eValid™ -- The Web Quality Suite Browser-Based Client-Side Functional Testing and Validation Page Timing/Tuning Transaction Monitoring. WebSite Spidering & Analysis and Realistic Server Loading.

Introduction
Recent trends in the computing industry are toward use of mobile devices -- tablets, netbooks, pads, smartphones, etc. Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about how eValid can be applied to mobile devices.

• Does eValid handle mobile devices?
• Does it matter which mobile browser I use?
• Does it matter which mobile device I use?
• How many different mobile devices has eValid handled?
• What is a User Agent String? What does it look like?
• What does the server see when eValid uses a substitute User Agent String (UAS)?
• Can I test multiple devices from the same test driver?
• Can I look at how my web application behaves "live"?
• Can I adjust the screen that imitates my device?
• How easy is it to set the User Agent String in eValid?
• What about the size of screen on my mobile device?
• What about page rendering?
• Does AJAX work normally when eValid is imitating a mobile device?
• Can you run loading tests with mobile devices?
• What about monitoring a mobile web app?
• Can I reuse my test scripts? That is, does eValid handle dynamic content?
• Can eValid be used to test my PHP, Java/JavaScript functions, etc.? I use these to detect/manage my mobile visitors?
• Can eValid validate mobile content?
• Is eValid a mobile app or plugin? That is, do you test on real devices?
• Tell me about how eValid helps in evaluating a mobile user's web experience?
• What about ensuring that content is suitable for use in a mobile browser?
• Does eValid generate any page metrics for fine-tuning my regular web pages for viewing from a mobile device?

• Does eValid handle mobile devices?
  Yes. eValid emulates a mobile device by adjusting itself to use the user Agent String (UAS) for the particular device.
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• Does it matter which mobile browser I use?
  No. You need only to know the User Agent String (UAS) for the device for eValid tests to be applicable.
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• Does it matter which mobile device I use?
  No. eValid can handle all of them. Here is a Mobile Technology Device Type Categorization that illustrates the range of devices you can emulate.
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• How many different mobile devices has eValid handled?
  There are literally hundreds of assigned UASs and we don't claim to have tried them all. Even so, here is the result of an experiment to display a very Large Number of UASs. There are over 200 emulated devices.
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• What is a User Agent String? What does it look like?
  Each different device has its own User Agent String (UAS). For example, here is the UAS for an iPhone:

  Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+
  (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3
  

  
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• What does the server see when eValid uses a substitute User Agent String (UAS)?
  The server will see eValid as actually being an instance of the particular mobile device -- and will respond accordingly. So there is no difference between what eValid sees and what the mobile device itself would see.
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• Can I test multiple devices from the same test driver?
  Yes. You can have the UAS specified as a parameter and run tests of One Website on Multiple Phones or One Phone on Multiple Sites as these two pages show.
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• Can I look at how my web application behaves "live"?
  Yes. If you pause an eValid playback the windows that are emulating your mobile device are still "live" and you can navigate and manipulate the content of the page at will. Here is a Side-By-Side Sample Screen set up that illustrates how this works.
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• Can I adjust the screen that imitates my device?
  Yes, you can. There are a special commands in eValid to adjust the screen size and move it around on your desktop.
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• How easy is to set the User Agent String in eValid?
  This is easy to do. There is a special SetUserAgent command that assigns a new UAS inside a script.
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• What about the size of screen on my mobile device?
  Typical hand-held devices have higher pixel-per-inch resolutions than a desktop, so you have to make allowances.
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• What about page rendering?
  The eValid engine uses the industry-standard Trident Rendering Engine -- a main component of IE -- so what you see on your eValid screen will be the same as what a user sees. We even completed a Rendering Comparison for Common Devices Via Device Emulator that shows that the two alternative renderings are identical.
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• Does AJAX work normally when eValid is imitating a mobile device?
  By using as its base the industry-standard IE browser from Microsoft you're assured that your mobile application's AJAX support will be valid. After all, AJAX was invented by Microsoft.
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• Can you run loading tests with mobile devices?
  Yes, no problem really. All of the work of switching eValid's identity is handled in the script. You can run 100's of BUs per account, and 1,000's of BUs per machine. Here is a Mobile Device Loading Experiment -- 1,000 BUs to illustrate this capability.
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• What about monitoring a mobile web app?
  No problem at all. In "monitoring mode" the script simply has to plug in the right UAS and take the measurements from the window that is emulating the mobile device.
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• Can I reuse my test scripts? That is, does eValid handle dynamic content?
  Yes, eValid scripts are entirely reusable. Even more important, the eValid Adaptive Playback feature automatically accounts for minor changes in a web page that would otherwise break the script.
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• Can eValid be used to test my PHP, Java/JavaScript functions, etc.? I use these to detect/manage my mobile visitors?
  Yes. All of the functions supported by your web server are fully supported by eValid. Changing the User Agent String (UAS) alters the way the server responds, but the HTML and related material that is sent to the eValid browser is handled in the normal way by eValid.
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• Can eValid validate mobile content?
  Yes. All of the standard Validation Modes that eValid has are fully available to analyze the content of what is returned by your server when it is interacting with a mobile device.
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• Is eValid a mobile app or plugin? That is, do you test on real devices?
  eValid actually is a full-featured browser, built using IE components and facilities -- it is a "clone" of IE. Accordingly, tests done with eValid when the User Agent String (UAS) has been modified are as if eValid was acting as a mobile device. So, technically, in this mode eValid is acting as a device "emulator".
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• Tell me about how eValid helps in evaluating a mobile user's web experience?
  eValid can help in many ways. You can measure content size and download speed over the web, you can validate content, you can make internal measurements of response times within a session, etc. All eValid analysis facilities are fully available when eValid emulates your mobile device.
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• What about ensuring that content is suitable for use in a mobile browser?
  Although the size of the screen (in pixels per inch) is typically larger on a desktop monitor, the content of the HTML is identical. As our Rendering Comparison for Common Devices Via Device Emulator shows, you can easily visualize how your content will appear on any mobile device.
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• Does eValid generate any page metrics for fine-tuning my regular web pages for viewing from a mobile device?
  Yes. In addition to overall timing of test script playback steps, if you turn on the Detailed Timing feature in eValid you will also see the individual download times for every page component.
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