Using Fiddler with Firefox
Once in a while I really should read documentation - the "hidden" features I might find on all the applications I use.
For some reason Fiddler stopped working with Internet Explorer, so I was actually reading the few doc and faqs that are on the Fiddler website (http://www.fiddlertool.com/).
If you don't know what Fiddler is, its an HTTP Debugging proxy. It logs all the traffic between your browser and the outside world. Its particularly useful when you're doing Flash remoting or remoting with AJAX.
Anyway... looking at the FAQs I noticed that it is possible to use Fiddler with any browser!! I decided to try it out with Firefox and it was really really easy to do.
- Install and Run Fiddler once. This will create some files, one of which you'll need.
- In "My Documents" you will now see that there is folder for Fiddler. Inside there you'll find a Scripts folder. Grab a copy of the full path to this Scripts folder. For me that would be : C:\Documents and Settings\Stephen\My Documents\Fiddler\Scripts
- Open up Firefox, go to Options under the Tools menu and then click on the Connection Setting button.
- Down the bottom of the connection settings is "Automatic proxy configuration URL:" Select this option and in the box put the file path to the Scripts folder followed by BrowserPAC.js which is a file in the Scripts folder. So my full path is : C:\Documents and Settings\Stephen\My Documents\Fiddler\Scripts\BrowserPAC.js
- Hit the Reload button, then OK, close the options window and you are set!
" FireBug lets you explore the far corners of the DOM by keyboard or mouse. All of the tools you need to poke, prod, and monitor your JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax are brought together into one seamless experience, including an error console, command line, and a variety of fun inspectors. "
Yeah I use Firebug too, but I'm finding that it has been doing some irritating things recently. I seem to have problems with the XHttpResponse not always showing up. Don't know why... It was fine when I was down in Windsor, but doesn't seem to work any more. Also I'm finding that whenever I open an new tab or window the firebug console is always open even though I've tried to tell it not to!
The main point of using autoconfig rather than hardcoding is that Fiddler rewrites the autoconfig file when it starts or shuts down. So you just need to restart Firefox to get it to update whether or not it tries to use Fiddler.
it's a pity.
Thanks a lot.
this worked ok for me for a week...
and today it stopped - i mean that now fiddler doesn't catch requests from firefox :(
i still have same settings using fiddler as a proxy..
when i used manual proxy (127.0.0.1:8888) - it again works fine :)
lol - no problem - glad you worked out what the problem was.
Once you've set up the proxy connection you will only be able to connect to the internet through fiddler.
Just reset your network connection if you don't need fiddler.
I found this one could be the best way for fx.
The problem with Firebug (particularly with Flash I find) is that it just doesn't log the POST details in the request (somtimes) and you have to replay the call to see the result (which doesn't work if it didn't log the request!). Firebug has other great features but debugging requests isn't one of them in my experience.
Fiddler on the other hand just shows you exactly what happened.