Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group Blog

The missions of the Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group is to help ensuring that Web technologies work reliably on mobile devices, and we do that by creating tests (such as the Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers) that help detect bugs and inconsistencies in mobile browsers, and provide an incentive for browsers vendors to compete on fixing these problems..

But another approach we have taken since the beginning of our work has been to ensure that tests that are developed by others can also be used to that same effect. Many W3C groups develop test suites as part of the development of their specifications, and more generally, individuals from the Web community at large also create tests to illustrate a specific problem they have, a solution they're proposing, or to explore new usage of a given technology.

Unfortunately, very often these tests end up to be problematic to use on mobile devices - the browsers performances tests we reviewed back in October illustrates the type of difficulties we have encountered again and again when trying to re-use tests on mobile devices.

Over time, we have collected the most frequent problems we have found in these tests, and the results of that collection has been published as a Working Group Note this Tuesday as the Guidelines for Writing Device Independent Tests.

It's a fairly simple and short document - so if you are developing tests for Web technologies, and want to participate in making the mobile web more robust, take a look at the guidelines and try to apply them to your tests!

Should you have any feedback on the guidelines, please let us on our public mailing list public-mwts@w3.org.

We've made another small update to the Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers (WCTMB). The canvas test has been made a bit more difficult, testing alpha transparency too:

function canvas() {
var c = document.getElementById("canvas");
var ctx = c.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(0,128,0)";
ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 20, 20);
ctx.globalAlpha = 0; // any future drawing operations will be invisible
ctx.drawImage(document.getElementById('red.png'), 0, 0); // draw invisible red square over the green square
}

In England there are several shops on the high street which sell mobile devices such as:

• Handset manufacturers - Nokia, Sony, Apple
• Operators - Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-mobile
• Independent retailers like Carphone warehouse, Phones 4 U, Currys & like wise

Only recently I've noticed that some stores allow you to surf the Web on your devices, such as the Nokia flagship store in Regent street, London. Perhaps your local mobile shop now offers a similar service?

Where shops do not offer this facility, please take a moment to politely request Internet access in order to test the mobile's browser(s) on your favourite Web applications.

And what test could you use? Try the WCTMB test and please submit the results.

Be aware that some shops seem to operate odd policies when it comes to photographing the device.

There are many different mobile devices with many different features to choose from. Please make a good quality Web browser be one of them!