Fiddler is a useful tool for tracking http requests and responses. It’s similar to the Net tag in Firebug, except that it can be used to track all requests, not only browser-based ones.
For Ubuntu users, the recommended alternative is Wireshark. Wireshark is noted as being more powerful than Fiddler, but the focus will be on the features most commonly used by web developers for tracking.
Installation
Wireshark is found in the Ubuntu repositories, so simply search for wireshark in Synaptic, or enter sudo apt-get install wireshark
Usage
Under Applications > Internet, you will notice there are two options. Wireshark and Wireshark (as root). Run the second one (as root) as this gives you more data to track.
After wireshark has started, the process is straightforward:
- Choose which network interfaces to capture traffic from
- Start capturing
- Filter captured requests
1. Choosing which network interfaces to capture traffic from. From the menu, choose: Capture > Interfaces
This will bring up a list of network devices.
2. Since my work involves debugging work off my laptop (http://localhost etc), I only start device lo (127.0.0.1). This is useful as it immediately ignores all other traffic.
3. The one thing you will notice is that fiddler will log both the TCP and HTTP requests. For the purpose of debugging AJAX, etc., we are only interested in HTTP requests, TCP requests are not required. These can be hidden by adding a filter.
In the field next to Filter:, enter http and click on Apply.
The steps will now show all traffic coming on 127.0.0.1 via HTTP. The last step is picking up the AJAX parts for debugging. Notice that for each request, there is a response. Unlike Fiddler, Wireshark does not combine the request and the response. So click on the response line, and then expand the Line-based text data row. This will show the text of the AJAX response.
Conclusion
Wireshark takes more steps than Fiddler, and Fiddler is a more focussed program than Wireshark. Wireshark also captures traffic without having to install a plugin into firefox, etc., so it’s useful for debugging applications as well. The biggest improvement to make Wireshark truly replace Fiddler is to turn off truncation of the response text. Wish I knew how!
There are two ways to uninstall Adobe AIR apps on Ubuntu.
1) Access to original .air file
If you have access to the original .air file, run it and it will give you a screen with options to either Uninstall, Run Now or Cancel. Simply click on Uninstall.
2) Use Synaptic Package Manager
A second more easier approach (particularly if you lost the .air package) is to use Synaptic. From the sidebar, simply choose: Status > Installed (local or obsolete)
Discovering this makes me less hesitant to try our different AIR apps, trying to find out which one works best.
Getting a printer installed on Ubuntu is easy, plug-and-play generally works. Getting a PDF printer working is also easy. To install it, one has to open a terminal or Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager).
In a terminal, enter:
sudo apt-get install cups-pdf
It will ask you for your password when you press enter. Or in Synaptic, do a search for: cups-pdf.
Now one step that has to be done manually otherwise it doesn’t work. In your home directory, create a folder called PDF (all in caps).
After this, you’ll see an option for PDF in the printer’s list, and printing to PDF.
About a month ago, I decided to ditch Windows Vista, and move back to Ubuntu. It was kind of a reluctant decision since:
- I sometimes develop on Visual Studio which requires Windows
- DELL’s software management is awesome, and one just has to enter your service tag to get a list of driver’s you need, etc.
However, Vista’s sluggish performance and slow boot-up times, became too irritating too bear.
I also have to admit that with my previous UWC laptop, I kind-of had it tuned up as a developer machine, nice-and-fast, great apps, removal of non-essential features. It’s a journey and adventure to rediscover that. Follow my next blog posts as I attempt to retrace those steps, the things they don’t tell you, and stuff I’ve just plain forgotten! Also some of my notes on getting VirtualBox working.
If you’re looking to move over to Linux from Windows, or just looking for a linux distribution that plays many formats as possible, try Ubuntu Ultimate Edition available from http://ubuntusoftware.info/
Ubuntu Ultimate Edition is a remake of Ubuntu (currently Edgy) with tons of USEFUL additional drivers and programs. The one thing I like is that the media formats just works. VLC is bundled so that caters for all the Microsoft formats, and Quicktime etc.
Downloading a Linux distribution in South Africa is a time-consuming and expensive process. Ubuntu has a ShipIt programme that will send you a copy of Ubuntu for free. But if you are prepared to spend a couple of bucks, I suggest you head over to FOSS CDs.
Not only do they have a wide up-to-date range, they are much cheaper, use quality media (light scribe), and deliver on time.
I'm a Web Developer living in Cape Town, South Africa. Interests include: PHP, JQuery, ExtJS, Adobe AIR, Linux, Ubuntu, WordPress, Human Rights, Usability, Multimedia