An essential characteristic of automated tests is determinism. This means a test should consistently yield the same result if the system under test (SUT) remains unchanged. However, in test automation, the term “flaky test” refers to a test that produces inconsistent outcomes, alternating between passing and failing without any changes to the underlying code or environment.

Such non-determinism sends confusing signals to the team, making it difficult to interpret test results. This erosion of trust in the test suite leads to disregarding signals, integrating features with real failures, and nullifying the purpose of testing. Instead of speeding up progress, flaky tests slow it down, obscure actual bugs, and increase costs. As a result, automation in testing becomes a double-edged sword if not properly maintained.

Why Flaky Tests Are Problematic

Flaky tests pose significant challenges, especially in environments heavily reliant on automated testing, such as CI/CD pipelines. Unreliable tests can:

• Erode trust in test results.
• Delay releases.
• Consume additional resources for troubleshooting.
• Conceal genuine issues, leading to faulty application releases.

Flaky tests can severely impact cross-browser testing. Ensure your automation runs consistently across 5000+ real browsers and devices with LambdaTest.

The Pitfalls of Ignoring Test Automation Context

There are many ways to approach test automation: by context, by data, by domain. However, what often happens is the rush to jump in, write test cases, and create a design pattern abstraction (like page objects or app actions) without deeper thought.

This inertia and lack of understanding can affect how code is written and what is validated, leading to suboptimal results. Here’s an exercise to illustrate the issue:

• Open your test suite and check how many duplicate assertions exist across different specs.
• Identify test cases with multiple assertions that don’t directly relate to the core case.
• Measure how long your test interface takes to complete.

Now ask yourself:

• Do you spend more time “fixing” or “improving” the suite than actually testing the software?
• Are you automating because someone told you to, or are you creating valuable tests with clear objectives?

If this resonates with your situation, your automation efforts might be counterproductive, introducing more work rather than reducing it. Understanding the context and purpose behind automation is key to avoiding this loop.

Is Your Test Automation Adding Value or Creating Chaos?

It may sound absurd, but if you’re in this situation, automating testing is a waste of time, introducing more work than reducing it. Once you understand that this situation is not ideal, there are ways to get out of this loop. Reflect on how you’re designing tests, and consider:

• Are you writing meaningful tests with a clear purpose?
• Are you following principles that reduce maintenance and increase reliability?

A post I wrote on four simple steps for creating meaningful automated tests provides actionable tips for improving your approach. Remembering these principles while designing a test will significantly reduce the maintenance effort later.

Reflecting on Test Automation Practices

Before we deep dive into handling flaky tests, I want you to reflect on these questions:

• How much time do you spend debugging your test script errors?
• How long do you wait to have it run again because the network failed?
• How much time do you spend arguing with DEV because, on a rerun, it works?
• How much time do you spend refactoring your test code because you had an unreported change?
• How often did you take the first test run result outcome and refer to it as the absolute truth of a passed test?
• How long do you spend rerunning the tests to get a positive result?

These questions highlight systemic issues in test automation practices, often stemming from a lack of understanding of the context in which the test suite operates.

What causes Test Flakiness?

Many of you work in environments where sprints are crammed with work; regression coverage is lagging, etc. Working on automation seems very tempting and may simplify things initially when building/extending automated test suites. This easiness of thought leads us to overengineer the solution and write tests impractically. There could be many reasons a test is flaky: concurrency, undefined behaviors, third-party dependencies, infrastructural problems, etc. There is an insightful article on how Google handles flaky tests, which I recommend you to read.

Need to detect and fix flaky tests quickly? Try LambdaTest Test Analytics—a real-time debugging and analytics solution to spot flaky patterns before they become bottlenecks.

Identifying Flaky Tests

Detecting flaky tests in automated testing requires a combination of strategic thinking and specifics. I have tried to summarise the main criteria together with strategies employed in the diagram below:

You will gain more insights and embrace a more precise methodology to identify and subsequently mitigate the inconsistency in the collection of automated tests over time. Often, flakiness could be caused by an issue in one of your test or staging environments that won’t be carried over to production. However, issues such as network errors, load times, or problems with their parties could eventually affect the end user. If you ignore flaky tests, you may overlook the possibility of user impact.

What to do with Flaky tests?

While a common tendency is to ignore flaky tests, which is not a great idea, it’s also impracticable to spend time and effort troubleshooting inconsistent test results. There are several options to mitigate flaky tests, and they may be helpful in different situations. Finding the balance between fixing the tests and giving them room to grow without the noise of failing due to false negatives should be the mantra of every QA Engineer.

While ignoring flaky tests may seem tempting, it’s neither practical nor advisable. Here are actionable strategies to address flaky tests:

1. Fix the Root Cause

If a flaky test covers a crucial path, invest the time to identify and resolve the root cause.

2. Enable Controlled Reruns

Rerun failed tests with specific criteria. For instance:

• Allow reruns for network delays or environmental issues.
• Limit reruns to a predefined number.
• Quarantine the test if it remains flaky after reruns.

3. Temporarily Pause or Remove Tests

If a flaky test blocks the cycle, pause or remove it temporarily. However, this adds technical debt, so plan to address the inconsistencies later.

4. Isolate Flaky Tests

Separate flaky tests into a dedicated suite. This allows the main test suite to maintain confidence while the flaky tests are reviewed and fixed individually.

5. Delete Unnecessary Tests

If a test has never found critical bugs or doesn’t cover important user paths, consider deleting it.

6. Establish Testing Guidelines

Prevent flaky tests by emphasizing testability during development. Incorporate guidelines into code reviews, static analysis, and other processes.

7. Leverage Reporting Tools

Utilize tools that:

• Detect the flakiness level per test run.
• Trace changes causing flakiness.

8. Document Flaky Tests

Maintain records of how flaky tests were handled. Documenting reasons and resolutions can:

• Help teams understand past actions.
• Identify recurring patterns.

Mitigation Strategies and Effectiveness

The following mitigation strategies are based on ideas from my experience handling flaky tests and formulated from various sources adhering to the best practices.

1. Improving Test Isolation

Implementation: Test cases are redesigned to be self-contained, with mock objects or stubs used for external dependencies.

Effectiveness: Enhances test reliability by removing external factors but requires careful management of mock objects to ensure they accurately represent real-world scenarios.

2. Enhancing Test Enviornment Stability

Implementation: Containerization tools are used to create standardised environments.

Effectiveness: Offers high consistency across test runs, reducing environmental flakiness; however, it may introduce complexity in managing containerised environments.

3. Addressing Timing & Concurrency Issues

Implementation: Incorporate explicit waits and synchronisation mechanisms in tests.

Effectiveness: Reduces flakiness due to timing issues, but it may increase test complexity and execution time.

4. Test Data Management

Implementation: Use dedicated or separate datasets or databases for tests and test runs.

Effectiveness: Prevents data-related flakiness but requires additional setup to manage isolated data sets and environments.

5. Rerun Flaky tests with Analysis

Implementation: Automatically rerun failed tests and analyse the outcomes.

Effectiveness: Useful for immediate identification of flaky tests, but doesn’t address the root cause and could lead to ignoring real issues.

6. Design Patterns & Code Quality

Implementation: Regular refactoring and adopting patterns like the Page Object Model in UI tests.

Effectiveness: Improves the maintainability and readability of tests but requires ongoing effort and adherence to best practices.

7. Use of Advanced Tools & AI

Implementation: Using specialised tools & machine learning algorithms/AI to detect patterns and have predictive analytics.

Effectiveness: Can significantly enhance the detection process; however, the accuracy depends on the tool/model capability.

8. Comprehensive Logging & Monitoring

Implementation: Thorough logging for every test run along with observation of testing trends.

Effectiveness: Enables thorough analysis of flaky tests but may produce substantial amounts of data to review.

9. Team Collaboration

Implementation: Regular meetings, knowledge-sharing sessions, and the collective responsibility for ensuring quality.

Effectiveness: Encourages a proactive approach to test maintenance while significantly depending on team culture, mindset and collaboration.

10. Regular Reviews

Implementation: Regular assessments of the testing suite and evaluations of the code with an emphasis on test script coverage.

Effectiveness: Helps in early identification and rectification of potential flakiness but requires dedicated time and resources.

Four Simple Steps to Meaningful Tests

Creating meaningful automated tests reduces maintenance efforts. Keep in mind these 4R3I’s:

• Revisit, Review, Revise, Reframe
• Ideate, Innovate, Iterate

By following these steps, you can proactively minimize test flakiness.

Conclusion

Effectively addressing flaky tests requires a combination of technical solutions, process improvements, and collaborative teamwork. While no approach completely eliminates flakiness, adopting these strategies ensures greater consistency and dependability in your test automation suite. As your test suite grows, remain vigilant and adapt to evolving contexts to maintain reliability and trust.

Optimize your test runs with AI-driven insights, real-time debugging, and a scalable cloud grid. Start testing smarter with LambdaTest.

Efficiency and reliability are crucial for digital companies whose competitive edge depends entirely on their software capabilities.

They need to deliver software changes quickly while ensuring the continuous availability and quality of their digital solutions, making test automation a must-have capability.

Yet, test automation was—and still is, for some teams—struggling to keep up with changing user interfaces, creating severe bottlenecks in development cycles.

Organizations had to invest significantly in resources, test design, and tooling to follow the rhythm of evolution from product and engineering teams to only reach a partial coverage and stability of test automation.

The advancement of self-healing automation AI-native technology is changing this paradigm. This article explores how this technology works on concrete cases and its impact on efficiency and reliability.

How AI enables tests to adapt to UI changes automatically

Successful automated tests live or die by three critical factors: accuracy, execution speed, and reliability.

Their application in testing user interfaces is challenging due to the fast-changing nature of the experience channels, which require constant adjustments to improve interactions with end-users.

For most manual testing approaches, by the time tests are updated, the user interface may already be under changes by the product and engineering teams, making them immediately obsolete or even a slowing factor.

To be a true enabler, test automation must not only keep up but also evolve with the product’s evolution to effectively empower teams to deliver fast and confidently.

AI and machine learning in testing have finally broken this cycle, offering a solution to what was once considered an inevitable testing challenge.

These technologies allow tests to adjust automatically to UI changes, keeping them reliable and effective using a variety of data points:

• Historical Test Data: Previous test results and logs help the model understand common patterns and anomalies
• UI Metadata: Information about the UI elements, such as their properties and relationships, is crucial for accurate detection and adaptation
• User Interaction Data: Data on how users interact with the UI can help the model predict potential changes and their impact on the tests.

In practice, AI algorithms monitor the user interface (UI) for any changes, either proactively with continuous checks or through log collection. Changes can be as simple as a button moving to a different location or a field being renamed. When the AI detects such changes, it updates the test scripts automatically. This dynamic adjustment eliminates the need for manual fixes, significantly reducing maintenance work.

Large Language Models (LLMs) accelerated the development of self-healing. These models, like Kane AI, are trained on vast amounts of data, enabling them to understand and predict UI changes, making test automation more resilient.

For instance, if a button labeled “Submit” is moved or renamed to “Send,” the LLM can recognize this change and update the test script accordingly.

Self-healing implementation strategies and success stories

Self-healing in testing evolved with the maturity of the ecosystem and technology.

Early implementations, while limited in accuracy and automation, enabled the market to learn the path toward broader accessibility and automation of the processes involved. The first implementation of self-healing was indeed a simulation of this.

French retail giant La Redoute illustrates this evolution perfectly: their initial manual approach using fixed locators enabled an impressive suite of 7,500+ non-regression tests that successfully powered daily deployments with a 96% success rate—a remarkable achievement even before true AI implementation.

The limitations of such a method are that it has an overhead of coordination between development, product, and QA teams and a technology able to provide stable IDs not supported by some front-end frameworks.

The company then developed a statistical model with a university able to locate with more than 90% accuracy changed locator, only having its first location within the initial HTML or XML tree.

The key benefits were reduced overhead of coordination and not requiring historical data, rarely available—nor a machine-learning (ML) model, which is costly to develop.

The exponential advancement of AI technologies, particularly large language models, has democratized access to sophisticated self-healing capabilities that were unimaginable just three years ago.

The most advanced strategy involves using AI and large language models (LLMs) within cloud-based testing platforms like LambdaTest. These platforms offer a seamless solution that requires no extra configuration or maintenance.

The AI testing agents handle most of the work, keeping locators easy to change and providing traceability of changes. This approach improves error rates and reduces ongoing maintenance efforts. Additionally, pre-optimized models tailored to specific sectors further enhance efficiency and accuracy.

Impact on test maintenance costs and team productivity

Self-healing test automation delivers immediate ROI through drastically reduced maintenance costs while boosting team productivity across development lifecycles.

Engineering talent shifts from routine script maintenance to higher-value strategic initiatives—transforming QA teams from cost centers into innovation drivers. This shift ultimately enhances the quality and efficiency of software production.

Aligned with the paradigm of Quality Engineering, self-healing in test automation contributes towards business value contribution through:

1. Efficiency lowering initial setup and ongoing maintenance costs
2. Quality increasing test automation coverage and usefulness
3. Speed provides teams with the capability to accelerate.

One of the key benefits is the reduction in initial setup costs, drastically lowering the barrier to adoption.

Traditional test automation requires extensive configuration and ongoing adjustments to keep up with UI changes. However, self-healing automation minimizes these efforts, as AI-native tools handle most of the adjustments automatically.

Beyond setup savings, self-healing automation continuously monitors and adapts to both intentional UI changes and evolving user behaviors, eliminating maintenance windows and creating truly evergreen test suites.

Teams report a significant decrease in the time spent maintaining test scripts, which eliminates much back-and-forth. This eliminates manual data collection and analysis, which is both time-consuming and error-prone.

Test coverage can be improved with less time spent on setup and maintenance. Teams can first expand their defect detection ratio by leveraging self-healing capabilities, freeing their time from flaky test analysis. This lets them invest more time in the better coverage of features by test automation suites.

Self-healing Challenges and Premonitions

Self-healing technology automates the mundane to create space for the exceptional—creativity and strategic thinking that drives innovation.

The time developers and testers spend shifts from internal routine activities towards contribution to customer satisfaction, business value, and revenue generation.

However, this implementation comes with its own set of challenges.

Integrating self-healing capabilities with legacy testing frameworks and existing CI/CD pipelines can present technical complexities that require thoughtful architecture and governance to overcome.

Perhaps more challenging than technical integration is the human factor: QA professionals with years of expertise in traditional testing approaches often exhibit understandable resistance to AI-native solutions that fundamentally change their daily workflows.

Organizations must evaluate their specific needs and select tools that align with their goals. Factors to consider include ease of integration, scalability, and the vendor’s self-healing support.

It’s also important to consider the learning curve associated with new tools and the training required for team members, favoring no-code where relevant.

The implementation of self-healing also needs to follow a structured approach to program and change management aligned with the enterprise objectives:

• Set Goals: Formalize the motivations and expectations of the self-healing initiatives to align and reassure stakeholders
• Start Small: Begin with a pilot project to test the effectiveness of self-healing automation with fast adaptation and learning.
• Provide Support: Ensure that team members receive adequate training on the new processes and technologies to accelerate adoption.
• Standard to Scale: Progressively define shared ways of working and standards to deploy and govern practices at scale
• Monitor and Adjust: Track the performance of self-healing automation and make necessary adjustments to stay focused on value.

Future of Self-Healing Test Automation

The future of self-healing test automation looks promising, with even more sophisticated and accurate adaptations to UI changes.

One development area that builds upon self-healing is the increased use of AI to continuously bridge the gap between user journeys and test automation suites.

The emergence of AI agents within the technology landscape will also shape the future of self-healing in test automation. We can expect the progressive integration of agents in specific points of activities within the test automation lifecycle, opening up new possibilities for testing in complex and interconnected environments.

As self-healing test automation continues to evolve, companies will continue improving the efficiency and reliability of their software production activities. Organizations that already embrace these advancements will be better positioned to deliver Quality at Speed software, gaining a competitive edge in the market compared to those that did not.

Now, self-healing addresses the reliability of your tests. But execution speed is equally critical.

This is where LambdaTest’s HyperExecute comes in.

HyperExecute is an intelligent test orchestration platform that executes tests up to 70% faster than traditional cloud grids. When self-healing capabilities are combined with ultra-fast execution, you get the best of both worlds.

Ready to upgrade your testing approach? Try LambdaTest’s HyperExecute today and experience the perfect combination of intelligent self-healing and lightning-fast test execution.

While designing a web app, designers and developers must keep in mind cross browser compatibility issues, and the myriad of different screens present today. Unfortunately, all this is hard to catch up with for a beginner.

If the code becomes more extensive, it starts to create a lot of dependencies. In addition, such codes are hard to debug and only increase costs and time for the organization or individuals. In such scenarios, CSS tricks can do wonders for you as it helps to improve the overall appearance, interactive features, and accessibility of a web page or website.

This blog lists down the 11 lifesaving CSS tricks for you to keep in mind while writing a web code. These tricks will help you create dependable websites and improve the user experience.

11 HTML/CSS Tricks for Developers

Check out some of the lifesaving HTML/CSS tricks every developer should know:

Club elements with the same styles

We’ll start with one of the primary and most used CSS tricks while developing web code. Many times your elements may have the same stylings in the CSS.

For example, shown below is the snapshot of the Pizza Hut website.

It has two elements in the center – Delivery and Takeaway. These are two separate “div” boxes. You can right-click on any of them and inspect to know their classes.

These “divs” have many things in common, especially their styling – the font, font size, backgrounds, font color, and many more. But they differ in their implementation because they are two separate elements as far as web dev is concerned. If you select one, a few things happen in the background and change, but the styling remains the same.

For such elements where a lot of styling has to be the same, combining them into a single snippet is better.

Let’s assume the two classes: “tab-delivery” and “tab-takeaway.”

The CSS code for the two classes, “tab-delivery” and “tab-takeaway,” is below.

<style>
  .tab-delivery {
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
    background-color: white;
  }

.tab-takeaway {
  font-size: 16px;
  font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
  background-color: white;
}

</style>

The combined CSS code for the two classes, “tab-delivery” and “tab-takeaway,” is below.

<style>
  .tab-delivery, .tab-takeaway {
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
    background-color: white;
  }

</style>

The main benefit of writing CSS code in the combined form is implementing the DRY methodology in our code. So in the future, if someone suggests a change in font color, you don’t have to find the classes and font color of all the elements in thousands of lines of CSS. Instead, just one edit, and you are good to go.

Use percentages instead of absolute numbers

As a beginner, one of your first concerns will be positioning your elements on the web page. Since most websites start by defining the width of elements in pixel numbers, it is often inevitable to begin placing these numbers in your code.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Absolute Numbers</title>
  </head>
  <style>
      div {
        background-color: #e7e7e7;
        width:500px;
        height: 100px;
        font-weight: bold;
        font-size: 28px;
      }
  </style>
  <body>
      <div> Hi!! I am a div box and I am awesome. </div>
  </body>
</html>

The above code creates a 100-pixel wide element with the applied background color on the web page.

However, there is a flaw with this approach. This works well since you developed it as per your screen and tested it.

What if I now display the same web page on a mobile device?

Our box did not render entirely on the mobile device as it did on the desktop where we tested it.

Also, when we render the web page on a tablet, such as the iPad Pro, as shown below, the div box is half the size of the screen.

It would be less than ⅓ of the screen on a desktop (depending on the resolution). This problem is easy to identify as only one element is located here. However, developing a complete web page on your desktop and checking many elements will surprise you.

The CSS tricks to avoiding such surprises are using percentage values instead of absolute numbers. For the same code, let’s change the width from 500px to 30% as follows:

width:30%;

The desktop representation of the div remains the same. But notice how it changes on the same mobile device selected as shown above.

Except for the ugly part of text-overflow in the above screenshot, notice that the div box still covers 30% of the device width. This is extremely helpful in resolving browser compatibility issues and developing a consistent website.

For example, you might have a standard font size for the H2 element throughout the page or even the website. To avoid repetitive code, we utilize CSS and apply the style in a single place. However, developers are hardly pleased with a single element. They come up with

::before and ::after content

Many of the elements on your website will be redundant. For example, you might have a standard font size for the H2 element throughout the page or even the website. To avoid repetitive code, we utilize CSS and apply the style in a single place. However, developers are hardly pleased with a single element. They come up with creative methods to make each element stand out. This results in unique designs, as shown below.

Another example of such a design is shown below.

Hard coding these styling elements (read and stylish quotes) repeatedly on each element is not a good practice. Even if someone wants to change the color of the quotes, it is tough to make the changes on hundreds of quotes you already designed.

Putting something before or after any element in HTML is taken care of by :: before and ::after pseudo-elements of CSS.

Let’s say I want to put the location in front of all the news headlines and a “read more” text after the content. I can proceed in the following direction:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Absolute Numbers</title>
  </head>
  <style>
    #texas::before {
      content: "texas";
      font-size: 12px;
      color: orange;
    }

    #washington::before {
      content: "washington";
      font-size: 12px;
      color: orange;
    }

    .news::after {
      content : "Read More...";
      color: red;
    }
  </style>
  <body>

    <h2 id="texas">XYZ to hold a new event in texas </h2>
    <p class="news"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p>

    <h2 id="washington">XYZ to hold a new event in texas </h2>
    <p class="news"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p>


  </body>
</html>

The output, when rendered on the LambdaTest platform on a VM, looks as follows:

Notice how the location appears “before” the main heading and a “Read More…” sign “after” it. As I have done above, you can also style these components with the font size and color properties.

position: absolute CSS

CSS position property comes of great use while positioning the elements on the web page. It comes with static, CSS position sticky, absolute, relative, and fixed options. These values serve different purposes in defining the location of an element. Among them, position value absolute is something whose expertise will help you a lot in your web development career. It gives you more control over the elements and takes them out of the document’s normal flow.

An element with the position set as absolute can be positioned at a fixed location for all the situations you encounter in cross browser testing. However, the element will take the position relative to the first ancestor with the property set as absolute or relative. If no such element exists, the position takes reference from the root element, i.e., HTML.

The following code places two div boxes with one as position: absolute.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Position Absolute</title>
  </head>
  <style>

  div.relative {
      position: relative;
      width: 300px;
      height: 250px;
      border: 2px solid #000000;
      }

  div.absolute {
      position: absolute;
      top: 70px;
      right: 10px;
      width: 150px;
      height: 80px;
      border: 2px solid #000000;
}
  </style>
  <body>

    <div class = "relative">My position is relative.

    <div class = "absolute">My position is absolute.</div>

  </div>

  </body>
</html>

The output is rendered as follows.

Output on mobile.

One important thing to remember is that the element with the position as absolute does not affect the other elements. It also does not affect any other element, which can create design issues later if you are not careful.

Force CSS through !important

Sometimes you may encounter a need to implement one or two properties differently to a couple of sections on the web page. However, since these new sections contain most of the properties consistent with other sections (that have all the properties), copying the CSS with just a couple of changes can increase repetitiveness. Hence, we forcefully apply CSS with the keyword !important.

The following code writes five headings in H2, with the fourth one being different in color due to forceful CSS.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Position Absolute</title>
  </head>
  <style>

        h2 {
          color: #0d23e0;
        }

        .special {
          color: #d90d2f !important;
        }

  </style>
  <body>

    <h2> I am Heading #1 </h2>
    <h2> I am Heading #2 </h2>
    <h2> I am Heading #3 </h2>
    <h2 class = "special"> I am Heading #4 </h2>
    <h2> I am Heading #5 </h2>

  </body>
</html>

The fourth line is also rendered blue on the page if you remove the special code containing the !important keyword.

It is recommended not to use this property much in the CSS code you write. As a beginner, it might tempt you to quickly force a few properties when things are not going as you are expecting them. This approach can create issues later, and the code will become hard to debug.

Apply the “important” keyword only when indispensable, and you know the complete flow.

Make use of variables

Variables, best defined as CSS variables, reduce the same value across the website on different occasions. You can use it in cases opposite to using the !important keyword.

For example, we use !important when only a couple of properties need to be changed. At the same time, we use variables when only a couple properties are the same (font-size or color) and others differ according to their section. This is not a hard and fast rule but a good way to remember. So consider yourself applying 20px everywhere across the website for different sections as a font-size.

A change in this value can increase the maintenance and debugging cost and waste a lot of time. So instead, we can just declare a variable with a value of 20px and use that variable everywhere. Then, next time any changes occur, we can change the variable value, and all our changes will be reciprocated throughout the page.

The following HTML code implements the same use case as discussed above,

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Position Absolute</title>
  </head>
  <style>
:root {
      --my_font: 20px;
}
      .class1 {
        font-size: var(--my_font);
      }

      .class2 {
        font-size: var(--my_font);
      }

  </style>
  <body>

    <h2> I am Heading #1 </h2>
    <h2 class = "class1"> I am Heading #2 </h2>
    <h2 class = "class2"> I am Heading #3 </h2>
  </body>
</html>

CSS variables are an extremely efficient method to make your code more maintainable.

Curving text along image boundary

Different design approaches focus on space management on the web page. I often see one such requirement is placing an image with text around it. This gives a similar effect as shown in newspaper content. It is also used to give an attractive feel to the web page while not focusing much on the image. In a sense, the image is often not too relevant. As a beginner or experienced web developer, this becomes quite challenging if you start to code with text wrap and positioning elements (if that’s possible!).

One of the CSS tricks is to use the shape-outside property of CSS. It defines a shape and adjusts content adjacent to that image. If you target a rectangular image, you may easily do that with other properties. For circles and ellipses especially, shape-outside is a savior.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Position Absolute</title>
  </head>
  <style>
      .curved_text {
        float:left;
        shape-outside: circle(50%);
        width: 200px;
        height: 200px;
      }
  </style>
  <body>

    <div class = "curved_text"></div>
<p>
<!-- Place content here →
</p>
</body>
</html>

Output

You can place any circular image like a balloon and curve the content around it. This CSS trick will surely help you build a solid design in a couple of lines of CSS codes in your next project.

Explore the power of conical gradients

CSS Gradients are a powerful way to visualize more than one color on the screen. It creates a smooth transition between colors that gives a unique design to the element and eventually to your website. With linear gradients and radial gradients in place for some time, you will find only these two at most places on the internet. CSS Image values and replaced content module level 4 describes another functional gradient – the conical gradient.

The conical gradient in CSS rotates the color transitions from the circle’s center. Conical gradient color ends at the circle’s boundary rather than radiating from the center with different radii.

Pie charts are an excellent example of conical gradients.

The following simple code divides a circle into four segments resembling a pie chart:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Conical Gradient</title>
  </head>
  <style>
  .conic-grad {
  background: conic-gradient(red 25%, blue 0 50%, yellow 0 75%, black 0);
  width: 200px;
 height: 200px;
 border-radius: 50%;
}
  </style>
  <body>

    <div class = "conic-grad"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Output

However, this is just a simple demonstration of conical gradients. They can also create a beautiful transition with just a single line of code as follows:

background: conic-gradient(cyan, magenta, yellow, black);

Output

Learn Selectors

After working on multiple web apps and related technologies, one of my recommendations as a web developer is to learn selectors. Selectors are a great way to apply CSS stylings only when certain conditions (or relationships) are met. Although you can use it to select any element on the web page (like every p tag), the relationship selection makes it a beneficial and trendy feature.

Selectors such as “+,” “>,” and “~” are the main focus of this section. However, if you are looking for all the information on CSS Selectors, you can read this complete guide.

The “+” selector is called the adjacent sibling selector. If a + b is written as a rule, then only the first b that appears after the closing of a tag is considered.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Adjacent selector</title>
  </head>
  <style>
    div + h3 {
            color: red;
          }
</style>

  <body>

    <div>
            <h3>I am not adjacent</h3>
            <h3>Me neither</h3>
   </div>
   <h3>I am adjacent</h3>

  </body>
</html>

While “+” selects only the adjacent selector, “~” selects all the siblings. The selector “>” is called the child selector and selects all the children. So a > b will select all the b that are the children of a. Using selectors gives you control over the elements with logic according to the relationship between them. Once you get the hang of them, you will notice how much time they save.

Bring better usability with :visited and :link

As a web developer, you need to keep usability in mind. It should be one of the topmost priorities as the user experience is the one thing that will keep your business and website going. One troubling usability issue is when there is no trace of what links clicked on the web page. This can confuse the user and may click the same link twice (maybe after some days). Google itself applies purple color to all the links that the user has opened to save his time and enhance the experience. A similar thing is required for web design and is achieved using :visited and :link pseudo-classes.

The :link pseudo-class styling is applied to the unvisited href (links), and the :visited pseudo-class is applied to the visited href (links).

The following code demonstrates the same.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Pseudo Class</title>
  </head>
<style>
  a:visited{
    color: red;
  }

  a:link{
    color:blue;
  }

</style>
  <body>
        <h2><a href= "https://www.lambdatest.com">Redirect to LambdaTest</a></h2>
  </body>
</html>

Styling the first letter

Since CSS becomes so efficient and fabulous with every new update, let’s share one more simple CSS tricks for web developers.

While writing a new headline or starting a new paragraph or any content, if that matters, web developers design the first letter of the sentence uniquely. It is a bit of trouble accomplishing this with multiple span elements and making styles for the leftmost element differently. But you could do all this with just one pseudo-element.

The ::first-letter pseudo-element introduced by CSS takes only the first letter of the target (or selected) element and applies the CSS. Since it is a different pseudo-element, we do not need to make multiple elements or separate CSS code separately.

The following code applies larger font size, more font-weight, and red color to the first element of each paragraph on the web page.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Pseudo Class</title>
  </head>
 <style>
  p::first-letter {
     color: red;
     font-weight: bold;
     font-size:29px;
  }

  .news_box {
    width: 40%;
    height: 30%;
    text-align: justify;
  }

</style>


  <body>
    <center>
    <div class="news_box">
        <h2> Can cross-browser testing solve your browser testing problems?</h2>
        <p> Your content
        </p>
    </div>
  </center>
  </body>
</html>

Output

Testing browser compatibility of your CSS

In software development, cross browser compatibility is vital, as every website should work perfectly with multiple OS platforms and browsers. However, while implementing CSS properties features, you may encounter a scenario where most browsers do not support HTML/CSS features like audio and video, CSS Grid, CSS Flexbox, etc. The same applies to the Internet Explorer browser as it does not support CSS Selectors, CSS Namespaces, etc. Other common issues can be cross-device compatibility, glitches in web page alignment, JavaScript implementation variations, and so on.

After implementing the above CSS properties) in websites, you must perform cross browser testing to ensure it works flawlessly across various browsers, devices, and operating systems. You can opt for a cloud-based testing platform like LambdaTest.

It is an AI-native test execution platform that offers an online browser farm of 5000+ real browsers and operating systems combinations to test your websites (and web apps) for HTML/CSS issues and identify what features don’t work on which browsers fix them instantly.

You can also render projects on LambdaTest real device cloud to test on mobile devices and verify how they perform in real-user conditions.

In addition to browser testing of CSS, you can leverage LT Browser offered by LambdaTest platform for running mobile responsive test of CSS on different pre-built viewports like Mobile, Tablet, Desktop, and Laptop.

What are your personal CSS tricks?

From styling an element to animations and transitions, CSS gives a complete package for the developer. However, like every other programming language out there, you can accomplish all the tasks through CSS by learning only simple stuff.

For example, you can copy-paste font size to multiple elements and make it work. In this post, we discussed 11 CSS tricks that can make your work more accessible than ever. It will not do something unique like a new property but will shrink tens and twenty lines into one straightforward CSS code.

If you’re preparing for interviews, check out top HTML interview questions a handy resource to test your knowledge.

I am sure you must have come across a few hacks and tricks yourself. So let’s hear them out in the comment section with the CSS tricks you liked the most from this post.

Imagine breaking down a single functional unit into multiple mini-service units. That is exactly what microservices do to the traditional monolithic architecture. But there is more to it than meets the eye. Microservices are the go-to solution for all the major software development projects.

But even though it serves a major purpose, certain challenges must be addressed. As one designs a microservice architecture along the way, one learns several microservice design patterns, which can improve performance and ease the developer’s life. There is an increasing demand for knowledge about microservices design patterns as the adoption of microservices architecture increases among organizations. Let us learn about the various microservices design patterns in detail.

Check out the Monolithic vs Microservices debate to uncover the pros, cons, and key distinctions between the two architectures and navigate your choices wisely!

What are Microservices Design Patterns?

A microservices design pattern is a collection of practices and tried and true solutions to common issues in microservices architecture’s design, deployment, and maintenance. It provides a structured approach to solving recurring issues, such as service communication, fault tolerance, scalability, etc. It helps to ensure that microservices work seamlessly in a cohesive and resilient manner. By leveraging these patterns, developers can streamline microservices’ design, implementation, and management and foster a robust and efficient distributed system.

Microservices design principles provide a comprehensive guideline for designing scalable and maintainable microservices architectures. Some important microservice principles are API Integration, Traffic Management, Data Storage Segregation, Unique Source Of Identification, etc.

Top Microservices Design Patterns

Various patterns like the event-driven pattern, saga pattern, bulkhead pattern, event sourcing design pattern, etc., help us solve collaboration, performance, deployment issues, etc.

Let us delve into the essential patterns that empower developers to build an agile, resilient, scalable, and robust microservices architecture.

Microservices Design Patterns for Effective Collaboration

Collaboration is necessary for running an efficient microservice architecture with so many microservices running simultaneously. Let’s look at the collaboration patterns for designing a microservice and understand them in detail.

Aggregator Microservice Design Pattern

Since multiple services are involved, the output must be fetched and combined for the end user. To integrate the data, a user will need a lot of internal knowledge about the system. Since we design microservices architecture, decomposing the monolith means dividing the output sources. That’s why we use the aggregator pattern to aggregate this data.

The aggregator microservice design pattern consolidates data from multiple microservices into a unified result for an end-user. By acting as a single point of contact, this pattern helps fetch and combine the necessary information from various microservices instead of the client making multiple requests. This pattern promotes efficiency, reduces network latency, and simplifies the client’s interaction with the microservices ecosystem.

The user initiates a request by sending it to the aggregator microservice. Upon receiving the request, the aggregator identifies the relevant data sources needed to fulfill the user’s request and sends individual requests to each identified data source. These data sources then respond to the aggregator microservice with their respective data. Once all responses are collected, the aggregator microservice aggregates the data from all sources into a cohesive form. Finally, the aggregator microservice sends the aggregated data back to the user as a response to the original request.

The solution can be forwarded to the end user through two major components: composite microservice and API gateways. Composite microservices involve grouping multiple smaller microservices to provide cohesive, higher-level functionality. API gateways serve as a unified entry point for external clients to access and interact with microservices. Either of the components will aggregate the data and forward it to the user. However, composite microservices should be preferred if business capabilities are used in decomposing the system.

Branch Microservice Design Pattern

The branch microservices design pattern extends the aggregator design patterns. It enables concurrently processing requests and responses from two or more distinct and mutually exclusive chains of microservices.

In the above example, service A communicates with multiple services simultaneously.

This design pattern also offers the flexibility to summon separate multiple chains or even a single chain as per the business needs. In the case of an e-commerce website or web application, we need to retrieve data from multiple sources belonging to different microservices. This is where the branch microservice design pattern plays an effective role.

API Gateway Microservice Design Pattern

Fetching data from running services is crucial for any application, especially in a microservices architecture. Extracting data from individual services is vital, but presenting user-owned resources from multiple microservices through a single UI can pose challenges. An API gateway acts as a single entry point, managing tasks like routing, composition, and protocol translation within the architecture.

The above scenario shows that the API gateway collects client requests in a single entry point and routes requests to internal microservices. As a single source of contact, it can act as a proxy server to route requests to microservices, aggregate results from multiple services, and send the output to the user. It can handle multiple protocol requests and convert whenever required. (eg. HTTPS to AMQP and vice versa). It also helps establish security by client authorization and exposes relevant APIs concerning the client.

Backend for Front-End(BFF) Microservice Design Pattern

Backend for Front-End (BFF) is a subset of the API Gateway microservices design pattern. It involves creating a dedicated backend service tailored to the specific needs of a front-end application or client. This pattern ensures a more efficient and streamlined interaction between a system’s frontend and backend components.

Consider an e-commerce platform that serves both web and mobile applications. Implementing the Backend for Front-End (BFF) pattern in this scenario involves creating dedicated backend services for each front-end application. The web application’s BFF will optimize APIs for large-screen displays, while the mobile app’s BFF could tailor APIs for a smaller screen and different user interactions. And there will be another BFF for 3rd party services called public BFF. All these BFFs interact with the downstream services.

This pattern enhances collaboration by allowing frontend and backend development teams to work independently and more efficiently. Frontend developers can focus on building a user interface using APIs tailored precisely to their application’s requirements, while backend developers can concentrate on providing optimized and specialized services.

The Event-Driven Microservice Design Pattern

The Event-Driven pattern is a powerful microservices design pattern that facilitates asynchronous communication and collaboration among distributed components. In this pattern, microservices communicate through events, allowing them to operate independently while responding to specific occurrences or changes in the system.

The Event-Driven pattern employs a publisher-subscriber (PUB/SUB) model, where microservices act as either event producers or consumers. This decoupling ensures that services remain loosely interconnected, enhancing scalability, maintainability, and flexibility. By relying on events, microservices don’t need to be aware of each other, reducing direct dependencies and promoting autonomy. This results in a more collaborative architecture where services can evolve independently, responding to events as needed, and contributing to an agile and resilient microservices ecosystem.

The event-driven microservices design pattern uses three main components: the producer, consumer, and broker. The producer initiates events and publishes them to a central hub known as the broker. Consumers subscribe to specific events they are interested in and react accordingly when they receive them. Meanwhile, the broker manages the routing, filtering, and delivery of events to ensure efficient communication between producers and consumers.

For instance, in an e-commerce platform, the order service is a producer that sends an event trigger to the message broker, and the payment service, stock service, and email service are consumers who will consume the events from the message broker. When a new order is placed, an event can be triggered, leading to various microservices updating inventory, processing payments, and sending order confirmations.

Asynchronous Messaging Microservice Design Pattern

The asynchronous messaging microservices design pattern plays a crucial role by allowing microservices to communicate without requiring sequential interaction. By decoupling services through asynchronous communication, we can foster effective collaboration in a microservices architecture, as services can now independently process and respond to messages at their own pace, promoting flexibility and autonomy.

Asynchronous messaging pattern allows microservices to communicate indirectly through a message queue. When a microservice wants to send a message, it publishes it to a message queue without waiting for an immediate response from the receiver. The message queue stores the message until the receiver is ready to process it.

For example, in an e-commerce system, when a new order is placed, the order processing service sends a message to the inventory service with the help of a message queue, allowing it to independently and asynchronously handle its tasks, promoting autonomy and efficient collaboration between the microservices. While this scenario may resemble the event-driven pattern, it differs in that, with asynchronous messaging, messages are directed specifically to intended recipients via the message queue, whereas in event-driven architecture, all subscribed consumers receive event notifications broadcasted by the message broker.

Chained or Chain of Responsibility Microservice Design Pattern

In the chained or chain of responsibility microservices design pattern a sequence or chain of microservices, each responsible for a specific task in sequence. For example, a chain could include microservices responsible for order validation, payment authorization, and fulfillment in an order processing system. As a new order traverses the chain, each microservice collaborates seamlessly to perform its designated task.

This microservices design pattern promotes modularity and allows various teams to independently develop and maintain specific processing units, enhancing collaboration in building and evolving the system.

Bulkhead Microservice Design Pattern

The bulkhead microservices design pattern is named after the compartments (bulkheads) in ships that prevent the entire vessel from sinking in case of a breach. In the context of microservices, the bulkhead pattern involves segregating components or services into isolated compartments that help to prevent failures in one compartment from affecting others.

The pattern helps to promote effective collaboration by isolating failures within specific compartments. If one microservice experiences issues or becomes overwhelmed, the failure is contained within its bulkhead, preventing a domino effect that could impact the entire system. This isolation enhances the overall stability of the microservices architecture and supports collaborative efforts by minimizing the scope of potential disruptions.

Sidecar Microservice Design Pattern

The Sidecar Microservice Design Pattern is an architectural pattern that enhances the functionality and capabilities of a primary service by deploying an auxiliary service, known as a “sidecar,” alongside it. It allows the main service to focus on its primary functionality while offloading certain auxiliary tasks to the sidecar.

Consider a microservices architecture with a main application service responsible for handling HTTP requests. To enhance security, we deploy a dedicated sidecar service alongside it, acting as an authentication proxy. The sidecar can then handle tasks like user authentication, token validation, and enforcing security policies.

Applying this pattern helps us to foster collaboration in microservices by promoting a clean and modular separation of concerns. With dedicated sidecar services managing common concerns like logging, monitoring, or security, each microservice can concentrate on its core logic. This modular architecture encourages independent development, scalability, and the reusability of specialized functionalities, enabling efficient collaboration among development teams working on different aspects of the microservices ecosystem.

To unlock the full potential of your microservices architecture with effective testing strategies, dive into our Microservices Testing Tutorial and Microservices Testing Quick Start Guide!

Microservices Design Patterns for Performance Monitoring

Monitoring performance is an essential aspect of a successful microservice architecture. It helps calculate the efficiency and understand any drawbacks slowing the system down. Remember the following patterns related to observability for ensuring a robust microservice architecture design.

Log Aggregation Microservice Design Pattern

When referring to a microservice architecture, we refer to a refined yet granular architecture where an application consists of several microservices. These microservices run independently and simultaneously, supporting multiple services and their instances across various machines. Every service generates an entry in the logs regarding its execution. How can we keep track of numerous service-related logs? This is where the log aggregation microservices design pattern steps in. In this pattern, we collect and consolidate log data generated by various microservices, allowing for centralized monitoring, analysis, and troubleshooting of the entire microservices architecture.

As a best practice to prevent chaos, we should have a master logging service. This master logging service should aggregate the logs from all the microservice instances. This centralized log should be searchable, making it easier to monitor.

Synthetic Monitoring, a.k.a Semantic Monitoring Microservice Design Pattern

Monitoring is a painful but indispensable task for a successful microservice architecture. With the simultaneous execution of hundreds of services, it becomes troublesome to pinpoint the root area responsible for the failure in the log registry. Synthetic monitoring gives a helping hand here.

In this microservices design pattern, we simulate user interactions with a system to assess its performance and functionality. In this approach, synthetic scenarios are created to mimic real user behavior. When we perform automated tests, synthetic monitoring helps to regularly map the results compared to the production environment, and the user gets alerted if a failure is generated.

We can easily monitor automated test cases and detect production failures regarding business requirements using semantic monitoring. This allows organizations to identify issues before they impact actual users proactively.

API Health Check Microservice Design Pattern

Microservice architecture design promotes services that are independent of each other to avoid any delay in the system. APIs, as we know, serve as the building blocks of online connectivity. It is imperative to keep a health check on your APIs regularly to realize any roadblocks. It is often observed that a microservice is up and running yet incapacitated for handling requests. This can be due to many factors like server load, user adoption, latency, error logging, market share, and downloads.

To overcome this, we can use the API health check microservices design pattern to assess and monitor the health and performance of individual APIs within a system. This helps to identify potential issues, ensure the responsiveness of microservices, and maintain overall system performance.

We should ensure that every service running must have a specific health check API endpoint. For example, when appended at the end of every service, HTTP/health will return the health status for the respective service instance. A service registry periodically appeals to the health check API endpoint to perform a health scan. The health check would provide us with the following details:

• A logic that is specific to the application.
• Status of the host.
• Status of the connections to other infrastructure or connection to any service instance.

Circuit Breaker Microservice Design Pattern

The circuit breaker pattern is similar to an electrical circuit breaker in our home. When there’s a fault, the breaker trips, isolating the faulty circuit and preventing further damage. Similarly, in a microservices architecture, the pattern detects service failures and temporarily breaks the circuit, preventing the spread of issues and ensuring overall system resilience.

In this microservices design pattern, the circuit breaker trips when a predefined threshold of failures is reached, preventing further requests from being sent to the failing microservice. This helps monitor and manage the overall system performance and resilience by preventing the cascading failure of microservices.

A circuit breaker has three states for reliability: “Closed” when the monitored service functions well, “Open” when issues arise, blocking requests to prevent overload, and “Half Open” when the service shows signs of recovery, allowing limited requests to test its functionality before fully reopening.

The circuit breaker microservices design pattern can be used in various places like an e-commerce system; if a product recommendation microservice starts experiencing high latency or errors due to increased traffic, the circuit breaker can transition to an open state. During this state, requests for recommendations are directed to a fallback mechanism, such as showing popular or recently viewed products. This prevents the degradation of the entire user experience and allows the system to recover without overwhelming the struggling microservice.

Microservices Design Patterns for Business Purposes

‘Decomposing’ a monolithic architecture into a microservice must follow certain parameters. These parameters have a different basis. Today, we will look at the decomposition of the microservice design patterns, which leave a lasting impact.

Unique Microservice for each Business Capability

A microservice is as successful as its high cohesion and loose coupling combination. Services need to be loosely coupled while keeping the function of similar interests together. But how do we do it? How do we decompose a software system into smaller independent logical units?

We do so by defining the scope of a microservice to support a specific business capability.

For example, in every organization, different departments come together as one. These include technical, marketing, PR, sales, service, and maintenance. To picture a microservice structure, these domains would each be the microservices, and the organization would be the system. So, inventory management is responsible for all the inventories. Similarly, shipping management will handle all the shipments and so on.

To maintain efficiency and foresee growth, the best solution is to decompose the systems using business capability. This includes classification into various business domains responsible for generating value in their capabilities.

Microservices around similar Business Capability

Despite segregating based on business capabilities, microservices often come up with a greater challenge. What about the common classes among the services? Composing these classes, known as ‘God Classes, ’ needs intervention. For example, in the case of an e-commerce system, the order will be common to several services such as order number, order management, order return, order delivery, etc. We turn to a common microservice design principle known as Domain-Driven Design (DDD) to solve this issue.

In Domain-Driven Design, we use subdomains. These subdomain models have a defined scope of functionality known as bounded context. This bounded context is the parameter used to create each microservice, thus overcoming the issues of common classes.

Strangler Vine Microservice Design Pattern

While we discuss the decomposition of a monolithic architecture, we often miss out on the struggle of converting a monolithic system to design microservice architecture. With the work being hampered, converting can be manageable. Based on the vine analogy, we have the strangler pattern to solve this problem. Here is what the Strangler patterns mean in Martin Fowler’s words:

“One of the natural wonders of this area [Australia] is the huge strangler vines. They seed in the upper branches of a fig tree and gradually work their way down the tree until they root in the soil. Over many years, they grow into fantastic and beautiful shapes, meanwhile strangling and killing the tree that was their host.”

Like a strangler vine slowly envelops and replaces a host tree, this pattern allows organizations to evolve their systems incrementally rather than opting for a risky and disruptive Big Bang migration. New microservices are introduced alongside the existing monolith to handle specific functionalities. Over time, new features are developed, or existing ones are refactored and implemented as microservices.

The strangler microservices design pattern is extremely helpful in the case of a web application where breaking down a service into different domains is possible. Different services live on different domains since the calls go back and forth. So, these two domains exist on the same URI. Once the service has been reformed, it ‘strangles’ the existing version of the application. This process is followed until the monolith doesn’t exist.

Saga Microservice Design Pattern

The saga pattern is a microservices design pattern used to manage distributed transactions within a microservices architecture. It addresses the challenges of maintaining data consistency across multiple services involved in a complex operation by breaking down a transaction into smaller, more manageable steps. Each step in the saga corresponds to an operation within a microservice, and these steps are coordinated to ensure eventual consistency.

Consider an online hotel booking where a customer initiates a reservation. Here, the saga pattern breaks down the transaction into steps handled by different microservices: creating the reservation, charging the customer, and sending a confirmation email. When the payment step fails due to a temporary issue, the saga pattern enables compensating transactions to be executed. This could involve returning the room to the inventory and implementing a retry mechanism for the payment.

By managing distributed transactions and ensuring consistency, the Saga microservices design pattern aligns with business goals by maintaining data accuracy and reliability. It supports critical business processes that span multiple microservices.

Backend for Front-End(BFF) Microservice Design Pattern

The BFF pattern enables the creation of backend services that align closely with specific business requirements and user interfaces. This tailored approach ensures that the APIs provided by BFF services are finely tuned to the unique needs of each front-end application. The pattern promotes a business-centric approach by facilitating the development of microservices that directly serve the needs of specific applications, ultimately enhancing the overall effectiveness and agility of the microservices architecture.

For instance, in an e-commerce platform, the BFF for the web application might prioritize features such as advanced product filtering. At the same time, the BFF for the mobile app could focus on providing a seamless and efficient checkout process. This fine-grained customization allows businesses to optimize user experiences, implement targeted functionalities, and meet distinct business goals by strategically using BFF services.

The Event-Driven Microservice Design Pattern

The Event-Driven pattern enables real-time responsiveness to critical business events. This pattern is particularly valuable when certain business processes must be triggered or updated immediately in response to specific events. For instance, an event-driven approach could be employed in a banking application to instantly update account balances, trigger fraud detection mechanisms, or notify customers of transaction confirmations.

By harnessing the Event-Driven Pattern, businesses can seamlessly incorporate dynamic and event-triggered functionalities into their microservices architecture, ensuring timely and relevant responses to changing business conditions. This pattern enhances the adaptability and agility of microservices in addressing diverse business requirements and fostering a more responsive and customer-centric system.

Chained or Chain of Responsibility Microservice Design Pattern

By applying the chained or chain of responsibility microservices design pattern, businesses can model complex workflows in a modular and maintainable manner. Each microservice in the chain will be responsible for a specific business need, contributing to the overall business process. This enhances adaptability to evolving business requirements, as changes or updates can be made to individual microservices without affecting the entire system.

Circuit Breaker Microservice Design Pattern

From a business perspective, the circuit breaker pattern safeguards continuous operations and protects revenue streams. Preventing the cascading impact of microservice failures contributes to business continuity, critical for maintaining customer satisfaction and trust. The pattern not only shields against potential revenue loss caused by service disruptions but also safeguards brand reputation by providing a reliable and resilient user experience.

In essence, the Circuit Breaker Pattern aligns closely with business goals by fostering reliability, minimizing downtime, and fortifying the overall health of microservices to support sustained business success directly.

Sidecar Microservice Design Pattern

The sidecar microservices design pattern greatly aids in implementing business logic within microservices by enabling a focused and modular approach to development. The main microservice can exclusively concentrate on its core business logic by delegating common concerns to dedicated sidecar services. This separation ensures a clean and maintainable codebase, allowing independent updates and scalability of the business logic without unnecessary entanglement with auxiliary functionalities.

The pattern also enhances agility in adapting to evolving business requirements, facilitating a more efficient and streamlined development process.

Microservices Design Patterns for Optimizing Database Storage

For a microservice architecture, loose coupling is a basic principle. This enables the deployment and scalability of independent services. Multiple services might need to access data not stored in their unit. However, accessing this data can be challenging due to loose coupling. Mainly because different services have different storage requirements, and access to data is limited in microservice design. So, we look at some major database design patterns per different requirements.

Individual Database per Service

Usually applied in domain-driven designs, one database per service articulates the entire database to a specific microservice. Due to the challenges and lack of accessibility, a single database per service needs to be designed. This data is accessible only by the microservice and the database has limited access to outside microservices. The only way for others to access this data is through microservice API gateways.

Shared Database per Service

In domain-driven design, a separate database per service is feasible, but using a single database can be tough when you decompose a monolithic architecture into a microservice. So, while the decomposition process continues, implementing a shared database for a limited number of services is advisable. This number should be limited to two or three services. This number should stay low to allow deployment, autonomy, and scalability.

Event Sourcing Microservice Design Pattern

According to Martin Fowler:
“Event Sourcing ensures that all changes to application state are stored as a sequence of events. Not only can we query these events and use the event log to reconstruct past states but also use it as a foundation to adjust the state automatically to cope with retroactive changes.

The problem here lies with reliability. How can you rely on the architecture to make a change or publish a real-time event concerning the changes in the application’s state?
Event sourcing helps to come up from this situation by appending a new event to the list of events every time a business entity changes its state. Entities like Customer may consist of numerous events. It is thus advised that an application saves a screenshot of the current state of an entity to optimize the load.

CQRS Microservice Design Pattern

The query cannot be implemented in a database-per-service model because of the limited access to only one database. For a query, the requirements are based on joint database systems. But how do we query then?

Based on the CQRS(Command Query Responsibility Segregation), to query single databases per service model, the application should be divided into two parts: Command(write) and Query(read). In this model, the command handles all requests for creating, updating, and deleting, while queries are handled through a materialized view. These views are updated through a stream of events. These events, in turn, are created using an event-sourcing pattern that marks any data changes. These changes eventually become events.

CQRS is particularly beneficial in scenarios where the read and write patterns differ significantly, allowing for more flexibility and optimization in handling each type of operation. While it introduces complexity, it provides advantages in scalability, performance, and adaptability to varying system requirements.

Microservices Design Patterns for Seamless Deployment

When we implement microservices, certain issues arise during the call of these services. When we design microservice architecture, certain cross-cutting patterns can simplify the working.

Service Discovery

The use of containers leads to dynamic allocation of the IP address. This means the address can change at any moment. This causes a service break. In addition, the users have to bear the load of remembering every URL for the services, which become tightly coupled.

A registry needs to be used to solve this problem and give users the location of the request. While initiation, a service instance can register in the registry and de-register while closing. This enables the user to find the exact location that can be queried. In addition, a health check by the registry will ensure the availability of only working instances. This also improves the system’s performance.

Blue-Green Deployment Microservice Design Pattern

Whenever updates are to be implemented or newer versions are deployed, one has to shut down all the services in a microservice. This leads to a huge downtime, thus affecting productivity. To avoid this issue, use the Blue-Green Deployment pattern when designing microservice architecture.

In this microservice design pattern, two identical environments, Blue and Green, run parallelly. The existing version of the application, i.e., the current production environment, is often referred to as “Blue,” and it actively serves user traffic. The duplicate environment is set up with the new application version or updates and is often called “Green”. This environment mirrors the production setup but receives no user traffic initially. At a time, only one is live and processing all the production traffic. In case of a new deployment, one uploads the latest version onto the green environment, switches the router to the same, and thus implements the update.

This deployment strategy is particularly valuable in microservices architectures, where various services may need to be updated independently, and maintaining service availability is critical.

Externalized Configuration Microservice Design Pattern

Externalized Configuration is a microservices design pattern where configuration settings for an application are stored outside the codebase, typically in configuration files, environment variables, or centralized configuration servers. Instead of hardcoding configuration parameters, this pattern allows for dynamic and centralized control of application settings, making it easier to manage and modify configurations without requiring code changes.

This pattern helps in flexibility and enhances the maintainability and scalability of the system, as configuration changes can be applied independently of the codebase, facilitating a more agile and adaptable architecture.

API Gateway Microservice Design Pattern

API gateway provides a unified entry point for clients while abstracting the underlying complexities of the microservices architecture. During deployment activities, when updates or changes are made to individual microservices, the API Gateway shields clients from potential disruptions. Clients can continue interacting with the API Gateway without being aware of the modifications occurring in the backend. This abstraction allows for rolling updates and new versions of microservices can be gradually introduced without affecting the overall system availability.

The API gateway also ensures a smooth transition by dynamically routing requests to the appropriate microservices, thus minimizing downtime and ensuring a seamless user experience during deployment.

Check out our blog on Testing Challenges With Microservices Architecture to uncover insights, solutions, and best practices.

Conclusion

Though only some design patterns might apply to a given microservice, you can rest assured that most of them will be used everywhere. These design patterns help developers bring in a consistent standard that brings reliability to the application. As organizations navigate the complexities of microservices architecture, a solid understanding of these design patterns becomes imperative for building robust and adaptable systems that align with business goals.

The evaluation, auditing, implementation, and testing of microservices of these design patterns are an ongoing process of microservice architecture. These patterns will help throughout, from the designing phase of the application to the maintenance phase in production.

Dropdowns can be challenging to handle due to dynamic options, inconsistent values, or differences between displayed text. In Cypress, you can overcome this challenge using the .select() command.

It allows you to handle (or select) dropdowns by visible text, value, or index. The Cypress .select() command is a built-in function that interacts with and performs tests on the selected elements in a web application.

In this blog, you will learn everything you need to know about using the Cypress .select() command.

What Is Cypress .select() Command?

The Cypress .select() command is a built-in function that is used to select a <option> tag within the <select> WebElement. It retrieves the selected <option> tags and performs tests on them.

.select(value)
.select(values)
.select(value, options)
.select(values, options)

The Cypress .select() command takes in two arguments, the first being value, which can be any of the following; value, index, or text content of the <option> tag.

The second argument is optional but can be specified as a configuration object. For example, (force: true) can be used to undo the default behavior of the .select() command.

HTML:

<select>
 <option value="one">apples</option>
 <option value="two">oranges</option>
 <option value="three">bananas</option>
</select>

JavaScript:

cy.get('select').select(0).should('have.value', 'one')

Here, we get the <select> WebElement and pass in an integer with a value of zero; then, we assert that the selected WebElement should have a value of “one” as a means of validation before test execution.

The Cypress .select() command is used to handle both types of dropdowns: static and dynamic.

Note

Test dropdowns with Cypress across 50+ browser versions. Try LambdaTest Today!

How to Handle Static Dropdowns?

Static dropdowns are a type of select control in which the selection content is loaded in the browser as soon as the page loads. They are usually hard-coded into the HTML of the web page.
There are different ways to select static dropdown options using the Cypress .select() command, including selecting by index, value, or text.

Select by Index

Select by index is one of the methods that can be used to select <option> tag within the <select> element. The index refers to an integer that represents the number of <option> tags within the parent <select> element. The first element is identified as 0, and then the second as 1, and so on.

To see this in action, let’s use the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground.

1. Open the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground on your web browser.
2. Press the Tab with F12 on your keyboard to launch the DevTools.

#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434

Copy the above CSS selector and press CTRL + F. Then, paste the CSS selector in the find box indicated by the red box.

This should target and select the right WebElement as highlighted in the yellow color below:

After identifying the selected element, run the Cypress test script below to execute the test case:

describe('Select the index', () => {
    it('select the option tag with an of 1', () => {
      cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=9')
      cy.get('#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434').select(1)

    // Wait for the page to update or stabilize
    cy.url().should('include', 'sort=order_quantity')

    // Assert the selected option's text is 'Best sellers'
    cy.get('#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434 option:selected')
      .should('have.text', 'Best sellers')
    })
  })

Your test run should be indicated as shown below:

In the image above, the Best Sellers option is selected in the select control.

Select by Value

Selecting a dropdown by value is very similar to selecting an element by index. Instead of passing integers as value to the .select() command, the value property of the <option> tag is used instead.

describe('Select web element by value', () => {
    it('Select the option element by the value attribute', () => {
      cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=9')
      cy.get('#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434')
      .select('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=9&sort=p.viewed&order=DESC')
    })
  })

The code above used the .select() command to interact with the <select> WebElement and retrieve the <option> tag with the value Popular text.

Here, the <select> WebElement uses the value to choose the Popular option, which corresponds to the text displayed in the dropdown. The test simulates selecting the most popular items on the Canon product list by interacting with the dropdown element.

Select by Text

To select an element by text, the .select() command received the text content as an argument.

describe('Select web element by Text', () => {
    it('Select the option tag with a Newest', () => {
      cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=9')
      cy.get('#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434')
      .select('Newest')
    })
  })

Here, the text content of the <option> element Newest is passed to the .select() command. This allows Cypress to retrieve the WebElement associated with Newest and then perform a test on it.

From the image above, the select control selected the <option> element with the text content of the Newest element.

How to Handle Dynamic Dropdowns?

Dynamic dropdowns are selection controls in which the options are rendered dynamically depending on the content or user search input.

Initially, the <option> elements are not present when the page first loads. Instead, the dropdown waits for the user’s input or an event to trigger before it loads the options dynamically into the page.

Cypress sends requests by passing text into the input control. It then waits for the content to load on the page before interacting with it.

To handle dynamic dropdowns in Cypress, you can use .contains() and .each() commands.

.contains() Command

The .contains() command in Cypress retrieves the DOM element containing the text passed in. It can take more than one argument.

Syntax:

.contains(content)
.contains(content, options)
.contains(selector, content)
.contains(selector, content, options)

// getting web elements that contain
cy.contains(content)
cy.contains(content, options)
cy.contains(selector, content)
cy.contains(selector, content, options)

// usage
cy.get('.nav').contains('About') 
cy.contains('Hello')

To demonstrate, we will leverage the Cypress .contains() command to dynamically interact with dropdowns on a web page.

We will use the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground. When a user inputs “iPhone” into the navigation search bar, a list of matching product items is displayed as clickable links within the dropdown.

The Cypress .contains() command is used to assert that the search query is present within the returned product list and, if found, triggers a click action on the corresponding item. This approach is particularly useful for automating the testing of dynamic dropdowns and validating that search functionality behaves as expected.

describe('Dynamic Dropdown Test', () => {
    it('should select a specific option from a dynamically loaded dropdown', () => {
      // Step 1: Visit the page  cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=common/home');  // Replace with your actual page URL
     
      // Step 2: Click on the dropdown to trigger the loading of dynamic options
      cy.get('#entry_217822 > div input[placeholder="Search For Products"]').click();  // Adjust selector for the dropdown
 
      // Step 3: Wait for the dropdown options to be visible (if required)
      cy.get('#entry_217822 > div input[placeholder="Search For Products"]') // Selector for the dropdown options container
        .should('be.visible');
 
      // Step 4: Optionally filter options by typing in the dropdown's input field
      cy.get('#entry_217822 > div input[placeholder="Search For Products"]').type('iPod Touch'); // Adjust if needed for input
     
      // Step 5: Select an option dynamically
      cy.contains('#search > div.search-input-group.flex-fill > div.dropdown > ul li', 'iPod Touch') // Adjust selector for dropdown item
        .click();
     
      // Step 6: Assert that the correct option is selected
      cy.get('#entry_217822 > div input[placeholder="Search For Products"]').should('have.value', 'iPod Touch');
    });
  });

Output:

.each() Command

The .each() command in the dynamic dropdown iterates through the elements that match the specified text and provides an interface to interact with the selected WebElement.

Syntax:

cy.get('ul>li').each(($el, index, $list) => {
 // $el is a wrapped jQuery element
 if ($el.someMethod() === 'something') {
   //Wrap this element so we can
   // use cypress commands on it
   cy.wrap($el).click()
 } else {
   // do something else
 }
})

Here, the below test script loads the specified web address and retrieves the DOM element of the input tag on the navbar.

describe('Dynamic Dropdown Test', () => {
    it('should select a specific option from a dynamically loaded dropdown', () => {
      // Step 1: Visit the page
      cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=common/home');  // Replace with your actual page URL
     
      // Step 2: Click on the dropdown to trigger the loading of dynamic options and type the text "iPod"
      cy.get('#entry_217822 > div input[placeholder="Search For Products"]').click().clear().type('iPod');  
 
      // Step 4: iterate over the the returned nodelist and check if "Nano" text exit and click it if Yes
      cy.get('#search > div.search-input-group.flex-fill > div.dropdown > ul li').each(($el, index, $list)=>{
        cy.log($el.text())
        if($el.text() === "Nano"){
            cy.wrap($el).click()
        }
      })
    });
  });

It clicks on the input tag and types the iPod text. Then it iterates over all the dynamic dropdowns and checks if the element that contains iPod matches the content Nano, and if this is true, a click operation is performed.

Advanced Use Cases of Cypress .select() Commands

When handling dropdowns, some WebElements are hidden or disabled by default, making them difficult to retrieve with the .select() command in Cypress.

Let’s look at how to handle disabled and hidden dropdowns.

Disabled Dropdowns

Disabled dropdowns are select controls set to disable using the disabled property in HTML, or :disabled CSS pseudo-class. Disabled elements prevent users from interacting with the specified WebElement.

When elements are set to disabled, it stops functioning as usual and does not respond to mouse input, keyboard events, or any other user-stimulated interaction. However, when using the Cypress .select() command, disabled elements are, by default, turned off as false. This means it cannot be selected with the Cypress .select() command.

To bypass this, the Cypress .select() command provides a second argument called force object. The force object takes in a boolean value as true to enable Cypress to select the disabled element on the DOM.

<section class="iphones" id="iphones">
<h1>Types of iPhone</h1>
<section id="iphone-versions">
    <label for="select-version">Choose an iPhone:</label>
            <select name="iPhones" id="select-version" disabled>
                <option value="">--Please choose an option--</option>
                <option value="iPhone-8">iPhone 8</option>
                <option value="iPhone-XR">iPhone XR</option>
                <option value="iPhone-11" >iPhone 11</option>
                <option value="iPhone-12">iPhone 12</option>
                <option value="iPhone-13">iPhone 13</option>
                <option value="iPhone-14">iPhone 14</option>
            </select>
</section>
</section>

Here, we have a select WebElement with a specified disabled element to prevent user interactions.

The <select> WebElements with a disabled property specified, can not be accessed by Cypress. This is the default behavior in Cypress to fix this.

The Cypress .select() command is set to receive a second argument as {force: true}. When the {force: true} property is applied to an element, Cypress interacts with the element directly without enabling it or removing the disabled property in order to perform a test on it.

describe('Force Select an Element', () => {
    it('Force select a disabled element', () => {
      cy.visit('https://cdpn.io/pen/debug/MYgXLQy?authentication_hash=LQkExWmOvBxA')


      cy.get('#iphone-versions #select-version')


      .select('iPhone 11', {force: true})


      .invoke('val').should('eq', 'iPhone-11')
    })
  })

From the code above, the .select() command received a second argument as force and set its value to true. This enables the Cypress .select() command to interact with the disabled element while it’s still disabled or hidden.

Output:

Hidden Dropdowns

Hidden WebElements are HTML elements styled with display: none in CSS, making them invisible on the web page.

In Cypress, hidden elements are typically disabled from interaction. However, to interact with a hidden element, you can use the {force: true} option, allowing Cypress to forcefully interact with the specified element.

<section class="mac-book" id="mac-book">
<h1>Mac Book models released</h1>
<section id="mac-book-models">
    <label for="select-version">Choose a Mac Book:</label>
            <select name="mac-book" id="select-version" style="display: none;">
                <option value="">--Please choose an option--</option>
                <option value="iMac-Pro">iMac Pro (27-inch)</option>
                <option value="MacBook-Air">MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch)</option>
                <option value="Mac-Pro" >Mac Pro</option>
                <option value="Mac-mini">MacBook Pro</option>
                <option value="Mac-Studio">Mac Studio</option>
                <option value="MacBook-Air">MacBook Air</option>
            </select>
</section>
</section>

The code above demonstrates a <select> element with its display property set to none, which hides both the <select> element and its child <option> tags, preventing them from appearing on the web page.

Here, the <select> element is set to display: none, which automatically removes the element from the DOM. In this case, the element becomes hidden from users and, as a result, stops Cypress from interacting with it.

To stop the behavior, {force: true} option is set to the .select() command, allowing Cypress to interact with the hidden element.

describe('Force Select an Element', () => {

    it('Force select a hidden element', () => {
      cy.visit('https://cdpn.io/pen/debug/dPbjbwK?authentication_hash=nqAwvJdQxbWr')

      cy.get('#mac-book-models #select-version')

      .select('Mac Studio', {force: true})

      .invoke('val').should('eq', 'Mac-Studio')
    })
  })

Output:

Select Multiple Elements

The Cypress .select() command can simultaneously select more than one <option>. This is very useful as it lets you perform multiple test cases on numerous <option> WebElements.

To interact with multiple elements at once, the Cypress .select() command accepts additional arguments in the form of multiple values. These values correspond to the text content of the <option> tags that Cypress needs to select.

describe('Select multiple element', () => {
    it('Select more than one option web element', () => {
      cy.visit('https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=9')
      cy.get('#entry_212434 #input-sort-212434')


      .select(['Default'], ['Best sellers'], ['Popular'])
     
    })
  })

Output:

The Cypress .select() command selects the options passed as an argument starting from the Default option.

The above Cypress tests for handling dropdowns are run on the local grid. However, for better scalability and reliability, you can harness the capabilities offered by cloud grids such as LambdaTest.

LambdaTest is an AI-native test execution platform that lets you run tests on the Cypress cloud grid. It offers scalability, intelligent debugging, and AI-driven optimizations to streamline test automation.

Conclusion

The Cypress .select() command is a built-in function that interacts and runs tests on the <select> WebElement and dynamic dropdown in the web application. The <select> WebElement or dynamic dropdown are web controls that provide a menu or list of options for users on the web.

The .select() command can interact with dropdowns by their indexes, values, or text content. It can also run tests on multiple WebElements. However, to perform dynamic selection, more advanced techniques are required, such as .contains() and .each() Cypress commands.

Citations

• Cypress .select() command: https://docs.cypress.io/api/commands/select

Ruby is a programming language that has been accepted with open arms since 1995, and thanks to its open-source nature, it is still growing every day. Ruby is fast, object-oriented, and secure, which brings a dynamic nature into the project with an MVC support structure that makes development more comfortable than ever. With start-ups openly accepting Ruby, the language has shown remarkable progress in almost every field, especially web development. Ruby’s popularity motivated people to take the development to the next level and bring out some best ruby automation testing frameworks for the developers.

Some frameworks are built to ease out middleware and request/response of the application. Some are made for REST APIs and others for web applications. Collecting the best ruby frameworks from across the globe, in this post, we’ll talk about these frameworks and how each framework lets the developer take advantage of Ruby.

Best Ruby Frameworks For Web Development

Without further ado, let’s delve into details of the best ruby frameworks for web development that will surely benefit your business.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is regarded as one of the best ruby frameworks. It was the primary language in developing big projects such as Twitter and helped the language boost the community. Often referred to as “Rails,” Ruby on Rails is a web development framework with an MVC control structure and currently running its 6.1 version. The 16-year-old language has dramatically influenced the web development structures and managing databases, web pages, and other components on a web application.

Ruby on Rails has an extensive plugin library called “gems” and can be distributed and installed through the popular Ruby package manager called RubyGems. The most notable Ruby on Rails projects include Twitter, Airbnb, and Bloomberg.

Sinatra

Sinatra is the best ruby framework available in the market for web development. Sinatra is a simple and easy-to-use DSL written in Ruby and often used popularly in place of Ruby on Rails as a web development framework. Sinatra is named after the legendary musician Frank Sinatra and is powerful enough to set up a fully functional web application with just a single file.

Sinatra was launched in 2007, is open-source, and hence free to use for the Ruby enthusiasts. Built on Rack, Sinatra can develop micro web applications to full-scale heavy web applications with fewer resources than rails. You would sometimes hear that Sinatra is a microframework, but that is just because of its lightweight and smaller size. In the arena, Sinatra is powerful, capable, and supports RubyGems to accomplish specific tasks with minimum effort.

Some notable projects using Sinatra are LinkedIn, Heroku, Apple, and BBC.

Camping

Camping is another best ruby web framework. The source code of the camping framework is just 4KB in size, making it the most lightweight Ruby framework on the internet (with equal capabilities). Apart from its size, camping has also been popular since it was written by an unidentified programmer who disappeared in August 2009. Identified by the pseudo-name “Why the lucky stiff,” the programmer has left the project, and since then, camping has been an open-source framework with a huge community.

Camping requires Rack to work on the projects and is available as a RubyGem on GitHub. An excellent powerful feature of camping is converting the complete web application into a single file organizing it as an MVC structure. You can visit the official GitHub page to learn more about Camping.

Ramaze

Ramaze is another best ruby web framework in competition to help create outstanding web development projects. Being light-weight, Ramaze is faster and offers a flat learning curve. For ruby projects involving JQuery, AJAX, ORM, Javascript, or some templating engine, Ramaze stands as an excellent choice to be seen in the consideration. Ramaze is robust and popular as a “bug-free” framework.

Ramaze provides clean and light solutions as compared to Rails. The GitHub page for Ramaze can be accessed through the Ramaze Github link.

Goliath

Unlike the other described ruby frameworks, which focus on the “development” part, Goliath is considered to be one of the best ruby frameworks written in Ruby. Goliath is a lightweight web server framework powering PostRank and focuses on server-specific mechanisms. These include implementation and management of Rack API, middleware in Ruby, and fully asynchronous processing. Goliath focuses on event-driven design, thanks to the EventMachine reactor, which forms the Goliath working basis.

The Goliath project can be accessed through its GitHub repository page. Goliath boasts a powerful feature of decluttering the complicated asynchronous requests into a linear execution communication process. The asynchronous mechanism of Goliath can hence be used very quickly for streaming the data, firehose API, etc. Also, Goliath is open-source, which has been a significant factor in its linear development over time. If you are into web-server development in Ruby, you will love working in Goliath.

Hanami

With a clean architectural design and a primary object methodology, Hanami is counted among the best ruby frameworks that have gained popularity as an alternative to Rails. Hanami is “sorted” in design and provides small files that can be used independently to create a project stack. Hanami is lightweight and consumes fewer resources claiming 60% lesser memory than other big Ruby frameworks.

Hanami is based on the MVC structure and offers excellent additional features like CSRF, HTML escaping to prevent XSS, and maintaining the browser’s content security policy.

Padrino

Padrino is another best ruby web framework that is based on Sinatra and is open source in nature. Padrino is used popularly as an alternative to Merb and Camping. Similar to the frameworks mentioned in this section, Padrino too works on the Rack webserver interface. Padrino’s development idea comes from Sinatra’s popularity and extending Sinatra’s functionality to more and more domains giving it a shape of a library-rich framework.

Padrino’s benchmark metrics also reveal that it is four times faster than Rails. You can access Padrino through its GitHub page.

NYNY

The NYNY’s official page defines NYNY as “ridiculously” small and considered to be one of the best ruby web frameworks. Ridiculously small in the sense that NYNY is written in only 300 lines of code, which is considered significantly less than other frameworks such as Rack. Honestly, a majority of plugins are written in more LOC than NYNY.

The highlighting thing in NYNY is that this ruby framework contains all the Ruby developers’ popular requirements. If you want something more, you can edit the framework and add your functionality on top of it. Such edits will help you build reliable and multi-functional middleware.

NYNY application can be used with Sinatra, Rails, or any other Rack-based application. The NYNY GitHub official page contains all the relevant information, from setting up to configuring the application to running it on the server.

Cuba

Cuba is a microframework to develop web applications in the Ruby language. Rum inspires Cuba, and the official website defines Cuba as “a tiny but powerful mapper for Rack applications.” making it one of the best ruby frameworks. The GitHub page is a practical guide if you are looking to start development in Cuba.

Cuba takes help from a lot of other technologies to bring the best of everything. For example, the responses in Cuba are the optimized version of the Rack responses. The templates are integrated via Tilt and testing via Cutest and Capybara.

Grape

Grape is a REST-like microframework written in Ruby programming language. Grape is also considered among the best ruby frameworks and can be used to run on top of Rack or can be used to complement the existing web application frameworks such as Sinatra or Rails. The latter can be done through the DSL-based REST-API for communication. The Grape ruby web framework facilitates efficient and meaningful APIs working in the web application domain.

Grape’s support extends to standard conventions, multiple format support, content negotiation, versioning, etc. The complete guide to Grape to develop REST-APIs, test the API and analyze the performance metrics is available on its official GitHub page.

Scorched

Scorched is another one of the best ruby web frameworks that requires Ruby 2.0 and above to work. Scorched is light-weight, and the official website states Scorched as “true evolutionary enhancement of Sinatra, with more power, focus, and less clutter.” Scorched developers have assumed that since Scorched is on top of Rack, the fellow developers are already familiar with it. With that effect, they have removed any “overlapping” functionality and kept Scorched simplified and concrete in its working.

Scorched is not recommended to new Ruby developers or inexperienced programmers. Scorched lets you experiment, implement new tools and play around with this open-ended framework. It provides a definite and robust structure for working with HTTP requests and can also be used for scalable ruby-based applications.

Roda

Roda is another best ruby framework that aids in building web applications. Roda relies on the simplicity, usability, and productivity of the language. Built on Rack, Roda offers a flexible architecture and a large variety of APIs. Roda is also known for bringing the routing tree web toolkit to perform requests at any routing point. It uses comparatively lesser memory and is very easy to install, configure and use. Roda ships with a very long list of plugins, including middleware, request/response, and mail.

Volt

Volt is a ruby web application framework that helps in the development of web-based applications. Volt focuses on speed by running the Ruby code both on the server and the client. When the user interacts with the web application, the document object model nodes change dynamically on the server and the page. This process is also called reactive programming.

Volt focuses on a persistent communication network instead of HTTP to communicate between the server and the client. With synchronization mechanisms built into the Volt code, the data gets updated on multiple clients, servers, and databases with the change in any one of the clients.

Volt has helped in building a lot of functional web-based applications working in various domains. To learn more about Volt, you can visit its Volt GitHub page.

Ramverk

Ramverk is a ruby web application framework that works on the minimalistic approach. Ramverk helps in building up MVC applications with a huge scope of adding your own functionalities into the framework. Ramverk aims to provide just the necessary functionalities to startup the application but demand more addition through the developer.

Honestly, Ramverk is neither that powerful nor provides a full-fledged framework for highly scalable and complex ruby applications. With a vast range to choose from, Ramverk indeed gets defeated due to the extra work it demands from the developers. But, Ramverk is still developing and hopefully will bring something concrete in the later releases. The Ramverk GitHub page can guide you through the installation.

Hobbit

Hobbit is a microframework for web applications running on the don’t-repeat-yourself philosophy. Hobbit is the lightweight best ruby framework that offers a faster execution than other microframeworks. Hobbit ruby framework is built on top of Rack while Sinatra inspires the DSL.

The code of Hobbit can also be extended with various other Rack classes and modules with no extra logic. With minimum configurations, Hobbit is the right choice for developing web applications leveraging the functionalities.

You can access the recipes, templates, guides, and demo applications through the Hobbit GitHub page.

Cramp

Cramp is a real-time web framework written in Ruby and built on top of EventMachine. Cramp is another ruby framework that uses asynchronous communication mechanisms and can be used smoothly for too many open connections. Cramp can be used for developing WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and APIs.

The official repository of cramp can be found on the Cramp GitHub page and installed via the simple gem command: gem install cramp. Cramp provides full-duplex bi-directional communication, which is efficient and faster.

Take this Selenium Ruby 101 certification is for professionals looking to develop advanced, hands-on expertise in Selenium automation testing with Ruby and take their career to the next level.

Here’s a short glimpse of the Selenium Ruby 101 certification from LambdaTest:

Did We Miss Something?”>Did We Miss Something?

As a reader and a developer, it is entirely up to your requirements to choose your best ruby frameworks. Regardless of the framework you use for web development, LambdaTest is a cloud-based AI-native test orchestration and execution platform that will support all your web testing needs with out-of-the-box features like responsive testing, visual UI testing, automation testing, etc.

If you have experience in some other best ruby frameworks and are excited to have it in this list, mention your framework with its capabilities in the comment section below. I hope this list justified the ruby programmers and the people ready to dive into the Ruby pool.

Thanks for reading!

The mobile gaming industry is growing, so ensuring a smooth game experience is essential. Issues with the user interface, game mechanics, character controls, in-game physics, etc., can lead to user drop-offs and, ultimately, revenue loss.

This is where mobile game testing is crucial. It ensures that your games are tested on multiple mobile devices and operating systems. From finding bugs to optimizing gameplay, it ensures that you offer a high-quality game experience and that your mobile app stands out from the crowd.

In this blog, we’ll explore what is mobile game testing and why it matters.

What Is Mobile Game Testing?

Mobile game testing is the process of determining whether a mobile game meets the desired quality standards and delivers a seamless playing experience. This process identifies bugs related to functionality, compatibility, and performance on various devices and operating systems.

Additionally, it involves testing game-specific elements like mechanics, balance, and progression systems, as well as evaluating content quality and engagement. This involves various game testing techniques so that issues can be identified and fixed for a better game experience.

Why Is Mobile Game Testing Important?

Mobile game testing is important for delivering high-quality games that meet user expectations. Without proper testing, even the most innovative games will fail to attract and retain the target audience, which can impact reputation and revenue growth.

Let’s look at why running mobile game tests is important:

• Mobile game testing identifies critical bugs resulting in crashes, freezes, or gameplay errors that can impact the user’s gaming experience. Early bug detection helps developers resolve these issues before the game reaches users.
• With countless device models and operating system versions, testing ensures the game works seamlessly on all target platforms. It avoids issues like distorted graphics or unresponsive controls on specific devices.
• Mobile game testing ensures the game is optimized for performance under high user loads or low device resources (CPU, GPU, RAM, battery). This minimizes lag and ensures stable gameplay.
• Mobile games often involve in-app purchases, user data, and multiplayer interactions. Therefore, testing security aspects helps identify vulnerabilities and ensure secure transactions and fair gameplay.
• App stores have strict guidelines for games, and non-compliance can lead to rejections. Testing ensures the game meets these requirements, accelerating its time to market.

Note

Test your mobile games across 5000+ real devices. Try LambdaTest Today!

Mobile Game Testing Techniques

Mobile game testing incorporates various techniques to address the challenges and requirements of game development. Each method targets specific areas, ensuring the game meets quality standards and delivers a seamless player experience.

Let’s look at each technique:

• Functional Testing: It focuses on testing the game’s core functionalities like mechanics, controls, menus, and other features players interact with. It also looks for issues like missing buttons or in-game actions that don’t work as intended.
• Compatibility Testing: It ensures the game runs seamlessly on different devices, operating systems, screen sizes, and input devices like keyboards or controllers.
• Usability Testing: It validates the user interface, ensuring ease during gameplay. It includes checking how buttons, menus, or icons are placed, facilitating seamless and intuitive navigation during the game.
• Visual Testing: It tests the graphical elements of the game to ensure they meet quality standards and enhance user engagement. This ensures that the animation, textures, and color scheme are correct on any resolution or device.
• Localization Testing: It ensures the game functions as intended for a specific region or language. This includes testing translations, culturally relevant visuals, and local formats for things like currency or dates.
• Performance Testing: It checks how the game performs under specific conditions, like varying workloads, stress levels, or resource constraints. The aim is to identify and address performance bottlenecks to ensure stable gameplay.
• Recovery Testing: It evaluates how the game bounces back from unexpected issues, like crashes or network failures. Testers deliberately inject anomalies to see if features like autosave or crash recovery work.
• Soak Testing: It involves running the game for an extended period to catch issues that only appear over time. Testers leave the game on for hours or even days, monitoring for memory leaks or slowdowns. This helps identify issues that might not show up in short testing sessions.
• Combinatorial Testing: It involves testing different combinations of inputs to ensure everything works together. For example, testers might explore how different character choices, game settings, or difficulty levels interact.
• Compliance Testing: It ensures that the game complies with platform-specific guidelines (Android and iOS) and regulatory requirements so that there won’t be any delays or rejections. This involves verifying compatibility with app store policies, age ratings, and regional content regulations.
• Security Testing: It checks how the game protects against threats like data breaches or hacking. This includes validating aspects like login mechanisms, data encryption, and others.
• Beta Testing: It involves letting real users play the game and share their feedback. This process often highlights issues testers might overlook, helping to fine-tune the game and make it more engaging.

How to Perform Mobile Game Testing?

Now, let’s look at the steps to perform mobile game testing:

1. Create a Test Plan: Planning forms the foundation of rigorous mobile game testing by defining objectives for evaluating functionality, compatibility, and performance across various environments.

Creating a game testing plan also involves analyzing various game elements, including storyboards, characters, and the architectural aspects shaping the game.

2. Set Up a Test Environment: In this phase, testers set up an environment for test execution. This includes selecting the target platforms, devices, network conditions, and right game testing frameworks and tools.
3. Run the Tests: The test execution phase is where the actual testing takes place. Various mobile game testing techniques are applied to assess different aspects of the game.
4. Prepare Test Reports: Once testing is complete, testers document their findings in the reporting phase. They categorize identified issues based on severity (critical, major, or minor), and include their logs.
5. Resolve Bugs and Issues: In this phase, developers work to resolve the issues identified during testing. This involves fixing bugs, optimizing performance, and making necessary updates.
6. Perform Regression Testing: After fixing bugs and issues, it’s important to perform regression testing to ensure the game remains stable after fixes and updates. Testers re-execute all test cases to confirm that no new issues have been introduced and that existing features still function properly.

Mobile Game Testing Tools

To ensure high-quality mobile gaming experiences, developers and testers rely on a suite of tools to identify bugs, optimize performance, and make usability improvements. These enable teams to deliver games that run seamlessly across diverse devices under different conditions.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test execution platform that provides a cloud-based environment for mobile app testing. You can test mobile games on Android and iOS devices through its real device cloud.

It supports both manual and automated testing and works with popular mobile testing frameworks like Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest. With features like geolocation testing and network throttling, LambdaTest helps you mimic real-world conditions, ensuring your games run smoothly across various environments.

Appium

Appium has been a go-to choice for automating mobile application testing, including games. Supporting platforms like Android and iOS, Appium allows testers to write tests in popular programming languages such as Java and Python.

With Appium, you can even test touch interactions, gestures, and gameplay mechanics. Its ability to integrate effortlessly into CI/CD pipelines makes it ideal for teams aiming to automate repetitive tests and streamline development cycles.

But, when it comes to testing mobile games based on Unity or Unreal Engine, Appium faces certain limitations due to the way these engines render graphics and handle interactions. However, with Appium 2.0, you can hook tools like AltUnity Tester to test your Unity-based mobile games.

Unity Test Framework (UTF)

The Unity Test Framework (UTF) is a tool for testing Unity-based mobile games. It has features like Edit Mode and Play Mode tests for functionality and behavior validation of games. With Unity Test Framework (UTF), you can perform automated game testing, simulate mobile inputs, test game performance, and ensure stability using assertions and Unity Profiler.

Automation Test Framework in Unreal Engine

The Automation Test Framework in Unreal Engine lets you automate game testing. This includes running various types of tests like unit, feature, and content stress tests.

It is built in C++ programming language and works directly within core modules of Unreal Engine. However, it isn’t suited for pure unit testing. For pure unit testing, you can consider the Low-Level Tests (LLTs) framework in Unreal Engine.

GameBench

GameBench is a game testing tool that comes with features such as automated and performance testing. It provides detailed insights into key metrics like frame rates, CPU and GPU usage, memory consumption, and battery performance during gameplay.

This helps testers leverage these insights to fine-tune their mobile games, ensuring consistent performance across devices and operating systems.

Enhance Mobile Game Testing With LambdaTest

LambdaTest lets you test your games on virtual and real device cloud for Android and iOS. With LambdaTest, you can check how your game performs across the latest and legacy devices, operating systems, and screen sizes.

Here are the steps to run mobile game tests on LambdaTest:

1. Sign up on LambdaTest. Visit the LambdaTest dashboard and select Real Device from the left sidebar.



2. Select the platform (Android or iOS). Then, upload your mobile game application, and select the device brand and its respective model. After that, click the Start button.



It will launch a real device cloud where you can test your mobile games and catch bugs in real-time, ensuring your game works perfectly.



To get started, check out this guide on mobile app testing with LambdaTest.

Challenges of Mobile Game Testing

While mobile game testing is critical to ensuring a seamless player experience, it has some challenges. These often arise from the diversity of devices, dynamic user environments, and other aspects.

Below are some of the challenges associated with mobile game testing:

• Testing is a huge task because of the diversity of mobile devices, operating systems, and screen sizes.

So, testing on such a constantly expanding list of devices is time-consuming and resource-intensive. For instance, ensuring uniform gameplay on high-end devices versus low-end devices requires extensive testing.

However, constraints such as budget, time, and access to a wide range of devices often result in incomplete testing, leading to potential bugs on specific configurations.

• Varying network conditions impact mobile games. Testing all possible network conditions, such as weak signals or intermittent connectivity, can be very challenging. Tools may simulate some conditions, but the real-world interplay of networks can remain unpredictable.

For example, players in remote areas might experience frequent disconnections or slower gameplay, which can go untested. As a result, network-related bugs often surface post-launch, affecting user satisfaction and retention.

• Although mobile game testing tools efficiently test various scenarios, they may not fully replicate real-world conditions. Factors like user behavior, geographic variations, and unanticipated player actions are difficult to predict and simulate.

This limitation can lead to bugs or usability issues surfacing only after release. For example, testing might miss how different cultural contexts affect gameplay preferences or how long gaming sessions impact device performance and battery life.

• Many mobile games integrate third-party features such as social media, payment gateways, or analytics tools. Testing these integrations across different devices and environments can be cumbersome. Issues with API calls, SDK versions, or incompatibility with specific devices often go unnoticed during testing.

For example, a payment gateway might work seamlessly on one device but fail on another due to minor differences in API handling, resulting in a poor user experience for some players.

• Ensuring security while making in-app purchases and player data that can be present in any mobile game is a complex task. It is virtually impossible to test for every kind of vulnerability, considering hacking attempts and data breaches are dynamic.

Hackers continually find new ways to exploit mobile games, and testing tools and frameworks may not always detect advanced security risks. This can result in compromised user data or financial fraud, negatively impacting a game’s reputation.

Best Practices for Mobile Game Testing

While the challenges mentioned above are significant, a strategic approach to testing can mitigate their impact.

The best practices mentioned below help identify bugs, optimize performance, and ensure compatibility across devices.

• Thoroughly understanding the game mechanics, goals, and target audience. Knowing what the game is about helps you test it like a real player.
• Check if the core gameplay feels smooth and fun. Pay attention to controls, responsiveness, in-game physics, and whether the game is challenging yet fair.
• Mobile games need to work on various devices with different screen sizes, operating systems, and hardware capabilities. Always test on a mix of high-end, mid-range, and budget devices.
• Use automation tools to speed up repetitive testing tasks, but combine this with manual testing for a human touch.
• Test for lag, crashes, and battery drain. A game that is too resource-intensive or frequently crashes can lose players.
• Test your game on different network speeds (Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G) and under various conditions, such as low bandwidth or dropped connections.
• Simulate heavy player loads to see how the game handles traffic. This is especially important for multiplayer games.
• For games released in multiple regions, make sure translations are accurate and culturally appropriate. Test right-to-left languages and special characters.
• If the game includes ads, in-app purchases, or reward systems, ensure they work smoothly without affecting gameplay.
• Games with in-app purchases should be tested for vulnerabilities and protected against hacks and threats.
• Every update or patch can introduce new bugs. Perform regression testing to ensure existing features aren’t broken.
• If possible, involve real players or focus groups during beta testing to identify areas for improvement.

Conclusion

Testing a mobile game is a fundamental step in game development. This ensures that the games are of the highest quality and performance and provides an excellent player experience. Focusing on aspects such as functionality, compatibility, security, and user experience can ensure that the game performs well under different conditions and on a wide range of devices.

Furthermore, leveraging mobile game testing tools and real testing environments will help upgrade the game’s usability, performance, and security.

Citations

• Automated Tests for Mobile Games: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Automated-Tests-for-Mobile-Games%3A-An-Experience-Lovreto-Endo/143fa5a9323f7331ebccb8457cc0b773f3b73acc

If you’re looking to run or test Android apps on your Chromebook, an Android emulator can be a good option. Chromebooks run on ChromeOS, which doesn’t natively support all Android apps, but Android emulators for Chromebook can bridge that gap, allowing you to run or test your mobile apps.

In this blog, let’s look at the 11 best Android emulators for Chromebook in 2025.

Can You Emulate Android on Chromebooks?

Yes, you can emulate Android on Chromebooks. They come with built-in support for running Android apps, so you don’t necessarily need an emulator to experience Android.

If you’re developing or testing Android apps, you can install Android Studio on your Chromebook and use its built-in emulator. Just make sure your Chromebook is in Developer Mode, and you’re good to go.

Also, if you’re looking for a simple way to run Android apps, try downloading them directly from the Google Play Store. Chromebooks are pretty versatile when it comes to mixing Android and ChromeOS experiences.

Best Android Emulators for Chromebook

Exploring the best Android emulators for Chromebook and their key features helps streamline mobile app testing. It allows you to fine-tune your mobile app without worrying about the specific device your users will be using, ensuring a smooth experience.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is an AI-native cloud testing platform that enables developers and testers to perform mobile app testing on virtual devices, including Android apps on Chromebook. It provides access to Android emulators online directly from your Chromebook, allowing you to test Android apps without the need for physical devices.

For small screens, you can test at 1366×768 resolution with a 14.0-inch display. For medium screens, LambdaTest supports 3840×2160 resolution on a 15.0-inch screen. On larger screens, testing is available at 1920×1080 resolution with a 17.0-inch screen. Refer to this documentation to get started with ChromeOS testing.

Benefits:

• Device simulation: LambdaTest lets you emulate different ChromeOS devices to test for compatibility across various screen sizes and resolutions.
• DevTools support: LambdaTest offers Chrome DevTools within the session to debug and inspect code in real-time.
• Network throttling: You can test performance by simulating different network speeds, such as 4G, 5G, and more.
• Record and capture bugs: LambdaTest one-click bug logging enables you to capture screenshots, record testing sessions, and report bugs seamlessly during tests.
• Geolocation testing: You can simulate browsing from over 45 countries, ensuring your site adapts to global user locations.

Android Studio

Android Studio is a popular IDE that supports Android app development and testing through built-in emulators. These emulators are a good replacement for physical Android devices as Android Studio is developed by Google (and so is Android). Therefore, it comes tuned to the devices and can manage to bring better hardware metrics post-testing.

Benefits:

• Wide version support: Android Studio provides full support to Android emulators on selected Chromebooks. This enables testers to test any Android version on any Android device.
• Sensor-enabled testing: The developers and testers using Android Studio on Chromebook can use sensor data on their mobile applications directly through the emulators without requiring any physical device. This can help assess the application’s behavior based on motions, orientations, and environmental conditions.
• ChromeOS-based specific functionalities: ChromeOS, Android, and Android Studio are all developed by Google. Hence, they get access to the laptop’s hardware, the phone’s hardware, and software on both of them.
• Low memory requirements: Android Studio is supported on Chromebooks with a minimum requirement of only 8GB RAM and 20 GB hard disk. This combination can be acquired in pocket-friendly Chromebooks if one is not already available with the team.
• Among the first to introduce emulators: Google gets the advantage of releasing the emulators with newer versions of Android quickly as they are the ones behind the release of Android. If a tester or a developer is using Android Studio on a Chromebook, they can speed up the cycle and match the market speed as there are no delays from emulator developers.

Genymotion

Genymotion is one of the leading Android emulators for Chromebook, widely used for testing and development. It offers multiple formats: as a SaaS-based emulator accessible via the cloud, as a device image for cloud platforms like AWS, and as a native desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. When using it on a Chromebook, Genymotion’s SaaS version is ideal, specifically designed for automating tests on Android devices.

Benefits:

• Custom device initialization: Developers and testers can create their own devices with custom specifications on Genymotion SaaS.
• Automation support: Testers can run automated tests on Genymotion’s infrastructure and use their Android emulators on Chromebook.
• Parallel testing support: Multiple tests can be run at once on multiple emulators, shortening the test execution time and delivery cycles.
• Real-world features: Genymotion provides practical (real-world-like) features that can be emulated on their devices. This includes emulating battery usage, network bandwidth variation, biometrics, and call and text simulation.
• Team management: Testers can divide their teams into sub-groups and manage the team by applying restrictions and controls.

ARChon (ARChon Runtime for Chrome)

ARChon Runtime for Chrome is a forked project from Google’s App Runtime for Chrome and has gained immense popularity for its ease of use and highly stable nature.

It is an extension that needs to be installed on Chrome (or Chromium-based) browsers. Once installed, the Android application can be run directly through the Google Chrome browser.

ARChon is an Android emulator for Chromebooks, but it does not provide any selection of Android devices to run the mobile application, which would mean the testers and developers have to build a binary for each version and try it manually. Also, ARChon cannot execute the APK files directly on the browser. It requires chromeos-apk files, which can be obtained by converting normal APK files via the chromeos-apk conversion tool available on their platform.

Benefits:

• Chrome-based: ARChon works on Google Chrome and does not ask users to install another emulator application on the local system.
• Cross-platform: ARChon requires just a Chromium-based browser (preferred Google Chrome) which is supported in major platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS. ARChon can be used in ChromeOS or Linux settings giving flexibility to the tester to not change their process because of emulator restrictions.
• High performance: ARChon plays smart by using the Chrome browser for its execution. This way, it does not need to create another environment on the host operating system that can load the available resources. Instead, it creates the sandbox environment in Google Chrome and uses its already tuned-in functional elements to run the Android emulator.
• Easy to set up and run: ARChon can be installed in any Chrome browser as an extension and enable the browser to run Android applications through the browser. It does not have any user interface to operate on, making running an Android application a lot easier.

QEMU

QEMU (or quick emulator) is an Android emulator for Chromebooks that offers emulation and virtualizer machines. While it is available for Windows and macOS as well, users of Chromebooks can use it as Linux binding on their machines. It provides a different experience with large-scale changes on the host system that help run Android applications smoothly.

Benefits:

• Open-source: QEMU is open source and, therefore, free to use and mend according to the project requirements.
• Full system virtualization: QEMU can perform a full system virtualization where the guest operating system can be run by taking full CPU resources of the host system. Then, the Android application can be run on the guest OS in full system mode.
• Excellent virtualization support: QEMU supports a lot of architectures for virtualization. This includes x86, ARM, MIPS, and SPARC, just to name a few. Hence, the tester need not restrict themselves when certain projects require emulation of another architecture.
• Disk support: Disk management is important to manage the contents of the virtual machine created using QEMU. Hence, it ensures that virtual disk formats are supported and the tester can easily operate (create, modify, and delete) this content using images.

Appetize.io

Appetize.io is a cloud-based platform that offers Android emulators for Chromebook. The platform just requires signing up, selecting the device, and then uploading the application’s binary (the APK file) on the platform to run it on the device. Once all this is done, the testers can embed the emulator or share it with others easily using a secure link.

Benefits:

• Easy to use: Appetize.io is an easy-to-use platform requiring minimal effort from the developers and testers. A web browser is all that one requires to launch an Android application on the emulator of their choice.
• Shareable links: Appetize.io provides the option to share links with pre-launched emulators and applications installed on it. The links can be generated through which other teammates can launch the mobile application without signing up and testing it.
• Session control: The users who launch the Android emulator on Chromebook can control the duration of sessions. After the duration, the session times out and can be reused.
• Custom query parameters: The testers also get the option to use custom query parameters on the Android emulator. The parameter can be used to change the Android version, specification, OS version, etc. This way the users need not change the emulators or request them repeatedly.

MEmu Play

MEmu Play enables users to run Android apps and games smoothly on their Chromebooks. Known for its compatibility and high-performance features, MEmu Play allows Chromebook users to experience Android with optimized gaming performance, including keymapping for keyboard and mouse control and enhanced frame rates for demanding applications.

Benefits:

• Multi-instance capability: Users can run multiple instances of Android apps simultaneously, making it easier to multitask or test different applications side by side on a Chromebook.
• Customizable resource allocation: MEmu Play allows users to allocate CPU and RAM resources, ensuring the emulator runs efficiently based on the Chromebook’s specifications and the user’s needs.
• Wide compatibility with Android versions: MEmu Play supports various Android versions, enabling developers and testers to test apps in different environments or access older Android applications.
• User-friendly interface: The easy-to-navigate interface makes it simple for users to set up and customize the emulator, ensuring a seamless experience for both beginners and advanced users on Chromebooks.

Waydroid

Waydroid provides an Android emulator for Chromebooks in Linux mode. However, since Waydroid works as a container with direct access to hardware, it requires making a few changes in the Linux Kernel during installation. It comes with a minimal Android image based on LineageOS and has significant performance improvements.

Benefits:

• Open-source: Waydroid is free to use, open-source, and has an active development community, bringing new features frequently.
• Containerized: Waydroid is a containerized Android emulator for Chromebook. It need not consume heavy resources similar to virtualization and is lightweight on the environment.
• Linux-based: Android and Waydroid are both based on the Linux operating system. Therefore, conversions of calls to run Android commands as per user actions are not required. Hence, the overall system becomes much faster.
• Direct hardware access: Android applications (or the overall container system) have direct access to the hardware of the host as they are both built on Linux. Therefore, multiple calls are not required to run an Android emulator for Chromebook when it comes to Waydroid.
• Gets embedded in the environment: Developers and testers working on Chromebooks can use Android applications alongside Linux applications. The whole system works in synergy and the users will not need to open a whole new software consuming high resources, thanks to containerization.

AirDroid Web

AirDroid Web is an application that can mirror the physical Android device connected to the platform. It just requires a QR code scan and works as a cast to a bigger screen, such as a Chromebook on a desktop.

Benefits:

• Easy to use: AirDroid just requires a QR code scan from the device you wish to cast on the platform. It is easy to use and doesn’t require any additional learning steps.
• Need not be on the same network: The connected device and the Chromebook need not be on the same network to connect. The device can be connected over the cloud and still real-time testing can be done without any delays (as per company claims).
• Chromebook as a device: Once connected to the Chromebook device, the users can navigate the application using Chromebook and desktop controls. They are much easier and faster to perform complex (or easy) actions.
• Mirror multiple devices: AirDroid provides efficient features that are especially effective with testing and development. For instance, multiple devices (up to 5) can be mirrored at once and Airdroid does not enforce any time limit as well.

BlueStacks

BlueStacks is an emulator that provides features used for gaming purposes, such as better control using keys and better performance. BlueStacks provides other options for installing and running Android applications other than games as well. Still, its major revenue is game-based, and therefore, this part continues to grow and develop at a much faster rate.

Benefits:

• Enhanced controls: BlueStacks provides more control in using the Android application along with introducing desktop-specific features such as sharing and editing.
• Easy to set up: BlueStacks is available on the cloud. It can be accessed using its website and by signing up with a suitable plan. For Chromebooks, the users also get an alternative of installing a Google Chrome extension built especially for ChromeOS. With this, the Android emulator for Chromebook comes inside the browser.
• Macros: Similar to macros in scripting, BlueStacks provides the flexibility to create rules based on a series of actions. These rules can then be automated and repeated multiple times, just like automation eliminating manual efforts.
• Performance tuning: BlueStacks provides performance tuning with multiple modes that restrict the memory and other resource utilizations.

ARC Welder

ARC Welder is an Android Runtime Chrome extension that provides an Android emulator for Chromebook, PC, Linux, and macOS. It is lightweight software that just requires Google Chrome installed, eliminating the need to download and install heavy software on the system.

Benefits:

• Free to use: ARC Welder is free to use, and there are no paid plans for additional features.
• Easy to set up: ARC Welder can be installed like any other extension on Google Chrome which does not require much time.
• Install unhosted apps: ARC Welder does not have any restrictions on installing only those apps that are hosted on the Google Play Store. As a result, unpublished and unhosted third-party apps can also be run on an emulator.
• Extremely fast: The developers of this Android emulator claim that the extension is so fast that there is no lagging or crashes. This is good, given that emulators are often slow and resource-heavy.

Conclusion

Android emulators for Chromebook are a sought-after way to run and test Android applications on ChromeOS without purchasing a new device. From cloud-based options like LambdaTest to Chrome extensions like ARChon, each emulator has a different setup method and performs differently. The list above helps explore all these Android emulators for Chromebook so that a user, a tester, or a developer can select one that suits their needs, requirements, and projects the most.

Web development has evolved from a purely technical to a dynamic and rapidly expanding domain. This evolution highlights the importance of understanding programming languages used in web development, such as JavaScript and Python.

These languages serve as a bridge between human-readable code and machine-executable instructions. However, when developing any software application, one must carefully select the best language for web development that aligns with project needs.

To guide you with this, we have listed some of the best languages for web development in 2025.

Understanding Programming Language

Programming languages have transformed web development from a technical task of markup and coding into a creative pursuit. They enable developers to bring their software-related ideas to life.

They are translators that convert developers’ instructions into a form computers can understand. These programming languages have organized rules and formats to be followed for the code to function correctly. While some newcomers may confuse programming languages with coding languages, they are distinct concepts.

It encompasses formal systems for computer communication, enabling developers to write code that computers can understand. Coding languages are more informal and refer to the specific languages used for writing code. It instructs computers to perform particular tasks by writing instructions in programming languages.

Programming languages have various vital features, which include the following:

• Syntax: The rules and structure employed for code composition in a programming language.
• Data Types: The categories of values a program accommodates, such as numbers, strings, and booleans.
• Variables: Designated memory locations capable of storing values.
• Operators: Symbols run operations on values like addition, subtraction, and comparison.
• Control Structures: Statements finding the program’s flow, including if-else conditions, loops, and function calls.
• Libraries and Frameworks: Assemblages of pre-written code facilitating everyday tasks and expediting development.
• Paradigms: The programming style or philosophy applied in the language, like procedural, object-oriented, or functional.

Selecting the right programming language for web development can significantly impact development speed and the integration of essential features. When choosing a programming language, it’s crucial to consider other aspects, such as the size of its community, the availability of repositories for guidance, and how easy it is to get started.

Additionally, ensure the programming language is open to integration with other testing frameworks. These criteria are crucial in software testing, ensuring that applications are functional and compatible across different devices, browsers, and operating systems.

When conducting automation testing, it is advisable to use suitable automation testing frameworks that provide a high level of code control and precise documentation and presentation of test results.

Selecting an automation testing framework that allows the execution of test cases on both web and mobile applications is crucial. To achieve this, consider utilizing cloud-based testing platforms that support a wide range of browsers, devices, and platforms. One such platform is LambdaTest.

LambdaTest is an AI-native test execution platform facilitating testing across large farms of over 5000+ browser and OS combinations. Its real device cloud infrastructure enables the execution of both manual and automated tests, providing faster deployment and scaling capabilities with mobile app and cross browser testing.

Best Programming Languages for Web Development

The list of best programming languages for web development in 2025 includes JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS, PHP, C#, Swift, Kotlin, Go, TypeScript, SQL, Rust, Scala, Perl, R, Dart, and MATLAB, among others. In this guide, you’ll explore a curated list of 22 of the most relevant and widely used languages that meet the demands of modern web development, enabling you to create scalable, efficient, and dynamic web applications.

JavaScript

JavaScript, one of the oldest and most versatile programming and scripting languages, is utilized by developers to shape web pages dynamically. Currently ranking at the top of the list of popular programming languages, it is widely considered one of the best languages for web development.

According to Statista, 63.6% of users rely on JavaScript. Initially, JavaScript was primarily used for web browser development, but its scope has significantly expanded. It is now used in server-side website deployments and non-browser applications, showcasing its wide-ranging utility and importance in modern development practices.

JavaScript is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It runs directly from its source code, eliminating the need for translation into machine code.
• It is primarily a front-end language for browsers; it can extend its usage on server-side scripting through Node.js, allowing the creation of scalable network applications.
• It is worth noting that JavaScript also finds applications in mobile app and desktop software development through specialized frameworks like React Native for mobile and Electron for desktop. These frameworks enable developers to use JavaScript to build cross-platform applications, further expanding its reach and versatility in modern web development trends and practices.
• It creates interactive webpage elements like clickable buttons, zoomable images, and on-page audio and video features.
• It plays a crucial role in coding the front end of websites like LinkedIn, Amazon, and Facebook.

Note

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HTML/CSS

HTML or HyperText Markup Language is one of the most widely used markup programming languages globally. Unlike JavaScript and Python, HTML is relatively simple, making it easy for beginners to grasp. You can create a web page’s basic structure without extensive knowledge of HTML. It provides the foundation for adding content, images, links, and other elements that make up a webpage. With HTML, you can build static web applications. It is easy to learn and adapt to and is one of the best languages for web development.

HTML is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It uses tags to shape the elements of the web pages through labeling without engaging in logic processing, data manipulation, or input-output tasks typical of scripting languages.
• It allows you to build a functioning website without HTML; you can not have a website structure in place. If you right-click on any web page (excluding links) and choose View Page Source, you’ll find the HTML code for that site.
• It structures web pages and ensures proper formatting of text and images.
• It allows templates that give you an easy e-Bay to design a webpage.
• It offers sessionStorage and localStorage, which store data on the client side.
• It introduces a semantic structure to your web pages, defining unique tags like < header >, < footer >, < div >, , and more.
• It uses search engine optimization (SEO), one of its main features. When you search for content, search engines gather information from the World Wide Web, helped by HTML and its semantic structure.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which is a styling language. It is a specific type of declarative language that describes the visual appearance of HTML code on the screen. If we compare it with HTML, it is more complex to use; however, it remains accessible to new programmers and holds particular significance in web design. As you familiarize yourself with its workings, there are opportunities to enhance your expertise through extension languages like SASS and its SCSS syntax.

CSS is the best styling sheet for designing web applications for several reasons:

• It applies styling to all HTML tags, including text in the document’s body, headings, paragraphs, and other textual elements.
• It extends its influence to styling table components, grid elements, and images.
• It simplifies the task for web developers aiming to create visually appealing websites across various devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
• It allows you to apply web pages with distinct styles.
• It allows you to achieve this independently of each web page’s HTML.
• It describes the appearance of a webpage, dictating elements such as colors, fonts, spacing, and more.
• Its developers depend on CSS to create user-friendly and responsive websites.

Note

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Python

Python is an open-source language for developing the backend of websites, and it’s highly used for its simplicity and readability, making it one of the best languages for web development. It boasts extensive support modules and a vibrant community. It seamlessly integrates with web services, provides user-friendly data structures, and simplifies the creation of GUI-based desktop applications. Additionally, it is well-suited for developing automation test scripts using various testing frameworks like pytest, Robot Framework, etc, making it a versatile and powerful choice for a wide range of applications.

Python is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It adopts an object-oriented approach, breaking down your code into self-contained units. It also allows for easy transfer between projects, avoiding the need for redundant, from-scratch programming.
• Its dynamic typing capabilities allow developers to create complex websites effortlessly, requiring constant content changes.
• It is considered an efficient backend web development language; Python seamlessly integrates with other programming languages like C, C#, and Java.
• It is compatible with popular web development frameworks such as Django and Flask, which help develop web-based applications.
• It is also well known for its impact on creating 2D imaging and 3D animation packages, exemplified by Blender, Inkscape, and Autodesk.
• It is a go-to language for various domains, excelling in data analysis and manipulation, machine learning, designing desktop applications, server-side web development (often synonymous with Django), and AI.

SQL

SQL, or Structured Query Language, is a specialized programming language primarily used for managing data in web applications, similar to Python. Unlike other languages, SQL focuses on storing, extracting, and manipulating data within a database. It serves as the standard database query language, providing access to and manipulation of data without specifying the steps to achieve the desired results. While SQL may not be the best language for web development, it can undoubtedly be the best query language for web applications. It enables web applications to display and store data based on given inputs. For example, a form filled by a visitor can store the details in the database and retrieve or view them based on the query.

SQL is not directly known as one of the best languages for web development. However, it helps store and retrieve any data based on query requests. Some reasons to use SQL are:

• It is essential for programmers working on software applications with intensive databases like social media platforms, payment processors, and music libraries to learn SQL language.
• It finds widespread utilization across various applications and environments, spanning web applications, data warehouses, and e-commerce applications.
• It excels in performance, enhances data integrity, and simplifies data manipulation.
• It proves invaluable for those well-versed in programming and database concepts, but it may present challenges for beginners.
• It may exhibit slower performance, particularly with large databases, and may not be the most suitable choice for tasks involving complex mathematical calculations or machine learning.

TypeScript

Developed by Microsoft in 2012, TypeScript is one of the best languages for web development. It builds upon JavaScript’s standard functions by introducing a crucial typing feature that enhances code security, maintainability, and deployability. TypeScript adopts a strongly typed approach, allowing programmers to assign names and confine them to specific purposes in their code.

TypeScript is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It facilitates the early detection of common coding errors. It gives an alert before encountering runtime errors.
• It enables the utilization of all available languages and application programming interfaces (APIs) in JavaScript, offering a more detailed view of your code and reducing errors.
• It is commonly used in both user-side and server-side development, proving valuable for developing JavaScript-based projects with typing.
• It is proficient in speeding up development by identifying errors before executing the JavaScript code.

Java

Java is an advanced programming language based on classes and objects and doesn’t require much setup. Created by Oracle, it stands out for its ability to work on different platforms. Its “Write Once, Run Anywhere” feature allows code written in Java to run on various devices and operating systems without modification.

Many of Java’s syntax elements are derived from C++, making it familiar to developers from a C++ background. Additionally, it is supported across multiple testing frameworks available for unit testing, such as Selenium, JUnit, and TestNG, contributing to its robustness and reliability.

It is widely recognized as one of the top languages for test automation, providing powerful, versatile, and widely adopted tools due to its cross-platform compatibility and the availability of a vast library and framework ecosystem.

Java is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is based on the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concept, providing a foundation for understanding class, object, inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and abstraction. This approach helps organize and structure code, making it easier to manage and maintain. If you’re getting ready for interviews, looking at OOPs Interview Questions can help you understand better.
• It shows robust security features by eliminating pointers like C and C++. Java’s security is complemented by components like a virtual machine, classloader, security manager, and bytecode verifier. These features help prevent common vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows and memory leaks.
• It excels in efficiently handling multiple threads, making it suitable for developing concurrent and scalable applications. Java’s built-in support for multithreading simplifies the development of applications that must perform various tasks simultaneously.
• It supports effective memory management through automatic garbage collection, which helps developers avoid memory leaks and other memory-related issues. Java’s portability and architecture neutrality allow it to run on various platforms without modification.
• It finds extensive use in web and application development thanks to its rich set of libraries, frameworks, and tools. Thanks to its scalability and performance, Java is widely used in big data processing.
• It is the backbone of several popular websites, including Google, Amazon, Twitter, and YouTube. Java’s versatility and performance make it a preferred choice for developing large-scale, high-traffic websites and applications.
• It may be considered a more intricate language due to its strict syntax and rules, but the demand for experienced developers with Java coding skills remains high. Java’s widespread adoption in the industry ensures that skilled Java developers are in constant demand for various projects and applications.

C#

C# is commonly used on the backend of web applications, especially for tasks that require high-performance processing. However, higher-level languages like Python and JavaScript are more widely used for developing high-quality websites or web applications.

Web developers also use C# for Android, iOS, and Linux platforms to develop games and mobile applications. Despite its popularity in specific domains, C# is used less commonly than some of the best web languages for web development, including Python and JavaScript.

C# can be used as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• Its syntax is similar to C-derived languages like C++, facilitating an easy transition for those familiar with the C family.
• It is widely used by mobile developers to build cross-platform apps on the Xamarin platform.
• It is suitable for Windows, Android, and iOS applications, leveraging the integrated development environment product, Microsoft Visual C++.
• It powers the backend of numerous popular websites, including Bing, Dell, Visual Studio, and MarketWatch.
• It incorporates a type-safety coding concept, thus preventing unsafe typecasting.
• It offers features like scalability, updates, robustness, and interoperability.

C++

C++ is an enhanced version of C and is one of the oldest and most widely used programming languages. It is the foundation for other programming languages used in web development, such as C#, Java, and JavaScript. While some developers do not invest time in learning C independently, mastering C first provides valuable groundwork for C++ development. Learning C and C++ is highly valuable for web development, so familiarity with these languages is recommended. Since it’s an enhanced version of C, with significant implementation of classes and object concepts, this programming language is considered the best for web development.

C++ is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is straightforward and user-friendly, making it easy to understand and learn, even for beginners.
• It follows the concept of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), which includes classes, members, polymorphism, inheritance, and encapsulation.
• It can only be run on the operating system developed and compiled, making it platform-dependent.
• It employs structured programming, converting complex programs into manageable pieces of code known as functions or modules.
• It can do low-level and high-level programming, making it a mid-level programming language.
• It has a rich library with built-in functions that save significant time during software development.
• It maintains pure CASE sensitivity, treating lowercase and uppercase characters in code differently.
• It supports dynamic memory allocation, allocating variables to the dynamical heap space at runtime.
• It supports dynamic memory allocation, but memory must be manually de-allocated when no longer needed.
• It does not have built-in support for multithreaded programs; the operating system must provide it.
• It is a fast language with relatively short compilation and execution times.
• It strictly adheres to syntax rules and regulations, following a skeleton to maintain code flow.
• It supports integration and extensibility, allowing large-scale applications to be created and newer features to be efficiently implemented.

PHP

PHP is yet another of the best languages for web development. It stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, which is a server scripting language. It is also one of the most popular programming languages leveraged to build websites and web applications. You should also know that 80% of most websites are built in this language. The most popular sites include Facebook and Yahoo.

PHP is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It creates scripts on web servers, generating personalized responses for each user’s request, providing an experience that goes beyond the uniform appearance of a website for everyone.
• It is widely used by developers for web servers, and it can also be used to script command-line functions.
• If you are proficient, it allows you to use high-level PHP coding for desktop application development and customized user interfaces. A prime example is WordPress, which uses PHP to structure and display diverse websites to visitors.
• It seamlessly supports significant databases like MySQL, ODBC, and more.
• It offers built-in error reporting constants such as E_ERROR and E_WARNING to efficiently report errors.
• It enhances versatility and supports third-party extensions like .NET, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
• It shows platform independence, local server support, and more.
• It exhibits compatibility with various services such as LDAP, IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, HTTP, and COM (on Windows).

Go

Go was developed by Google in 2007. It is mainly for APIs and web applications, making it one of the best languages for web development. It is one of the two languages by Google, the other being Dart, mainly used on servers but not within browsers like JavaScript and Java. Although it is less popular than JavaScript and Python, its popularity is increasing due to its simplicity and proficiency in handling multicore and networked systems and extensive codebases.

Go is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is an open-source programming language for web development that allows meeting the needs of programmers involved in developing large and complex software applications.
• It is categorized as a low-level programming language suitable for engineers venturing to learn more about web development.
• It has much of the functionality of C and C++ without the challenging syntax and steep learning curve.
• It is used to build web servers, data pipelines, and machine-learning packages.
• It is commonly used by organizations like Google, Uber, Twitch, and Dropbox, among many others.
• It supports multithreading and can execute several processes concurrently.
• It incorporates excellent memory safety features like garbage collection for automatic memory management.

Rust

Mozilla developed Rust specifically to prioritize safety, concurrency, and practicality. While Rust’s learning curve may pose a challenge for beginners compared to other best programming languages for web development, the skills acquired will likely yield significant returns. With the language’s popularity on a steady rise, mastering Rust programming promises handsome rewards in the foreseeable future.

Rust is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It primarily focuses on C and C++, targeting low-level systems programming.
• It is a systems programming language with fast performance, preventing segfaults and ensuring thread safety.
• It is well known for its memory efficiency, utilizing minimal resources, and proving ideal for embedded systems.
• It is noteworthy that tech giants like Dropbox and Coursera have adopted Rust for internal operational purposes, recognizing its merits.
• It offers zero-cost abstractions for high-level programming coupled with low-level control.
• It provides concurrency primitives that facilitate the creation of efficient and safe concurrent code.
• It is supported by a built-in package manager (Cargo) and an extensive library ecosystem, simplifying development in Rust.

Kotlin

It is one of the most modern and best languages for web development, known for its simplicity and ease of learning, especially for those familiar with Java. Learning Kotlin can also help you develop Android and server-side applications. As per Kotlin, 60% of professional Android developers use it for web development, citing its benefits, such as increased productivity and code safety.

Kotlin is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It allows you to express your ideas more effectively, minimizing the need for extensive boilerplate code.
• It is completely compatible with the Java programming language, and this helps programmers integrate libraries, frameworks, and other Java resources.
• It includes type inference, which allows the compiler to automatically determine a variable’s type and thus remove the requirement for explicit type declarations.
• It has null safety measures achieved by segregating nullable and non-nullable types at the language level. It allows you to avoid NullPointerExceptions, reducing the likelihood of crashes in Android apps by 20%.
• It plays an important role in Android’s modern UI toolkit, providing a platform to easily create intuitive and powerful user interfaces.
• It is worth noting that most Google applications are built using the Kotlin programming language. Companies like Coursera, Pinterest, PostMates, and others are adopting Kotlin as their programming language.
• It coroutines simplify asynchronous programming, streamlining tasks such as network calls and database updates, enhancing simplicity and performance.

Ruby

Ruby is a user-friendly language, making it easy for beginners, and one of the best languages for web development. Its focus on clarity and simplicity makes it an absolute joy to work with, treating programmers as humans first and computers second. Ruby’s object-oriented approach allows for creating code that’s easy to organize and reuse. It accommodates a wide range of coding styles, allowing you to choose between procedural or functional programming, catering to all your coding needs.

Ruby on Rails (“RoR”) is one of the best Ruby frameworks for web development. It’s particularly accessible for non-programmers, featuring a substantial user community, numerous tutorials, and dedicated libraries that enhance coding efficiency.

Ruby is also popular among developers and testers for generating test scripts for automation testing. You can use various Ruby testing frameworks like RSpec for web application testing.

Ruby is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It supports dynamic and duck typing, allowing any variable to hold any object due to its dynamic nature.
• It follows naming conventions for constants, variables, and method names.
• It supports single inheritance, missing methods, singleton methods, and more.
• It organizes code into simple building blocks called classes, simplifying the structure.
• It utilizes “garbage collection” to manage and clean up memory efficiently.
• It encapsulates instructions in blocks, enhancing the ease of calling upon them.

Dart

Dart is considered one of the best languages for web development. It is open-source, was developed by Google, and later approved by ECMA. It is used for server and browser applications. Dart introduces a new programming language accompanied by the Dart SDK featuring its compiler, the Dart VM. Additionally, it involves dart2js, a transpiler that generates JavaScript equivalents of Dart scripts.

Dart is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It primarily focuses on creating front-end user interfaces for web and mobile apps, making it a valuable asset in application development.
• It is compiled into native machine code for developing mobile applications. Inspired by programming languages like Java, JavaScript, and C#, Dart is strongly typed.
• It is a compiled language that doesn’t allow direct code execution. Instead, the compiler analyzes and transforms it into machine code.
• It supports common programming language concepts such as classes, interfaces, and functions, setting it apart from other languages.
• Notably, it doesn’t support arrays directly; instead, it uses collections to replicate data structures like arrays, generics, and optional typing.

Swift

Swift is an open-source programming language designed for modern app developers, especially for developing software applications for Apple platforms. It prioritizes power, speed, and safety. Swift is the preferred language for developing applications on Apple platforms. It gradually replaces Apple’s older Objective-C code while maintaining compatibility for Objective-C developers. Swift is the best choice to learn and implement in building mobile apps if you want to develop software applications for Apple platforms.

Swift is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It needs only a few coding skills compared to other programming languages, making it accessible to a broader range of developers.
• It is compatible with IBM Swift Sandbox, and IBM Bluemix adds to its versatility.
• It has advanced animation control that allows the creation of multiple animation tracks or sequences through highly advanced technologies, one of its most impressive features.
• It adds elements like VStack, HStack, and more for a natural and consistent layout design.
• It has built-in error handling, enhancing its overall robustness.
• It simplifies memory-related tasks using Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) for automatic memory management.
• It extends support for UI testing, accessibility testing, and localization testing, ensuring comprehensive testing capabilities.

R

R is an open-source programming language that is a distinct version of the statistical programming language (S). It means many codes written initially for S can seamlessly operate on R without requiring modifications. While R has a moderate learning curve, it may not be as beginner-friendly as other languages. However, it is still considered one of the best languages for web development, especially for statistical analysis and data visualization.

R programming language is one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It plays a crucial role in statistical processing, including tasks such as linear and nonlinear modeling, calculation, testing, visualization, and analysis.
• It can interface with various databases and handle structured and unstructured data.
• It enhances an extensive array of statistical and graphical methods.
• It comes with packages and libraries that provide diverse data analysis tasks.
• It provides an interactive and dynamic data exploration and modeling environment.
• Its support for data manipulation and transformation contributes to its versatility.
• It ensures reproducibility by using scripts for a systematic approach.
• It integrates with other programming languages, such as C++, Python, and Java, broadening its applicability.

MATLAB

MATLAB is a proprietary programming language owned by MathWorks and mainly used by scientists and engineers. Using this language, you can develop machine learning and deep learning applications. It is not typically designed to be one of the best languages for web development, but it allows you to analyze data, devise algorithms, process images, and validate research findings.

MATLAB can be considered one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is easily accessible and can be learned quickly.
• It has a library of mathematical functions and toolboxes that eventually help develop different engineering applications.
• It has advanced data visualization and plotting capabilities, enhancing Matlab’s utility.
• It can be integrated with C/C++, Java, Python, and others.
• It includes the MATLAB Compiler, which facilitates the creation of standalone applications, adding another layer of flexibility to MATLAB’s repertoire.

Scala

Scala is a general-purpose, versatile, high-level programming language. The name “Scala” reflects its scalability and extends its reach with Javascript runtimes. It is both object-oriented and functional, offering support for both programming paradigms. One of its key features is the ability to convert programs to bytecodes, enabling execution on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), making it one of the best languages for web development.

Scala is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is regarded as the type-safe language for the Java Virtual Machine; Scala uniquely combines the strengths of object-oriented and functional programming languages.
• It allows easy bug reduction for large, intricate applications, offering object-oriented and functional programming support.
• Software developers use it for any of the programming tasks that can be done by Java.
• Its complexity contributes to its remarkable flexibility, enabling diverse applications and solutions.
• Organizations like Netflix and Twitter use Scala, thus showing its practicality and effectiveness in real-world scenarios.

Perl

Perl is a high-level scripting language, a robust programming language with diverse features and applications. It finds wide-ranging utility in system administration, web development, network programming, and numerous other fields, which makes it one of the best languages for web development. It resembles widely used languages and proves approachable and easy to learn, allowing programmers to code effortlessly using standard text editors like Notepad++, gedit, and others.

Perl is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is well known for its simplicity and concise syntax, making it an excellent language for beginners.
• Its versatility allows programmers to adopt various styles in writing programs.
• It offers support for both procedural and object-oriented programming.
• It shares similarities with C syntactically, making it accessible for users familiar with C or C++.
• It officially isn’t an acronym, but Perl has various backronyms, with “Practical Extraction and Report Language” being one of them.
• It facilitates seamless integration with third-party databases, including Oracle, Sybase, Postgres, MySQL, and others, through the database integration interface, DBI.
• It showcases compatibility with HTML, XML, and various mark-up languages, enhancing its utility in diverse applications.
• It features Unicode support, underscoring its adaptability to different character sets.
• It stands out as Y2K compliant, assuring users of their readiness for date-related challenges.

Elixir

Elixir language emerges as one of the best languages for web development, being a dynamic, functional programming language designed to construct scalable and maintainable applications characterized by a simple, modern, and neat syntax. This language is easy to learn and understand, although adapting to its specific approach to data types may take some time.

Elixir is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is recognized for its low-latency capabilities, finding applications in developing high-traffic websites, and building highly scalable applications.
• It has seen increased popularity, particularly for its efficient handling of substantial processing tasks, even though using pure functional programming languages remains niche.
• It has proven its versatility in various applications, ranging from web development of any size to different APIs like JSON or GraphQL, event-driven systems, distributed systems, and the Internet of Things.
• It efficiently manages multiple tasks simultaneously, enhancing overall performance thanks to its concurrent functionality.
• It is noteworthy that companies like Toyota, Pinterest, and PepsiCo utilize it.

Julia

Julia is a dynamic and high-level programming language designed to combine the speed of C/C++ with the user-friendly aspects of Python. While it is not typically considered one of the best languages for web development, Julia increasingly makes it a powerful tool for quickly and effectively tackling software development challenges. It also gained recognition with great potential for Machine Learning and Data Science, endorsed by prominent figures like Shopify’s CEO.

Julia is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is famous for its exceptional speed, a characteristic often emphasized in discussions about the language. Micro-benchmarks showcasing its performance on common code patterns reveal impressive results, although it’s worth noting that these don’t account for compile time.
• It is characterized by clarity in syntax, drawing inspiration from established data programming languages.
• It is a versatile programming language used in many software applications. Its features, like multiple dispatches, make it relevant across industries and suitable for various projects.

Groovy

Groovy is object-oriented and used for the JVM platform. Its dynamic language shares many features with Python, Ruby, and Perl. Its source code is compiled into bytecode, allowing it to run on any platform with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. It also performs many tasks behind the scenes, making it more Agile and dynamic.

Groovy is known as one of the best languages for web development for several reasons:

• It is easy to start if you have already used Java.
• It seamlessly integrates with Java and any third-party libraries.
• It has powerful features like closures, builders, runtime & compile-time meta-programming, functional programming, type inference, and static compilation.
• It is easy to write and maintain test cases.

So far, we have discussed the 22 best programming languages for web development. However, many more languages (though not that popular) still play a significant role in web development.

Some of them include BashJShell (all shells), PowerSheII, Lua, Assembly, Visual Basic (.Net), VBA, Delphi, Objective-C, Haskell, GDScript, Lisp, Solidity, Clojure, Erlang, Fortran, Prolog, Zig, Ada, OCaml, Apex, Cobol, SAS, Crystal Nim, Raku.

Selecting the Best Language for Web Development

With all the above languages, the main challenge you may face is choosing the best one for your software project and career. Therefore, you have to consider different factors like project requirements, personal preferences, and different features of each programming language. For your help, here are some points that will guide you in choosing the best programming language for web development:

• If you are involved in a software project focusing on user interface and user-side development, you can prefer languages like HTML/CSS and JavaScript.
• If you wish to build any back-end application, consider using programming languages like Node.js, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, or . NET. Leverage frameworks like Express, Django, Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Spring, or ASP.NET to streamline development.
• Select a language that is easy to learn and has more popular community support, like Python, JavaScript, and others. It will give you more resources, libraries, and frameworks for web development.
• You should evaluate the scalability of the programming language, as some of those are better suited for large-scale applications.
• You need to evaluate the performance needs of your application. Some languages and frameworks excel in high performance, while others prioritize ease of development.
• You should also consider your familiarity with a language and its associated learning curve. Beginners may prefer languages that are considered more beginner-friendly.
• Always pay attention to the security features of a language and its frameworks. Security is critical in web development, and some languages offer better support for secure coding practices.
• Consider the budget and resources available for your project. Some languages and frameworks may have associated costs or require specific infrastructure.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have covered all the best languages for web development that will help developers and testers make better decisions on which to select based on the project requirements. For example, JavaScript is essential for front-end development, Python is popular for its user-friendliness and quick development, and Java is often chosen for large-scale business applications. When selecting the best language for your project, you must understand the specific requirements of your software application, your team’s skills, and the web development environment.

Selecting the best language for web development should be based on thoroughly understanding your software project’s requirements, your team’s expertise, and the broader web development landscape. Flexibility is key; combining multiple languages in hybrid solutions often yields the best results. Stay informed, be open to exploration, and prioritize your project’s end goals in decision-making.

Modern websites often feature visually appealing components like buttons, navigation bars, headers, hero sections, product galleries, and testimonials to captivate users. These components are styled intentionally to enhance user engagement and improve the overall user experience. One popular way to achieve this is by using the glowing effect.

The glowing effect in CSS make elements stand out and create a striking visual appeal. By applying subtle or vibrant glows to text, buttons, or other elements, developers can draw attention to key areas of a webpage.

In this blog, let’s look at some of the best glowing effects in CSS.

What Are Glowing Effects in CSS?

Glowing effects in CSS are visual styles that give elements a glowing appearance, making them seem as though they emit light. These effects are typically achieved using properties like:

• box-shadow: Adds shadow around an element’s frame, creating a glowing outline.
• text-shadow: Adds shadow to text, giving it a glowing appearance.
• outline: Draws a line around an element, which can be styled to appear as a glow.
• filter: This can be used with the drop-shadow() function to create complex glow effects.

By combining these properties, you can create various glowing styles to highlight important elements, add visual interest, or give your website a modern and futuristic look.

There are many ways to make your website look attractive, and glow effects are one of them. Below are some of the best glowing effects in CSS to help you improve your designs and enhance the user experience.

Best Glowing Effects in CSS

Glowing effects in CSS help you transform your website’s design with striking visuals and these effects can highlight key elements, enhance user interaction, and add a modern, captivating touch to your site.

These effects make your website stand out, from neon text to glowing buttons. Enhance your design with these eye-catching styles to captivate your visitors.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Cards

The glowing effect in CSS is a popular choice for designing websites, adding a touch of enchantment to elements like buttons. In its default state, it provides a subtle aura around the element.

Upon hover, the glow intensifies, creating a captivating transition that draws attention. This effect is ideal for highlighting key features or calls to action, such as hero sections or important buttons like ‘Subscribe.’

The example above showcases how the glowing effect in CSS can be applied to a website, enhancing its visual appeal and user engagement.

See the Pen
Glowing cards Effect by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Neon Text

A common effect that gives text a beautiful, bright look is neon glow text. The lettering appears illuminated from within, simulating the glowing effect of neon lights. This glowing effect in CSS is frequently applied to headers, banners, and other prominent text elements to draw attention.

The example above showcases the neon glow effect. This is achieved by using the color property to set the base color of the text, while the text-shadow values add multiple layers of the same color with increasing blur radius to create the glowing effect.

This glowing effect in CSS can be customized by adjusting the color and shadow values to suit your preferences.

See the Pen
Neon Glow Text by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Note

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Glowing Effect in CSS for Button

A glowing button is a visually appealing user interface element that surrounds its border or text with a glowing effect in CSS. It’s frequently used to draw attention to crucial website buttons like “Get Started Free,” “Submit,” “Buy Now,” and “Learn More.”

Depending on the design needs, the glowing effect can be subtle or striking. The CSS box-shadow property and CSS3 animations can be used to create this effect.

The example above showcases the code styles of a button with a glowing effect in CSS. The .glow class applies a base glow to the button with a box-shadow, and the : hover pseudo-class intensifies the glow effect when the button is hovered over, creating a more pronounced visual impact.

See the Pen
Glowing Button by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Input Field

A glowing input field is a visually appealing way to highlight input elements on your webpage. By adding a subtle glow effect, you can draw attention to the input field when it’s focused or hovered over, enhancing the user experience.

This example showcases a stylish input field with a glowing effect in CSS when focused. The effect is achieved using simple CSS properties, including box-shadow and transition. The input field seamlessly integrates into any modern web design, enhancing the user experience by providing a visual cue when the field is active.

See the Pen
Glowing Input Field by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Box

A glowing box is a visually captivating element that highlights important sections or features on a webpage. This effect creates a soft, glowing aura around a box, making it stand out against the background.

It’s particularly useful for drawing attention to call-to-action areas, promotional content, or any section that needs emphasis.

The glowing box effect can be achieved using CSS properties such as box-shadow and transition.

The example above shows how the code creates a glowing box effect for a div element with the class .glowing-box. Initially, the box has a multi-layered glowing effect using box-shadow, which becomes more pronounced when the box is hovered over. The transition property ensures a smooth change in the glow effect during the hover state.

See the Pen
Glowing Box by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Text Animation

This eye-catching technique surrounds text elements with a pulsating glow, giving the impression that they light up and dim regularly. This effect is ideal for emphasizing promotional material, headlines, or any crucial information on a webpage. The text-shadow and motion are two CSS properties used to create this luminous text animation.

The provided code creates a glowing text animation effect for the < h1 > element with the class .glowing-text.

The text-shadow property initially applies a multi-layered glow in various colors, while the CSS keyframes animation gradually changes the glow effect between two states, creating a pulsating glowing effect in CSS.

The animation property ensures this transition occurs smoothly and repeatedly.

See the Pen
Glowing Text Animation by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Border

A glowing border is an attractive effect that highlights an element’s border with a radiant glow. This effect is ideal for emphasizing specific sections, such as buttons, cards, or containers, making them stand out on the page.

It is also perfect for use during hover to highlight elements like buttons, cards, or containers. The glowing border effect is created using CSS properties such as box-shadow and animation.

The example above creates a glowing border effect for a div element. The border color smoothly transitions between magenta and cyan in a continuous animation, giving the appearance of a pulsating glow. The animation property ensures the border color alternates between the specified colors over a 2-second cycle.

See the Pen
Glowing Border by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Box Shadow

Glowing box shadow is a visually appealing effect that makes an element’s boundary stand out with a soft glow. It is often used to draw attention to important sections and parts of a website, such as call-to-action buttons, sliders, or featured content. The box-shadow and animation are helpful CSS properties for creating either a pulsating or steady glow effect.

The code creates a glowing box shadow effect for a div element. Initially, the box shadow has a soft magenta glow, which transitions to a more intense blue glow in a continuous animation. The animation property ensures that the glow effect pulsates smoothly over a 1.5-second cycle.

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Glowing Box Shadow by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Text on Hover

The glowing text on hover effect activates a shiny appearance when the mouse is over the text, making it look radiant. This effect emphasizes important text, such as website links or calls to action, by adding movement to static messages and increasing user interaction. It is achieved using CSS properties like text-shadow to ensure a smooth transition during the hover animation.

The example above creates a glowing text effect that activates when the text is hovered over. Initially, the text has no shadow, but on hover, it gains a multi-layered magenta glow. The transition ensures the glowing effect in CSS appears smoothly over 0.5 seconds.

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Glowing Text on Hover by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

You can also learn more about it and related tutorials by subscribing to the LambdaTest YouTube Channel.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Outline

The glowing outline effect uses the outline property to create a glowing border around an element when a user hovers over it. This effect is ideal for highlighting buttons, images, or other interactive components on a webpage. The glow is achieved with the outline property combined with box-shadow and transition to create a smooth animation.

The example above creates a glowing outline effect for a div element. Initially, the glowing effect in CSS is invisible, but when the div is hovered over, a bright, blurred glow appears around it. This glow is achieved using pseudo-elements with box-shadow and transition for a smooth effect.

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Glowing Outline by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Neon Button

The neon glow button effect creates a vibrant and luminous appearance that resembles neon lights when a user hovers over it. This visually striking effect draws attention to important actions or links on a webpage. It is achieved using CSS properties like box-shadow and transition to create a glowing effect.

The example above creates a neon glow button effect. Initially, the button has a soft, diffused background glow that fades out when hovered over. On hover, a vibrant, multi-layered glowing effect in CSS appears around the button, drawing attention to it.

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Neon Glow Button by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Neon Glow

The neon glow effect gives text a bright, vivid appearance, mimicking the glow of neon lights. This eye-catching effect draws attention to headings, banners, or other significant text components on a webpage. The luminous animation is achieved using CSS text-shadow and animation attributes.

The example above creates a neon glow effect for text. The text initially appears with a bright pink glow, which then transitions to a vibrant blue glow and back. This pulsating glowing effect in CSS is achieved using animations and text-shadow, creating an eye-catching visual.

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Neon Glow Effect by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Neon Input Fields

The neon text input effect enhances user perception of text fields by adding a bright, glowing neon effect when they are clicked or hovered over. This visually appealing detail not only improves visibility but also makes the input fields more intuitive and engaging, making form creation more effective.

The example above creates a neon glow effect for a text input field. Initially, the field has a simple design, but when it is hovered over or focused on, a vibrant magenta glowing effect in CSS appears around the input, enhancing its visibility and drawing attention to it.

See the Pen
Neon Text Input by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Ring

The glowing ring effect creates a circular element with a glowing outline that becomes more prominent on hover. This effect draws attention to key elements on the website, making them more noticeable and enhancing user interaction.

The example above creates a glowing ring effect for a circular element. Initially, the ring has a static border, but on hover, it transitions into a pulsating animation with changing colors and glowing shadows. This glowing effect in CSS draws attention to the element and makes it more visually engaging.

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Glowing Ring by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Gradient

Creating a glowing gradient effect involves using CSS to apply a gradient background with a glowing animation. This effect is visually striking and is often used to highlight or draw attention to specific elements on a webpage.

The glowing ring effect creates a circular element with a glowing outline that becomes more prominent on hover, attracting users’ attention to critical elements on the website and enhancing visibility.

The example above creates a glowing gradient effect for a text element. The background colors smoothly transition and shift, creating a dynamic and vibrant glowing effect animation.

This draws attention to the element and gives it a visually appealing and engaging look.

You can also explore creating gradient shadows to elevate your web content and improve your UI’s visual appeal.

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Glowing Gradient by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Checkbox

A glowing checkbox is an enhanced UI element that uses CSS to create a glowing effect around the checkbox when it is checked or hovered over. This glowing effect in CSS is visually appealing and makes checkboxes stand out, improving user experience by making them more noticeable and interactive.

The example above creates a glowing effect in CSS for a checkbox. When the checkbox is checked, the checkmark becomes visible, and the surrounding area emits a glowing light, making the checkbox more noticeable.

The glowing effect is achieved through CSS transitions and box-shadow.

See the Pen
Glowing Checkbox by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Radio Button

A glowing radio button is an interactive UI element that uses CSS to create a glowing effect around the radio button when selected or hovered over. The effect enhances visual appeal and user experience by making the radio button more noticeable and engaging.

The example above creates a glowing effect in CSS for radio buttons. Initially, the radio buttons are hidden, and their labels appear as circles. When a radio button is selected, its label changes color and shows a glowing effect around it, enhancing visibility and interaction.

See the Pen
Glowing Radio Button by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Toggle Switch

A glowing toggle switch is an interactive UI element that enhances user experience by visually indicating the switch’s state (on or off) with a glowing effect in CSS. This effect makes the toggle switch more engaging and noticeable, especially in dark-themed designs.

The example above creates a glowing toggle switch that visually indicates its state with a glowing effect. When the switch is checked, the background changes to green with a glow effect, and the toggle moves to the right, enhancing the switch’s visibility and interactivity

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Glowing Toggle Switch by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Menu Item

The glowing menu item is an interactive navigation element that highlights menu items when they are focused on or hovered over. This glowing effect in CSS improves the user interface by making the navigation visually appealing and engaging. It provides instant visual feedback, helping users easily identify their location in the site hierarchy.

The example above creates a navigation menu where menu items have a subtle background color and no text decoration. When hovered over, each menu item gains a glowing effect with a bright cyan box-shadow, enhancing its visual appeal and making it more noticeable to users.

See the Pen
Glowing Menu Item by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Navigation Bar

A glowing navigation bar is an engaging UI element that highlights the entire navigation bar or its items with a glowing effect in CSS. This visual enhancement draws attention to the navigation area, making it more prominent and appealing.

By incorporating a glowing effect, the navigation bar stands out, guiding users effortlessly toward the main menu options and ensuring easy interaction.

The example above creates a glowing navigation bar with a light cyan glow around the entire nav area and individual menu items. When a user hovers over a menu item, the text color changes to cyan, and the item gains a glowing shadow, enhancing the visibility and appeal of the navigation options.

See the Pen
Glowing Navigation Bar by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Loader

A glowing loader is an animated element that indicates loading or processing on a webpage. It uses a glowing effect to create a visually appealing and engaging animation. This glowing effect helps keep users informed that a process is ongoing, enhancing the user experience during wait times.

The glowing effect in CSS helps users remember that a process is in progress, improving UX during the wait. CSS3 animations and the box-shadow property are typically used to achieve this effect.

The example above creates a glowing loader animation. The loader rotates continuously while also pulsing with a glowing effect in CSS. The rotation is smooth and constant, while the glowing effect alternates between bright and dim states to enhance visual appeal during loading.

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Glowing Loader by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Progress Bar

A glowing progress bar is a dynamic and visually engaging UI feature that indicates the status of a job or process. Often used in web applications, it provides users with an aesthetically pleasing and clear way to view task completion.

The glowing effect in CSS enhances the progress bar’s visibility and appeal, using CSS animations and attributes like box-shadow, and can also involve JavaScript for dynamic updates.

The example above creates a glowing progress bar that visually represents the progress of a task. The bar fills up from 0% to 100% over time, with a glowing effect applied to it using CSS animations. The JavaScript code dynamically increases the width of the bar, simulating progress as it advances.

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Glowing Progress Bar by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Modal

A glowing modal is a pop-up dialog that appears on top of the main content of a webpage, often used to capture user attention for important information, alerts, or forms.

The glowing effect enhances the modal’s visibility and makes it more eye-catching. This effect can be achieved using CSS properties such as box-shadow and keyframes for animations.

The example above implements a modal dialog that appears when the “Open Modal” button is clicked, displaying a glowing effect around the modal content. The modal can be closed by clicking the close button, which hides the modal. The glowing effect in CSS is achieved through CSS animations.

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Glowing Modal by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Tooltip

A glowing tooltip is a small pop-up box that appears when you hover over an element, providing additional details or context. This feature helps give clarifications or extra information without cluttering the main content.

This glowing effect in CSS enhances the tooltip’s visibility, making it more eye-catching and ensuring that users notice and can easily read the extra information. This is achieved through CSS shadows and animations that create a bright, striking look.

In the example above, when you hover over the element, a tooltip with additional text appears above it. The tooltip has a glowing effect and becomes fully visible with a smooth transition, providing more context or details without cluttering the main content.

See the Pen
Glowing Tooltip by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Drop-down

Creating a glowing drop-down menu involves adding a subtle glowing effect in CSS to enhance the visibility and attractiveness of the menu items when hovered over.

The above example creates a drop-down menu where the menu button and items have a glowing effect when hovered over. The drop-down content is hidden by default and only appears when the user hovers over the menu button, with the items also gaining a glowing effect on hover to highlight them.

See the Pen
Glowing Drop-down by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Table

A glowing table is an HTML table that features a glowing effect applied to its rows or cells, typically when a user hovers over them. This glowing effect in CSS enhances the table’s visual appeal and provides immediate visual feedback, making it easier to track which row or cell is being interacted with.

The example above creates a glowing table that applies a glowing effect to the rows when hovered over, using a box-shadow to create a visually appealing highlight. This effect animates between different glow intensities, enhancing the table’s interactivity and making it easier for users to track their cursor’s position within the table.

See the Pen
Glowing Table by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Card

A glowing card is a visual design element that uses a glowing effect around its edges or contents to make it stand out. This glowing effect in CSS is often used to highlight sections such as product cards, call-to-action areas, or important information blocks.

The example above creates a glowing card with a rotating, colorful background effect. The card’s background features a conic gradient with a blur effect, giving it a glowing appearance. The content within the card remains visible and centered while the glowing effect animates in the background.

See the Pen
Glowing Card by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Banner

A glowing banner can be created using HTML and CSS to build a container that resembles a banner with a glowing effect in CSS. This visually appealing feature makes the banner stand out and draws attention, often used to highlight important information, sales, or calls to action.

The example above code creates a card with a glowing effect in CSS that activates when the user hovers over it. The card initially displays a subtle shadow, but when hovered, it gains a more pronounced glowing shadow. The card also contains text and a button that changes color on hover for enhanced interactivity.

See the Pen
Glowing Banner by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Alert Box

You can make important messages stand out with a glowing alert box. This glowing effect in CSS draws attention to alerts, ensuring they don’t go unnoticed.

The example above creates a glowing alert box designed to highlight important messages with a visually striking effect. It uses a glowing shadow to attract attention and slightly enlarges when hovered over to enhance visibility.

See the Pen
Glowing Alert Box by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Avatar

A glowing avatar is a visually appealing UI element used to represent users or profiles with an added glowing effect for emphasis or aesthetic enhancement.

The example above creates a navigation bar with a logo and a set of menu items. It includes a glowing avatar effect applied to a profile image, which is animated to draw attention. The navigation bar has a white background with a shadow for visual depth, and the avatar has a pulsating glow to highlight it.

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Glowing Avatar by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Calendar

A glowing calendar is a visual element used to highlight events, schedules, or dates with a glowing effect for emphasis or aesthetic enhancement.

The example above creates a date input field with a glowing effect. The calendar input box has a subtle glow that intensifies when the user hovers over or focuses on it, making it visually stand out against a dark background.

See the Pen
Glowing Calendar by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Slider

A glowing slider is an interactive UI element that allows users to select a value by dragging a thumb control along a track. Adding a glowing effect enhances the slider’s visibility and attractiveness, making it more engaging and easier to use.

The example above creates glowing slider effects that allow users to select a value by dragging a thumb control along a track. The slider is styled to have a glowing effect on the thumb and track, enhancing its visibility and visual appeal. The selected value is displayed above the slider.

See the Pen
Glowing Slider by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Tab

A glowing tab is a navigation element that allows users to switch between different sections of content on a webpage. The glowing effect in CSS highlights the active tab and provides visual feedback. This design enhances the tab’s visibility and indicates the currently active section or category.

The example above creates a glowing tab design that includes navigation links styled as tabs. When a user hovers over a tab, it displays a glowing effect and highlights its border. When active, the tab’s glow intensifies, providing visual feedback on interaction.

See the Pen
Glowing Tab by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Accordion

A glowing accordion is a UI element with collapsible content sections. It allows users to expand or collapse sections to view or hide content. The glowing effect in CSS enhances visibility and provides visual feedback for active or hovered sections.

The example above creates a glowing accordion component with collapsible sections. When a section header is clicked, it expands to reveal its content and highlights with a glowing effect. Only one section can be expanded at a time, as other sections will collapse when a new section is activated.

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Glowing Accordion by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Pagination

Glowing pagination is a UI component that provides navigation links for browsing through multiple pages of content. It improves user experience by visually indicating the current or hovered page with a glowing effect.

Creating a glowing pagination involves designing a UI element that enables navigation through various pages, with a glowing effect to highlight the active or hovered page.

The example above creates a pagination component with navigation links that highlight a glowing effect in CSS when hovered over. JavaScript is used to add and remove a glowing effect on the pagination links based on mouse interactions, enhancing their visual feedback and interactivity.

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Glowing Pagination by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for List

A glowing list is a UI component that enhances visual feedback for interacting with list items, such as in navigation menus or item selections. It typically uses CSS transitions and pseudo-elements to create a glowing effect.

The example above creates a glowing list that enhances user interaction with list items by applying a glowing effect when an item is hovered or focused. Each list item has a background color transition, and a glowing animation is applied to the pseudo-element behind the link, creating a visual highlight effect.

See the Pen
Glowing List by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Quote

A glowing quote is a design enhancement for blockquote elements, adding visual emphasis to the quoted text. It highlights the text when interacted with, making it stand out. This glowing effect in CSS is achieved by applying a glowing visual style to the blockquote element.

The example above creates a blockquote element with a glowing effect. When the user hovers over the blockquote, it becomes more illuminated with a brighter shadow. The blockquote is styled with decorative quote marks and a highlighted border, making it visually prominent on the page.

See the Pen
Glowing Quote by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Code Block

A glowing code block is a visually enhanced display of code snippets used to highlight programming examples or specific syntax elements. It applies a CSS effect that adds a box shadow or border, which changes on hover to make the code block stand out.

The example above creates a glowing effect for a code block on a webpage. The effect is achieved by applying a multi-layered box shadow and a rotating, semi-transparent overlay that animates, making the code block visually stand out and continuously pulse with a glow.

See the Pen
Glowing Code Block by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Badge

A glowing badge is a visually appealing UI element used to highlight or indicate status, achievements, or notifications. This eye-catching component effectively draws user attention, making it ideal for emphasizing important information or rewards within an application or website.

The example above creates a glowing badge that highlights status or notifications. It has a subtle glow effect by default, which intensifies with a red glowing shadow when the user hovers over it, drawing more attention to the badge.

See the Pen
Glowing Badge by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Social Media Icon

A glowing social media icon is a visually enhanced version of a social media platform’s logo, designed to attract attention and encourage interaction with social media links or buttons on a webpage. It uses CSS to create a glowing or pulsating effect, making the icon more engaging and noticeable when interacted with by the user.

The example above creates a set of social media icons displayed in a row and centered on the page. When a user hovers over any icon, a glowing effect in CSS is applied, making the icon more noticeable.

See the Pen
Glowing Social Media Icon by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Share Button

A glowing share button uses HTML and CSS to make the button more noticeable and inviting to click. This glowing effect in CSS is achieved by applying a pulsating visual enhancement to the button.

The example above creates a button with a glowing effect that becomes more intense when hovered over. Initially, the button has a subtle glow, which intensifies with a brighter, larger glow and changes text color when the user hovers over it.

See the Pen
Glowing Share Button by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Comment Box

A glowing comment box is a UI element designed to catch the user’s attention and offer visual feedback, often triggered by hovering. The glow effect is created through CSS adjustments to the box-shadow, simulating a light glow around the box.

The example above creates a comment box interface with a text area and a submit button. When the user focuses on the text area, it glows with a blue shadow effect, while hovering over the button changes its background color and adds a glowing shadow, making the interface visually engaging and interactive.

See the Pen
Glowing Comment Box by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Contact Form on Hover

A glowing contact form is a visually enhanced user interface element that provides feedback when hovered over. This glowing effect in CSS is used to modify properties like box-shadow and background-color, creating a glowing or highlighted appearance.

This example above creates a contact form with fields for a user’s name, email, and message. The form features a subtle glowing effect on hover, enhancing its visual appeal and drawing user attention. The styling is focused on clean design and readability, with consistent fonts, colors, and spacing.

See the Pen
Glowing Contact Form on Hover by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Search Bar

A glowing search bar is a visually enhanced user interface element that provides feedback when hovered over. This effect is achieved using CSS to modify properties such as box-shadow and background-color, creating a glowing or highlighted appearance.

A glowing search bar is a visually enhanced user interface element that provides feedback when hovered over. This glowing effect in CSS is used to modify properties like box-shadow and background-color, creating a glowing or highlighted appearance.

See the Pen
Glowing Search Bar by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Login Form

A glowing login form with animation uses CSS keyframes to create a continuous glowing effect around the form. This glowing effect in CSS provides visual interest and feedback to users, making the form more engaging without requiring interaction.

The example above creates a login form with a glowing effect for the input fields and the submit button. When the user focuses on an input field or hovers over the button, a glowing effect is applied, enhancing the form’s appearance and providing visual feedback.

See the Pen
Glowing Login Form by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Register Form

A glowing register form with animation uses CSS keyframes to create a continuous glowing effect around the form. This effect enhances user interaction and provides visual feedback, making the form more engaging.

The example above creates a registration form with fields for username, email, and password. The form has a glowing effect on focus and hover, providing visual feedback to users. It features a clean, modern design with animations to make the form more engaging.

See the Pen
Glowing Register Form by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

Glowing Effect in CSS for Error Message

To emphasize critical information such as form validation errors or alerts, use a glowing error message. This UI enhancement uses CSS animations to create a pulsating glow around the error message, making it more noticeable and urgent.

The example above creates a glowing error message that is designed to attract attention by creating a pulsating glow effect around it. This is achieved through CSS animations that alternate the intensity of the glow, making the message more noticeable and urgent. The background and border colors emphasize the error, while the glowing effect ensures the message stands out.

See the Pen
Glowing Error Message by Clinton Joy (@Cejay101)
on CodePen.

The above demos are displayed using LambdaTest, a cloud-based platform with real-time testing capabilities. When implementing glowing effects in CSS across various UI elements, ensuring consistent performance and responsiveness across different browsers and devices is crucial.

LambdaTest’s LT Browser allows you to validate responsiveness on a wide range of mobile devices, offering over 53 device viewports for side-by-side comparisons. It provides pre-installed viewports for mobiles, tablets, desktops, and laptops, enabling synchronized interactions like scrolling and clicking for thorough cross-browser and device testing.

To begin testing your application responsiveness and maintain browser compatibility with LT Browser, click the download button below. After downloading the .exe file, run it to explore all the features and capabilities of LT Browser.

DOWNLOAD LT BROWSER 2.0

Watch the video tutorial below to familiarize yourself with the features and functionalities of LT Browser.

Conclusion

Exploring various glowing effects across UI elements reveals a versatile toolkit for enhancing user experience and visual appeal in web design. Each effect, from buttons to forms and icons, serves a unique purpose in guiding interaction and emphasizing key information.

Glowing effects primarily use CSS properties like box-shadow, border, and outline, along with animations defined through CSS keyframes. These techniques not only add aesthetic value but also improve usability by drawing attention and providing clear visual feedback.

Knowing when and how to apply glowing effects is crucial. They highlight interactive elements, improve form validation, and add depth to design elements. Customization options abound, allowing for tailored effects that match branding and UI requirements.

.element {
        filter: blur(5px);
         }

a {
        text-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.7); /* Red glow */
        }

.glass {
        background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
        backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
        border-radius: 10px;
      }

.glossy {
        background: linear-gradient(to top, #fff, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 60%);
        border-radius: 5px;
      }