[OpenSTA-users] Recording and playback of https requests yields double {

[Carsten F. <car...@s-...>]

Hi All,

I=92ve been troubled a lot by opensta suddenly giving me a double=A0 { =
in the
URLs. Why this happens is unknown to me, but it comes in these two
varieties:

a. recording a script which requires several redirects, all https. At a
specific point the redirect comes back as:
Location:http://{{server.domain.xx/blablabla....

b. playing back a recorded script, where all references goes as =
https://...
=A0When following the redirects again this may come back as above.

Now, handling b) is fairly simple: just check if the URL-string begins =
with
http://{{ and if so, exchange that with https://...=A0=20
Handling a) is more complicated.

I solved it this way (just in case anybody else drops into this trap =
hole):
Install Fiddler (google will be your friend). It=92s an addon for IE.

Prepare for recording a script in opensta =96 but don=92t press =
=91record=92 just
yet.
Start a browser manually. It will have a button for Fiddler. Press that =
and
await Fiddler to fully launch.
Now go back and record. A new browser opens (with browser I mean IE6), =
and
you can work normally up=20
to the point where you are about to encounter the {{-problem.=20
Then switch to fiddler, and set up a rule breakpoint before requests.
Now continue recording. You=92ll need to approve everything in Fiddler, =
before
it=92s sent, which is tedious. However,
when the culprit request occurs, press =91break on response=92 and =
correct the
response header Location-entry.
(how you do this in Fiddler is pretty simple, so I will not explain in
detail how it=92s done. However, to get you going: rules are in the =
menu, and
you need to see the header-tabs. Editing is done by rightclicking).

Continue with the rule on, until you think it=92s allright, or you=92ve =
got
enough recorded.

Question is though: why does this happen ? Have anybody else this =
problem ?
=A0Have we got a bug in openSTA, as I suspect, as I don=92t think any =
other
piece of software will start putting in extra { in the URLs.. ;-)

I should note that this is encountered on windows XP / windows server + =
IE6.
Another interesting observation is, that I once ran a script that worked
splendidly. 1 hour later I ran a similar, but slightly different script. =
It
failed. I checked that the first script could run, to figure out the
difference.. now it didn=92t. It could be traced down to the b) =
situation. No
configurations where changed in the midtime. Strange..
I didn=92t have this problem all last year, it has only started this =
year. Any
clues ?

Cheers,
/Carsten :-)