Browser OS Compatibility Testing via DOM Metric Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for browser and operating system compatibility testing are impractical and inaccurate due to the numerous available browser and OS combinations, and they fail to efficiently account for changes in applications and systems.
Innovation Solution
A browser and OS compatibility system that includes a user interface for selecting browser and OS combinations, a download engine for capturing source files, a parse engine for creating DOM trees, a metric engine for capturing object metrics, and an analysis engine for comparing metrics across different browser and OS combinations, generating a compatibility report based on deviations from predetermined or user-defined thresholds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If visual comparison of screen-shots is used for compatibility testing, then implementation is simple, but accuracy and reliability are poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual visual comparison (mechanical human operation) with an automated system that uses download engines to capture source files, parse engines to create DOM trees, and metric engines to extract and compare object metrics. This substitution of mechanical human inspection with automated computational processes resolves the contradiction by achieving both high accuracy through precise metric comparison and ease of implementation through automation.
2Reliability
If comprehensive browser and OS combination testing is performed, then compatibility coverage is improved, but testing time and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual representations (copies) of different browser and OS environments through downloaded source files and parsed DOM trees. Instead of requiring physical testing on numerous actual browser-OS combinations, the system generates computational models of these environments and compares their rendered output metrics. This copying approach maintains comprehensive compatibility coverage while dramatically reducing testing time and resource requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by downloading and storing source files for multiple browser-OS combinations in advance, and pre-parsing them into DOM trees before actual compatibility comparison is needed. This preliminary preparation allows the metric comparison phase to proceed quickly by working with pre-processed data structures rather than generating everything from scratch during testing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If manual compatibility testing is performed, then flexibility in handling changes is maintained, but productivity and efficiency are low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service automation where the system automatically downloads source files, parses them into DOM trees, extracts metrics, compares results across browser-OS combinations, and generates compatibility reports without human intervention. This automated self-service process maintains flexibility by being programmatically configurable while dramatically improving productivity through elimination of manual operations. The system can adapt to changes in applications, browsers, or OS by simply re-running the automated process with updated inputs.
Data Source
AI summary
A browser and operating system (OS) compatibility system may include a user interface to select a first combination of a browser and OS for comparison to a second combination of a browser and OS. A download engine may capture source files for browsers for the first and second combinations. A parse engine may create Document Object Model (DOM) trees of objects of first and second website pages respectively for the browsers for the first and second combinations. A metric engine may read the DOM trees for attributes of the objects to capture metrics of the objects. An analysis metric engine may compare a metric of an object of the first website page to a metric of the same object of the second website page to determine a compatibility of the browser and the OS for the first combination to the browser and the OS for the second combination.