🚀 Test mappView with different Chrome versions — without reinstalling Chrome

Share Info & Ideas How-To & Wikis
1

Hello B&R Community,

I would like to share a tool that helped me a lot during some first-level support cases.

When developing or troubleshooting a mappView application, the Chrome version can sometimes make a difference.

A layout issue, cache behavior, or customer-specific problem may only appear with a specific browser version.

With Chrome for Testing, you can run a specific Chrome version directly from an .exe file — side by side with your normal Chrome installation.

No downgrade.
No overinstallation.
No impact on your daily browser. :white_check_mark:

Why it is useful :man_technologist:

For developers, this is very helpful to:

:white_check_mark: Reproduce issues with the exact Chrome version
:white_check_mark: Compare behavior between browser versions
:white_check_mark: Check if a problem is browser-related
:white_check_mark: Keep your normal Chrome installation untouched
:white_check_mark: Create clean and reproducible test environments

How to do it :gear:

  1. Open the Chrome for Testing known-good versions JSON:
    https://googlechromelabs.github.io/chrome-for-testing/known-good-versions-with-downloads.json

  2. Press Ctrl + F and search for the required version, for example
    114.0.5735.6

  3. In that section, look for the win64 download URL for chrome.
    Example: https://storage.googleapis.com/chrome-for-testing-public/114.0.5735.6/win64/chrome-win64.zip

  4. Download and extract the ZIP, for example to:
    C:\Donwloads\Chrome_for_Testing\Chrome_114\

  5. Start Chrome directly from:
    chrome-win64\chrome.exe

This runs standalone and does not replace your installed Chrome.

Recommended for clean tests :test_tube:

Start it with a separate profile:

chrome-win64\chrome.exe --user-data-dir="C:\Temp\Chrome_Test_Profile_114"

This avoids mixing cache, cookies, extensions, and settings with your normal Chrome profile.

What not to use it for :warning:

Chrome for Testing is great for development, debugging, and support.

But it should not replace final validation on the real target hardware, panel, or customer runtime environment.

Conclusion :white_check_mark:

Chrome for Testing makes browser-version testing for mappView faster, cleaner, and much more reproducible — especially when investigating customer issues or comparing behavior between Chrome versions. :rocket:

12 Likes
2

Hey @filipe.costa, thanks for sharing :slight_smile: I have to give it a try.