How to test and debug your HTML5 app on device

For developers creating cross-platform apps, it’s important to have a robust but manageable testing process that allows for smooth updates and simultaneous previews of edits across different simulated devices and configurations.

There are systems that provide these capabilities, such as the Intel XDK, a free tool for building and testing HTML5 mobile apps. But as well as debugging apps in a testing environment like this, it’s also important to test your app on the actual devices they will soon be running on.

Once you’re at the testing stage and you want to see how your app performs on an Android tablet or iPad, download the Intel XDK App Preview app from Google Market or the App Store. Then you can push your code to a testing server which will enable you to launch that code through Intel XDK App Preview on your device, so you can see what the user experience really feels like. For a quick introduction tutorial on how to do all this easily, check out this video.

Using Intel XDK, you can perform emulator app testing in 17 different device views using GPS, broadband, accelerometer and network simulation.

With a better picture of how your app runs on real devices, you can continue debugging remotely and synchronising updates while you monitor the on-device output. You can even receive debug messages over the internet, sent from the device to the Intel XDK developer environment, by adding a short piece of code to your script. Happy testing!

• This blog post is written by Softtalkblog, and is sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone, which helps you to develop, market and sell software and apps for prominent platforms and emerging technologies powered by Intel Architecture.

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