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Appendix E: Recording Mobile Applications

WebLOAD enables recording mobile applications in two ways:

  • Native Mobile Recording – recording traffic from an actual mobile device. This works for both mobile web applications and native mobile applications.
  • Simulate mobile in browser – records mobile web applications in the desktop by simulating a mobile browser. Does not require a mobile device, but only works for mobile web applications.

In addition, you can playback a recording as if it were a recording from a mobile application. This is performed in the WebLOAD Console using the Current Project Options window. In the Browser Type tab, specify the mobile application in the Browser Parameters section. The browser type you select overrides the settings that were defined during the recording, and plays back the recording according to the new settings.

Native Mobile Recording

To record traffic from an actual mobile device:

  1. Start native mobile recording, as follows:

  2. In WebLOAD Recorder, click Start in the Home tab of the ribbon. The Recording dialog appears.

    Selecting Native Mobile Recording

  3. In the Open drop-down list, select Native Mobile Recording.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Set up the mobile device proxy, as follows:

  6. Connect the mobile device to a Wireless network that can access your WebLOAD machine.

  7. Configure the device’s wireless proxy settings to go through the WebLOAD machine, on the noted port.

    This step depends on the device OS type and version. For example, see *Setting Proxy Settings in iPhone* and Setting Proxy Settings in Android .

  8. Perform actions in your mobile device application or web browser; the HTTP requests will be recorded in the test script.

  9. Stop recording, as follows:

  10. In WebLOAD Recorder, click Stop Recording.

  11. In the mobile device, change the Proxy settings back to off.

Note:

You may need to open you firewall to accept connections to proxynator.exe, on port 9884.

To record secure traffic (HTTPS), the root certificate needs to be imported to the phone. For example, see Recording HTTPS Traffic on iPhone and *Recording HTTPS traffic on Android (4.0 and above)* .

When not recording, the mobile device will not be able to access the network (because the proxy is not available) – to use the network normally, revert the HTTP Proxy setting back to Off.

Setting Proxy Settings in iPhone

To set iPhone proxy settings:

  1. Open Settings, and access the Wi-Fi network settings:

Accessing Wi-Fi iPhone Settings

  1. Select edit current Wi-Fi Network settings:

Edit Current Wi-Fi iPhone Settings

  1. Scroll down the HTTP Proxy section. Change proxy to Manual and set the Server and Port to point to the WebLOAD machines.

The default port for the proxy-recorder is 9884. You may need to use the machine’s IP-address instead of name.

Setting Wi-Fi iPhone Settings

Recording HTTPS Traffic on iPhone

In order to record HTTPS traffic, the WebLOAD root certificate needs to be trusted by the phone. To import the root certificate:

  1. Locate the root certificate, in:

c:\Program Files\RadView\WebLOAD\bin\Certificates\root.pem

  1. Open the root.pem file on the phone. This can be done by sending the file via e-mail, or accessing the file from a web-server.

  2. Click Install.

Installing the Root CA

  1. A warning will appear; click Install. The certificate should now be trusted

  1. After recording is completed, the certificate may be removed. To remove the certificate, select the following: Settings > General > Profile ‘RadView Root CA’ > Remove.

Setting Proxy Settings in Android

To set Android proxy settings:

  1. Using the menu button, select Settings.

  2. Select Wireless & networks.

  3. Select Wi-Fi settings.

  4. Switch on and connect to your designated Wi-Fi network.

  5. Once connected, press the Menu button again and select Advanced.

  6. Set Proxy to the WebLOAD machine IP-address, and Port to 9884.

Proxy Settings in Android – Two Examples

Recording HTTPS traffic on Android (4.0 and above)

In order to record HTTPS traffic, the WebLOAD root certificate needs to be trusted by the phone. To import the root certificate:

  1. Locate the root certificate, in:

c:\Program Files\RadView\WebLOAD\bin\Certificates\root.pem

  1. Copy locally, as root.crt.

  2. Copy root.crt from your computer to the root of your device's internal storage (that is, not in a folder).

  3. From a Home or All Apps screen, tap the Settings icon.

  4. Go to Personal > Security > Credential storage > Install from storage.

Simulating a Mobile in a Browser

In Simulate mode, the recording is done using the desktop browser, identified to the server as a mobile user agent.

To simulate a mobile:

  1. In WebLOAD Recorder, click Start Recording.

Simulating a Mobile

  1. Check the Identify As checkbox.

  2. Select the Browser family and Version.

  3. Click OK.

Notes:

  • This approach is only applicable to some mobile web-sites, which rely on server- side mobile detection
  • Some mobile sites may not render as expected in the desktop browser.
  • For best results, use a Chrome browser.