Browser Tracer

This functionality is available for Basic Engine Robots only.

The Browser Tracer is available from the Tools menu in Design Studio. The Browser Tracer can trace HTTP traffic in Design Studio as well as JavaScript execution for robots written with the Classic browser that was the default in pre-9.3 robots. The Browser Tracer is useful for performance tuning robots and figuring out workarounds for sites that do not work out-of-the-box.

Tracing

To start tracing, enable the Record button. While recording, especially if using JavaScript recording, things may run much slower than normal as vast amounts of data are collected. Make sure to disable the Record button once you have traced the traffic you wanted.

HTTP Trace

The HTTP trace shows HTTP traffic. Selecting a trace entry shows the details about that HTTP event in the detail view below the trace. The detail view shows the request and response headers, as well as the request and response data sent. Normally, only POST requests will contain request data.

Pending loads are shown in blue.

Blocking URL

You can block certain URLs by right-clicking an item in the HTTP list and selecting Add URL to block. The Configure URL Blocking Pattern dialog box opens for you to edit the URL pattern. See URL Blocking for more information.

JavaScript Trace

JavaScript tracing is only available for robots that use the Classic browser that was default in pre-9.3 robots. If you have a robot that uses the Default browser, the JavaScript tab is not available.

Below each JavaScript trace, the JavaScript source code for the currently selected trace entry is shown. When a trace entry is selected, the corresponding source code line is highlighted in the source view. The trace entry is the runtime result of the execution of the highlighted source code line. Each source code line may, of course, be executed multiple times, in which case multiple trace entries are produced, all corresponding to the same source code line.

Stepping through trace entries can help you understand how a piece of JavaScript code works.

It is possible to turn off tracing of JavaScript if you are only interested in the HTTP trace. You do this by clearing the Enable JavaScript Tracing check mark in the Trace menu.

Saving and Loading Trace Sessions

You can save trace sessions to load at a later time. A trace session contains both the Design Studio trace and the proxy trace, and both JavaScript and HTTP traces. Saving a trace session can be useful if it is large and you want to look at it in detail later, or if you want to mail it to someone else.

Bug reports submitted from Design Studio will automatically contain the current trace session, if any.

Saving trace response

You can save trace responses by their path.

Click File > Save or File > Save As to open a Save dialog box and choose the directory to save all body responses.

All requests are saved by their path in the domain directory of the selected folder.