How to capture network traffic using selenium webdriver and browsermob proxy on Python?

Question

I would like to capture network traffic by using Selenium Webdriver on Python. Therefore, I must use a proxy (like BrowserMobProxy)

When I use webdriver.Chrome:

from browsermobproxy import Server

server = Server("~/browsermob-proxy")

server.start()
proxy = server.create_proxy()

from selenium import webdriver
co = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
co.add_argument('--proxy-server={host}:{port}'.format(host='localhost', port=proxy.port))

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path = "~/chromedriver", chrome_options=co)

proxy.new_har
driver.get(url)
proxy.har # returns a HAR 

for ent in proxy.har['log']['entries']:
    print ent['request']['url']

the webpage is loaded properly and all requests are available and accessible in the HAR file. But when I use webdriver.Firefox:

# The same as above
# ...
from selenium import webdriver
profile  = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile, proxy = proxy.selenium_proxy())

proxy.new_har
driver.get(url)
proxy.har # returns a HAR

for ent in proxy.har['log']['entries']:
    print ent['request']['url']

The webpage cannot be loaded properly and the number of requests in the HAR file is smaller than the number of requests that should be.

Do you have any idea what the problem of proxy settings in the second code? How should I fix it to use webdriver.Firefox properly for my purpose?

Sudhir

Answer 1

Just stumbled across this project https://github.com/derekargueta/selenium-profiler. Spits out all network data for a URL. Shouldn't be hard to hack and integrate into whatever tests you're running.

Original source: https://www.openhub.net/p/selenium-profiler

Perspicuous

Answer 2

For me, following code component works just fine.

profile = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
profile.set_proxy(proxy.selenium_proxy())
driver = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=profile)

Kirtle

Does that work for you when using https? It doesn't for me (even if setting profile.accept_untrusted_certs = True). – Tenant

Answer 3

I am sharing my solution, this would not write any logs to any file
but you can collect all sort of messages such as Errors, 
Warnings, Logs, Info, Debug , CSS, XHR as well as Requests(traffic)

1. We are going to create Firefox profile so that we can enable option of 
"Persist Logs" on Firefox (you can try it to enable on your default browser and see 
if it launches with "Persist Logs" without creating firefox profile )

2. we need to modify the Firefox initialize code 
where this line will do magic : options.AddArgument("--jsconsole");

so complete Selenium Firefox code would be,  this will open Browser Console
everytime you execute your automation :

 else if (browser.Equals(Constant.Firefox))
            {

                var profileManager = new FirefoxProfileManager();
                FirefoxProfile profile = profileManager.GetProfile("ConsoleLogs");
                FirefoxDriverService service = FirefoxDriverService.CreateDefaultService(DrivePath);
                service.FirefoxBinaryPath = DrivePath;                
                profile.SetPreference("security.sandbox.content.level", 5);
                profile.SetPreference("dom.webnotifications.enabled", false);
                profile.AcceptUntrustedCertificates = true;
                FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
                options.AddArgument("--jsconsole");
                options.AcceptInsecureCertificates = true;
                options.Profile = profile;
                options.SetPreference("browser.popups.showPopupBlocker", false);
                driver = new FirefoxDriver(service.FirefoxBinaryPath, options, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(100));
                driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitWait = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10);               

            }

3. Now you can write your logic since you have traffic/ logging window open so don't 
go to next execution if test fails. That way Browser Console will keep your errors 
messages and help you to troubleshoot further 

Browser : Firefox  v 61 

How can you launch Browser Console for firefox:
1. open firefox (and give any URL )
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+J (or Cmd+Shift+J on a Mac) 

Link : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Browser_Console  

Econometrics