Debugging web applications with FireFox and Charles Web Debugging Proxy

Have you ever run into a situation where you are trying to debug a problem with LoadVariables, LoadMovie and XML loading? Have you had the same needs for SHTML, AJAX or other communication between the internet and the client side browser? Then Charles Web Debugging Proxy is for you.

This great tool is an HTTP proxy, HTTP monitor and Reverse Proxy that gives a developer the ability to view all of the HTTP traffic between their computer and the Internet - including requests, responses and the HTTP headers. It works in tandem with a FireFox extension that facilitates the communication.

One great feature of this tools is the ability to set the bandwidth speed to simulate different user experiences to check latencies and debug issues.

I have found this tool invaluable when working on deadline Flash applications that load variables and movie clips. By viewing the easy tree structure and sequence of events within the Charles tool you can easily see conflicts with other page code or a variable that is missing.

Charles is a Java application that requires the JRE or JDK from Sun. Most operating systems come with JRE orJDK installed and Charles with notify you if you don’t have the necessary software.

Download the JRE here if you need it: http://java.sun.com/j2se/, version 1.4 or later is required.

Click here to download Charles Web Debugging Proxy

Written by JZisk · Filed Under Feature story 2, Web