HttpWatch

HttpWatch

 

Become a debugging and web performance guru with the ultimate in-browser HTTP sniffer.

 

 

Features

 

Web Page Debugging

Debug the network traffic generated by a web page directly in the browser without having to switch to a separate tool.

 

Seamless Web Page Debugging

HttpWatch integrates with Chrome and Internet Explorer browsers to show you the HTTP and HTTPS traffic that is generated when you access a web page.

 

Fast, Easy Access to Cookies, Headers & More...

Select a request in HttpWatch and everything you need to know is display in a tabbed window. Cookies, Headers, Query Strings and POST data can be quickly viewed, searched and exported to other formats.

 

Understand HTTP Headers Without Being An Expert

You don't have to be an HTTP expert or have read the HTTP RFC to understand headers. Simply hold the mouse pointer over a header and a data tip explains how it is used.

 

Handle Multi-Page Scenarios With Page Grouping

HttpWatch groups together requests within a heading for each page making it much easier to understand multi-page steps, e.g. log in, search and update pages.

 

Performance Tuning

Accurately measure the network performance of a web page and view opportunities for boosting its speed.

 

Real Time Page Level Time Charts

Page level time charts are displayed and updated in real-time as you record requests in HttpWatch. This gives a direct, visual indication of how a site is performing - allowing common problems to be diagnosed at a glance.

 

Millisecond Accurate Request Timings

The time chart displayed for each request is broken down into a number of colored sections to show network level timings such as DNS lookup, TCP connect and SSL Handshake

 

Page Event Timings

HttpWatch is able to show browser event timings alongside the network level HTTP waterfall chart. Timings such as the Render Start and Page Load events are useful metrics for determining when content starts to be displayed and when the page appears to be complete.

 

Automatically Detects Performance Issues

Performance warnings are displayed when the speed of an HTTP request or resource download could be improved. The warning includes information about how the web server should be configured to avoid the issue.

 

Simple No-Proxy Setup

No extra configuration or proxies are required - even with encrypted HTTPS traffic!

 

Easy Setup - No Changes To Proxies, Drivers or Certificate Chains

Setting up HttpWatch just takes a few minutes. After running the install program simply open Chrome or IE and then confirm that you want to enable the HttpWatch add-on. HttpWatch can then be opened to view the network traffic for any web page.

Local admin rights are required to run the setup program but after installation HttpWatch can be used from non-admin accounts.

 

Hassle-Free Access To HTTPS Traffic

HttpWatch is able to display HTTPS traffic without having to decrypt it first because it is integrated within the browser. This means you don't need to have access to private keys or modify trusted SSL root certificates.

 

Full Support for IE 11, Windows 10, EPM and 64 bit

Depending on how you have setup Windows, IE 11 may be running in 64-bit mode and have Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) enabled. HttpWatch supports these different configurations without any additional changes or reinstallation.

 

Security Testing

Quickly find weak SSL configurations and other security related issues on your web server.

 

Check the SSL Strength Of HTTPS Connections

The SSL tab displays information about the type of certificates and encryption used to setup an HTTPS connection. Potential issues are highlighted as being of 'medium' or 'weak' strength'

 

Automatically Detects Security Issues

Warnings are displayed when a potential security issue is detected on an HTTPS page.

 

Verify That Headers, Cookies & Form Fields Are Used Correctly

HttpWatch shows you all the data that a secure web server delivers to the browser allowing you to check that sensitive field values and internal configuration details are not accidently exposed through the web interface.

 

Free Log File Sharing

Anyone can use the free Basic Edition to send you full log files to help you remotely diagnose errors or performance issues.

 

Customers and Users Can Send You Log Files For Free

The free Basic Editions of HttpWatch for Windows and iOS allow anyone to send you a detailed HttpWatch log file (HWL) without having to make a purchase.

This feature is often used by software companies to diagnose issues that their customers have reported in their web based systems.

 

Passwords Are Masked in Log Files

A common problem with collecting HTTP trace files from customers or users is that the file may contain the password that was entered during login. HttpWatch is configured by default to mask out suspected password fields in submitted web forms.

 

HttpWatch Professional Unlocks Log Files From The Basic Edition

Log files recorded in HttpWatch Basic contain the same level of detail as HttpWatch Professional but only a limited amount of information is displayed by default. This information is available when you open the file in HttpWatch Professional.

 

Automated HTTP Testing

Use the HttpWatch API to collect performance data from your automated web site tests.

 

Automate HttpWatch With Almost Any Programming Language

HttpWatch has an extensive automation API allowing it to be controlled from most popular programming languages - C#, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, etc.

 

Measure HTTP Performance and Detect Errors During Automated Testing

HttpWatch can be integrated with automated test frameworks for IE, such as Watir and Selenium so that you can detect HTTP level errors and performance issues during testing.

 

Automatic Recording

Log files can be collected without any programming by enabling the automatic recording and saving feature. This can be useful if you have users running manual tests and you need to keep a record of performance metrics and errors.

 

New in Version 12.2

SVG Support

SVG images can now be displayed on the Content tab in Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703) or later:

 

Switchable Image Preview

The Preview button on the Content tab can be used to switch between the graphical image view and the underlying image data:

 

New in Version 12.1

More Powerful Filtering

Multi-value strings are supported in the Filter dialog by using the | (vertical bar) character as a separator. For example, entering 'google.com|fonts/' in the URL field would match against any URL that contained 'google.com' or 'fonts/':

 

Experimental Support for Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

The HttpWatch Extension can be added to the Edge (Chromium) beta from the Chrome Web Store. A full implementation will be available when Edge (Chromium) is officially released. For more details see Experimental Support For Microsoft Edge (Chromium):

 

Support for WebP Images and Animations

The content tab can now display WebP images and animations:

 

New in Version 12

Enhanced Debugging of JSON Based REST API Calls

Single Page Applications (SPA) and other modern web development techniques make extensive use of JSON based REST calls to the server. HttpWatch 12 can now display formatted, syntax highlighted JSON request and response bodies:

 

POST Data Tab Displays Top Level JSON Data Items

Top level data items in a JSON request can now be viewed in the same way as parameters from form submits:

 

POST Data Tab Has a New Text View

The underlying text of a form submit or a JSON request body can be viewed in the POST Data tab by selecting Text from the View menu:

 

Password Masking Now Applies to Top Level JSON Values

The masking of potentially sensitive fields such as passwords now applies to JSON request bodies as well as form submits:

 

Textual Content is Displayed in a Folding Viewer

The new folding feature allows sections of text (e.g. an HTML tag) to be collapsed. This can help to simplify the structure of a file and make it easier to locate and view areas of interest:

 

Export Selected Pages and Requests as HAR

A new context menu item in the main request grid allows selected pages or requests to be saved to a HAR file instead of exporting the whole log:

 

Ability to View the Original Order of POST Values

In some cases web servers might look at the original order in which parameters were sent in a POST request. This order is now available in the sortable Index column:

 

Faster Loading of Large HAR Files

Large HTTP Archive (HAR) files now open up to 5 times faster in HttpWatch Studio.

 

New Properties Added to the Automation Interface

The Content automation class has two new properties:

• The Encoding property shows the format in which text was originally delivered by the server, e.g. UTF8, Japanese, etc.
• The Text property automatically provides access to the Unicode version of the text and performs any conversions as required based on how the text was encoded.

Also, the Data property has changed to return a byte array making it simpler to access non-textual resources such as images.

 

The Request class has two new properties, Data and Text, providing access to binary and textual request bodies.

 

New in Version 11.1

HttpWatch Automation Interface Supports Google Chrome

The HttpWatch automation interface now supports automated page testing with Chrome:

 

New in Version 11

HttpWatch Supports Google Chrome

An HttpWatch window can now be opened and used to record network traffic in Chrome by clicking on the HttpWatch icon:

 

or using the context menu on any web page:

 

HAR Files Can Now Include (Cache) and Errors

The HAR file specification didn't allow cache only or failing requests to be recorded. HttpWatch now uses the same extended properties as other well known tools to circumvent this restriction:

 

HttpWatch Basic Edition vs Professional Edition

 

This table shows the difference between the HttpWatch Basic and Professional Editions:

 

	Basic Edition	Professional Edition
Internet Explorer Add-on	V	V
Chrome Extension	V	V
Standalone log file viewer	V	V
Shows HTTPS requests	V	V
Page Level Time Charts	V	V
Request Level Time Charts	V	V
Automatic Recording	Requires user confirmation	V
Password Masking	V	V
Exports to CSV, HAR and XML	For restricted set of URLs only	V
Displays basic HTTP information including URLs, status codes, response size, mime type & time	V	V
Displays detailed HTTP information including headers, cookies, streams, compression, etc…	For restricted set of URLs only	V
Saves full trace file	V	V
Loads and displays trace files recorded in HttpWatch Professional Edition	V	V
Loads and displays trace files from HttpWatch Basic Edition	Detailed information only displayed for certain URLs	V
Automation Support (IE & Chrome)	Detailed information only displayed for certain URLs	V
Printing and Print Preview	A banner about HttpWatch is display at the top of every print	V

 

Our Customers

 

“We use HttpWatch to help ensure the performance of our site meets and exceeds the high standards of our community.”

Mahesh Subramanian, eBay

 

“HttpWatch is clearly the best I’ve used and has quickly become the tool of choice for my team.”

Scott Stabbert - Microsoft

 

“Thank you very much for HttpWatch! It is the best tool available to learn and understand HTTP and to see what the browser is doing.”

Brian McKellar, SAP

 

“HttpWatch is awesome! We use it in QA while testing web applications. It allows us to quickly identify issues on the fly.”

Brent Strange - QA Engineer

 

“After three days using HttpWatch Professional, I have cured more ills in my projects than in a month of effort using lesser tools.”

J. Miller - PA, USA

 

“I love this product! It is the most useful tool I have ever seen for this sort of job. Well done!”

John Page - Javeo Corp.