When troubleshooting complex issues, it is sometimes necessary for our customer service team to obtain additional information about the network requests that are generated in your browser while an issue occurs. A customer service team member may request that you record a HAR file, or a log of network requests, while that issue is occurring and then provide that to them for further analysis.
Below are some instructions about how you can easily generate a HAR file using different browsers.
To generate the HAR file for Chrome
- Open Google Chrome and go to the page where the issue is occurring.
- Look for the Vertical ellipsis button (
) and select More Tools > Developer Tools.
- From the panel opened, select the Network tab.
- Look for a round Record button (
) in the upper left corner of the tab, and make sure it is red. If it is grey, click it once to start recording.
- Check the box Preserve log.
- Click the Clear button (
) to clear out any existing logs from the Network tab.
- Reproduce the issue that you were experiencing before, while the network requests are being recorded.
- Once you have reproduced the issue, in Chrome, click Export HAR to download. Then save the file to your computer: Save as HAR with Content.
- Upload your HAR file to your ticket or attach it to your email so that our Support team can analyze it.
The instructions are the same for a MAC computer or a Windows computer. Here is a brief animation showing this process:
To generate the HAR file for Firefox
- Open Firefox and go to the page where you are experiencing trouble.
- Select the Firefox menu (three horizontal parallel lines) at the top-right of your browser window, then select Web Developer > Network.
- The Developer Network Tools opens as a docked panel at the side or bottom of Firefox. Click the Network tab.
- The recording autostarts when you start performing actions in the browser.
- Once you have reproduced the issue and you see that all of the actions have been generated in the Developer Network Panel (should just take a few seconds), right-click anywhere under the File column, and click on Save all as Har.
- Save the HAR file somewhere convenient.
- Upload your HAR file to your ticket or attach it to your email so that we may analyze it.
The instructions are the same for a MAC computer or a Windows computer.
To generate the HAR file for Internet Explorer
- Open Internet Explorer and go to the page where the issue is occurring.
- Press F12 on your keyboard (or click the gear icon > F12 Developer Tools)
- Click the Network tab.
- Reproduce the issue that you were experiencing before, while the network requests are being recorded.
- Once done click the Save button.
- Give the trace a filename and click the Save button which will save it as a .har file or .xml file.
- Upload your HAR file to your ticket or attach it to your email so that we may analyze it.
The instructions are the same for a MAC computer or a Windows computer.
To generate the HAR file for Safari
Before generating the HAR file, make sure you can see the Develop menu in Safari. If it is not there, follow the instructions under Use the developer tools in the Develop menu in Safari on Mac.
- Open the Develop menu and select Show Web Inspector.
- Click the Network tab and complete the activity that is causing issues.
- Click the Export icon on the far right of the network tab and save the HAR file.
- Send us the file via your support ticket.
To generate the HAR file for Edge
Edge natively produces HAR files. For more instructions, see the instructions from the Microsoft website.
- Open the Network tool in F12 developer tools.
- Reproduce the issue.
- Export captured traffic as a HAR (CTRL + S).
10 Comments
These instructions need to be updated. You cannot right-click to download. There is a specific download button in Chrome.
Hey Brian,
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us! I'll pass this feedback along to our documentation team so they can get this article updated.
Cheers!
Cheers Brett, I have updated the article accordingly :)
Hi Zendesk support team. We were recently asked to produce a HAR file for troubleshooting. Can you please tell me what data is being captured in a HAR file? I would like to understand this before sending this file to you.
Hi Dae,
Thank you for contacting Zendesk Support! I'm George from the Advocacy Team and I will be pleased to help you with this
HAR (HTTP Archive Format) is a JSON archive file format that stores session data over many browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) between client and server. In the network environment, when the communication between the sender and the receiver occurs, HAR contains HTTP response and request headers.
HAR files can contain sensitive data, so make sure you store these files securely. We from Zendesk are compromised to store the data that you will be sending to us. If If you wish please have a look at our Privacy policy regarding our customers data safe.
HAR file are used to inspect what is happening behind the scenes of your browser. More specifically, it has all the details about operations your browser performed. It includes information like requests made, response times, response status code etc. What is more significant it also includes sensitive data that should not be shared with untrusted parties. That is why you should only share your HAR files with Auth0 employees.
I will tentatively solve this ticket for now as this information should assist you with your query. However don't hesitate to reply to this email if you have any further follow up questions or queries.
Have a great day!
Where is the specific download button in Chrome?
It's possible that Chrome has changed its UI for this since this article was written. Look for the down arrow in the same row as the Preserve log checkbox (the tooltip for the arrow will say "Export HAR..." if you hover your cursor over it):
I'll contact our docs team to get this updated (and to fix the broken image later in the article).
Thanks Dave
That did the trick!
Hi , Facing Few issue with Mobile Messaging , trying to contact the customer support , but no resolution till now even no ETA for same has been provided.
Issues - 1. Bot responses being added on top of your first reply and not giving the option to continue - Android 11 Samsung
2. Crash For Android 12 via selecting image from Camera from Zendesk AttachmentActivity
Logs
Caused by java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
Couldn't find meta-data for provider with authority com.zendesk.native_messaging.fileprovider
androidx.core.content.FileProvider.parsePathStrategy (FileProvider.java:662)
androidx.core.content.FileProvider.getUriForFile (FileProvider.java:441)
zendesk.messaging.android.internal.conversationscreen.attachments.AttachmentActivity.startCamera (AttachmentActivity.kt:220)
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