QA Proxy Help

Overview | Basic Use | QA Proxy Tabs | QA Proxy Menu | Keyboard Shortcuts | License Details

Overview

QA Proxy is a tool that is designed to show you what's going on under the hood between your web browser and a web server. It was designed to help in the debugging and QA of website. QA Proxy is not a packet sniffer, it is a true proxy that sits between your browser and the outside world.

QA Proxy has one unique feature that should make it indespensible to anyone testing or developing with Macromedia Flash Remoting: it understands and can parse out AMF traffic. AMF is the proprietary binary data format used by Macromedia Flash Remoting. The AMF PHP project (http://amfphp.sourceforge.net/) has gone a long way in understanding AMF, and the AMF Parser used by QA Proxy is based on the information garnered by the AMF PHP project.

You can find more info and the latest version of the tool on the QA Proxy home page:
http://apps.mkulu.org/qaproxy/

Basic Use

- Start up QA Proxy.
- When it starts, a message is logged telling you what port the proxy is listening on (you can change this default port at any time from the Setup->Port menu).
- Now open up the browser of your choice and set it to use localhost:port as your proxy, where port is the same as the one QA Proxy is listening on.
For example, in IE, you would click Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings, then check the "Use a Proxy Server ..." box and enter localhost as the address and the port you got from QA Proxy as the port (see sample screen shot below):

Tip: As most testing is done on internal servers, it's a good idea to make sure the "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" option is not selected
- Now, when you view a website, all the requests and responses in your browser session are recorded in your HTTP Log. In addition, any AMF packets that are sent or received are decoded and displayed in the AMF log.

QA Proxy Tabs

QA Proxy has a tabbed UI, each tab displaying a partuclar subset of information.

HTTP Log

This tab displays all HTTP requests and responses. Client requests are displayed in blue and server responses are green. It shows all the HTTP headers so you can see things like server status codes, cookies, etc. For each server response, there is an associated approximate response time in milliseconds

AMF Log

This tab displays a formatted dump of all AMF Packets that pass through the system. Client requests are displayed in blue and server responses are green. For each client request, there is an associated approximate server response time in milliseconds

Statistics

The statistics screen is split in to two halves: Current Session and Total Sessions. The statistics in the Total Sessions section accumulate for as long as the proxy is running. The statistics in the Current Session section can be reset at will by using the menu option Clear->Stats or hitting F6 on the keyboard.

QA Proxy Menu

Please select a menu option below

File->Exit

Close down the proxy and exit. Note, when you do this, you need to set your browser to no longer use a proxy, or you'll have a rather frustrating experience

Setup->Port

Set the port the proxy will listen on

Setup->Next Hop Proxy

If you already use a proxy, enter it's values in here. Now, QA Proxy will send your requests on to your old proxy.

Clear->Stats

Clear the Current Session statistics

Clear->AMF Log

Clear the AMF Log

Clear->HTTP Log

Clear the HTTP Log

Clear->All

Clear the Current Session statistics, the AMF Log and the HTTP Log

Save XXX Log

Saves either the AMF log or HTTP log to file (depending on which log you're currently viewing)

Font Size

Not functional at this time

Search->Find

Search for a particular string in the logs

Search->Find Again

Repeat the last search

Annotate

Allows you to enter a short annotation in the logs, along with a timestamp.

Snapshot

Takes a snapshot of the Current Session and Total Sessions statistics

Help->Contents

Brings up this page

Help->About

Brings up an about box with a link to the QA Proxy site

Keyboard Shortcuts

QA Proxy has a number of keyboard shortcuts built in to it, these are listed below:

License Details