-platform issues should be tested on as many platforms as possible, but this testing generally can be isolated to the specific issues rather than running a full regression test of all features. We recommend aligning operating system testing priority with your user base.

Why is IE6 Still on the List?

IE6 still has a significant enough global market share to warrant a verified acceptable user experience. One common misconception with the Progressive Enhancement strategy has been that once a browser enters “C-grade” that it becomes “unsupported”, when in fact it really means that it should be delivered the HTML-only experience. Now that we no longer prescribe which browsers receive what experience, this is left for projects to decide based on their users and resources. The GBS focuses on specifying which browsers need a verified usable experience based on factors such as market share and influence. Defining what is “usable” and specifiying acceptable levels of degradation are left for teams to decide. We still promote a simple Progressive Enhancement model, and discourage projects from creating new tiers without accounting for the additional costs in development, testing, and maintenance resources.

GBS Forecast

We expect to make the following changes in the next update:

• Discontinue coverage for Safari on iOS 3.
• Add coverage for Webkit on Android 3.
• Add coverage for Firefox 6.
• Add coverage for Safari iOS 5.

The GBS Archive

• GBS Update, 2010-11-03
• GBS Update, 2010-02-16
• GBS Update, 2009-10-16
• GBS Update, 2009-07-02
• GBS Update, 2009-01-28
• GBS Update, 2008-07-03
• GBS Update, 2008-02-19

Find conversations: bloglines | technorati

Share and extend: Bookmark with del.icio.us | digg it! | reddit!

Graded Browser Support Update: Q4 2010

November 3, 2010 at 8:11 pm by Eric Miraglia and Matt Sweeney | In Development, Graded Browser Support | 34 Comments

This post announces an update to Graded Browser Support, Yahoo!’s recommended browser testing matrix. The GBS page on the YUI site always has the most current GBS table. This post includes:

• a list of changes;
• an updated chart of browsers that receive A-grade support;
• an updated draft list of C-grade browsers;
• our GBS forecast, indicating the changes we expect to make in Q1 2011;
• and a discussion section that lays out some of the strategy behind the current GBS update.

Reminder: Graded Browser Support is a QA philosophy, not a report card on the quality of popular browsers. It is designed to provide guidance for QA teams about how best to use their limited testing resources (and to frontend engineers about how to sanely cross-check work across a finite set of browsers). The goal is to be conservative and calculating: We want to test the smallest possible subset of browser/platform combinations, leveraging implicit coverage by testing the most commonly shared core browser engines.

GBS Changes for Q4 2010

Specific changes for Q4 2010 include:

• Revised support for the fast-iterating Chrome browser; Chrome A-grade testing coverage is now recommended for the latest major, stable version of the browser on Windows XP.
• Dropped A-Grade coverage for Firefox 3.0.† (moves to X-grade).
• Dropped A-Grade coverage for Safari 4 on Mac OS 10.5.† (moves to X-grade).
• Updated Safari coverage to 5.† on Mac OS 10.6.
• Initiated A-grade coverage for WebKit browsers on iOS and Android OS.
• Forecast A-grade coverage for Firefox 4.† and Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7 upon their GA release.
• Addition of Firefox versions prior to 3.0 to C-grade list.
• Forecast discontinuation of A-grade coverage for Internet Explorer 6 in Q1 2011; we expect to move IE6 to the C-grade browser list as of the next update.

Notes:

• The dagger symbol (as in “Firefox 3.6.†”) indicates that the most-current non-beta version at that branch level receives support.
• Code that may be used on pages with unknown doctypes should be tested in IE7 quirks mode.
• Code that may appear in IE8′s "compatibility mode," which emulates but is not identical to IE7, should be tested explicitly in compatibility mode.
• No guidance is given on iOS or Android OS device usage. The recommendation is that you choose a device most representative of your user base for each OS.

C-Grade Browser List (Draft)

This list represents browsers from which CSS and JavaScript should be withheld. This list remains in draft status.

• IE < 6 (including Mac OS versions)
• Safari < 3
• Firefox < 3
• Opera < 9.5
• Netscape < 8

GBS Forecast

We expect to make the following changes in the Q1 2011 GBS update:

• Discontinue A-grade for Internet Explorer 6, moving it to C-Grade.
• Discontinue A-grade for Firefox 3.6.† on Windows XP.
• Move Chrome support from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Discussion

This update implements the guidance we provided in Q1 2010. Of interest in this update:

1. Internet Explorer 6: We are forecasting the transition of Internet Explorer 6 from A-grade to C-grade in the next GBS update. The calculus here is simple: The proliferation of devices and browsers on the leading edge (including mobile) requires an increase in testing and attention. That testing and attention should come from shifting resources away from the trailing edge. By moving IE6 to the C-grade, we ensure a consistent baseline experience for those users while freeing up cycles to invest in richer experiences for millions of users coming to the internet today on modern, capable browsers. Note: This forecast should not be taken as an indication that IE6 users will see an abrupt change in their experience of Yahoo! websites in Q1 2011; the change in philosophy toward IE6 will be reflected in new development and products and applied in ways that make sense based on product needs.
2. Chrome: Chrome has been progressing rapidly through versions, and Google has communicated its intent to continue rapid development and short release cycles. As a result, we’ve modified our GBS strategy for Chrome to advise testing on the latest GA release of Chrome as soon as it is issued, with prior versions moving to X-grade as soon as they are superseded.
3. Mobile: We’re taking a conservative approach to the addition of mobile browsers to the QA matrix, beginning in this release with the current Android version (2.2) and the two latest releases of Apple’s iOS (which covers the current OS version for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch devices). We recommend including devices running these operating systems at minimum in your QA battery. Depending on your resources and your focus, you may want to be much more aggressive in supporting variants of Android and other operating systems (like Palm/HP’s WebOS). This GBS recommendation provides a testing surface of 15 browser/platform combinations (once IE 9 and Firefox 4 reach GA), bringing in this first wave of A-Grade mobile browsers while keeping the testing surface at a level consistent with previous quarters.

The GBS Archive

• GBS Update, 2010 Q1
• GBS Update, 2009-10-16
• GBS Update, 2009-07-02
• GBS Update, 2009-01-28
• GBS Update, 2008-07-03
• GBS Update, 2008-02-19

Find conversations: bloglines | technorati

Share and extend: Bookmark with del.icio.us | digg it! | reddit!

Graded Browser Support Update: Q4 2009

October 16, 2009 at 12:07 pm by Eric Miraglia | In Development, Graded Browser Support | 28 Comments

This post announces an update to Graded Browser Support. The GBS page on the YUI site always has the most current GBS table. This post includes:

• a list of changes;
• an updated chart of browsers that receive A-grade support;
• our GBS forecast, indicating the changes we expect to make in Q1 2010;
• and a discussion section that lays out some of the strategy behind the current GBS update.

GBS Changes for Q4 2009

With this update, Mac OS 10.4 Tiger drops from the A-Grade testing matrix (replaced with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard) and the testing surface is reduced to 12 browsers on 4 OS platforms (down from 14 browsers on 4 platforms). Specific changes include:

• Initiated A-Grade support for Firefox 3.5.† on Mac OS 10.6.†
• Initiated A-Grade support for Opera 10.0.† on Windows XP
• Discontinued A-Grade support for Firefox 3.0.† on Mac OS 10.5.†
• Discontinued A-Grade support for Firefox 3.5.† on Mac OS 10.5.†
• Discontinued A-Grade support for Safari 3.2.† on Mac OS 10.4.†
• Discontinued A-Grade support for Opera 9.6.† on Windows XP

Notes:

• The dagger symbol (as in “Firefox 3.5.†”) indicates that the most-current non-beta version at that branch level receives support.
• Code that may be used on pages with unknown doctypes should be tested in IE7 quirks mode.
• Code that may appear in IE8′s "compatibility mode," which emulates but is not identical to IE7, should be tested explicitly in compatibility mode.

GBS Forecast

We expect to make the following changes in the Q1 2010 GBS update:

• Discontinue A-grade for Opera across all OSs (if current data trends continue); the latest version of Opera (currently 10.0.†) will be considered an X-grade browser as of Q1.
• Initiate A-Grade support for the latest version of Google Chrome on Windows XP (if current data trends continue).
• Initiate A-Grade support for IE8 on Windows 7.

Discussion

This update pares the testing surface to 12 browser/platform combinations (down from a high of 15). The most significant aspect of this update is our guidance for Q1 in which we forecast Chrome beginning to receive A-Grade support and Opera 10 moving to the X-Grade. Here are notes from the GBS committee with respect to that guidance:

1. Chrome: The rate of growth in Chrome’s global usage has been dramatic. By some measures, including ours, it is now double that of the A-Grade Opera browser (source: StatCounter). Chrome on Windows is built around a solid WebKit core, supportive of web standards (including forward-looking HTML5 standards), and extremely performant. With Google’s backing, the project is making rapid progress both on Windows and with the not-yet-released Mac OS X version. If this growth rate continues, we conclude that Chrome will require A-Grade attention as of Q1.
2. Opera: Opera’s marketshare, which is small and shows signs of diminishing, makes a compelling case for moving this excellent browser from the A-Grade to the X-Grade in Q1. X-Grade is a category designed to encompass modern, capable browsers with small marketshare, and Opera is squarely in that category today. Opera’s marketshare in specific Eastern European and emerging markets might argue for some developers to retain this browser on their testing matrix beyond Q1. We encourage you to watch carefully the argument presented by Opera’s Andreas Bovens and David Storey recently with respect to the “marketshare myth” and reasons why Opera’s importance transcends the global marketshare metric (source: YUI Theater).

Graded Browser Support is a QA philosophy, not a report card on the quality of popular browsers. It’s designed to provide guidance for QA teams about how best to use their limited testing resources (and to frontend engineers about how to sanely cross-check work across a finite set of browsers). The goal is to be conservative and calculating: We want to test the smallest possible subset of browser/platform combinations, leveraging implicit coverage by testing the most commonly shared core browser engines.

Inevitably (and by design), this leaves a lot of browsers out of the matrix. And, unfortunately, the percentage of users still tied to IE6 requires us to include that browser (not because we like IE6, but because we like the many tens of millions of users who rely on it).

One of the most interesting aspects of the quarterly GBS update is hearing your advice (often different than our own), and we’d love to hear your take on these issues in the comments section.

The GBS Archive

• GBS Update, 2009-07-02
• GBS Update, 2009-01-28
• GBS Update, 2008-07-03
• GBS Update, 2008-02-19

Find conversations: bloglines | technorati

Share and extend: Bookmark with del.icio.us | digg it! | reddit!