Technofriends

There are various tools like Fiddler, Live HTTP Headers, Curl, Wget etc… which allow you to analyze the HTTP response headers sent by a webserver for any particular object (file). In the past, i wrote about WebSniffer which allows you to analyze HTTP Request and Response Headers online. Today,  i will introduce you to another online utility called Hurl.

With Hurl, you need to enter the URL of the file / object, specify the HTTP Method like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE. Next, you need to specify if you wish to pass any authentication parameters. Passing Auth parameters is particularly useful, if you are trying to test the application or webserver for a 401 response condition. Next, you can add any extra HTTP Request headers if you want. Once you have created the request, press Send. You can even enable Hurl to follow redirects.

If you are new to HTTP Status Codes, i would recommend that you read my earlier post which details out HTTP Status Codes.

Hurl also allows you to save the specially crafted requests, but for that you need to sign-up with the service. For the response, Hurl offers a permalink which you can then share with those who are interested.

In my view Hurl is certainly an interesting utility for those like me who have to play with HTTP and Web Performance day in and out. I would have loved it if they also displayed the request headers sent to the webserver.Another ask would be to be able to send requests to a particular servers ( instead of resolving the IP Address through DNS resolution). Sending requests to a particular server are important in scenarios when the application is not yet live ( as people like me deal with such apps everytime).

Try out Hurl and let me know what you feel about such tools in the comments.

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