Charles Proxy

Last updated
Charles Web Debugger Proxy
Original author(s) Karl von Randow
Developer(s) Karl von Randow
Initial release2002;21 years ago (2002)
Stable release
4.6.4 [1] / 4 April 2023;5 months ago (2023-04-04)
Operating system Windows, Mac OS X 10.7 - 10.15, Linux [2]
Platform Java
Size 55 MB
Type Packet analyzer
License Trialware
Website www.charlesproxy.com

Charles Web Debugging Proxy is a cross-platform HTTP debugging proxy server application written in Java. It enables the user to view HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2 [3] and enabled TCP port traffic accessed from, to, or via the local computer. This includes requests and responses including HTTP headers and metadata (e.g. cookies, caching and encoding information) with functionality targeted at assisting developers analyze connections and messaging.

Contents

Features

Browser support

Charles will autoconfigure for use on the following browsers:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HTTP</span> Application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext documents include hyperlinks to other resources that the user can easily access, for example by a mouse click or by tapping the screen in a web browser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web server</span> Computer software that distributes web pages

A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiates communication by making a request for a web page or other resource using HTTP, and the server responds with the content of that resource or an error message. A web server can also accept and store resources sent from the user agent if configured to do so.

The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) designed to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between systems on different operating systems, programming languages, and computing hardware. CORBA uses an object-oriented model although the systems that use the CORBA do not have to be object-oriented. CORBA is an example of the distributed object paradigm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proxy server</span> Computer server that makes and receives requests on behalf of a user

In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. It improves privacy, security, and performance in the process.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securing HTTPS remains the most publicly visible.

SOCKS is an Internet protocol that exchanges network packets between a client and server through a proxy server. SOCKS5 optionally provides authentication so only authorized users may access a server. Practically, a SOCKS server proxies TCP connections to an arbitrary IP address, and provides a means for UDP packets to be forwarded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile browser</span> Web browser designed for use on mobile devices

A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized to display Web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be small and efficient to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices. Traditional smaller feature phones use stripped-down mobile web browsers; however, most current smartphones have full-fledged browsers that can handle the latest web technologies, such as CSS 3, JavaScript, and Ajax.

OpenVPN is a virtual private network (VPN) system that implements techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It implements both client and server applications.

Link prefetching allows web browsers to pre-load resources. This speeds up both the loading and rendering of web pages. Prefetching was first introduced in HTML5.

A web accelerator is a proxy server that reduces website access time. They can be a self-contained hardware appliance or installable software.

Push technology or server push is a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction is initiated by the publisher or central server. It is contrasted with pull, or get, where the request for the transmission of information is initiated by the receiver or client.

Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a communication protocol for streaming audio, video, and data over the Internet. Originally developed as a proprietary protocol by Macromedia for streaming between Flash Player and the Flash Communication Server, Adobe has released an incomplete version of the specification of the protocol for public use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HTTP compression</span> Capability that can be built into web servers and web clients

HTTP compression is a capability that can be built into web servers and web clients to improve transfer speed and bandwidth utilization.

Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) is a form of virtual private network (VPN) tunnel that provides a mechanism to transport PPP traffic through an SSL/TLS channel. SSL/TLS provides transport-level security with key negotiation, encryption and traffic integrity checking. The use of SSL/TLS over TCP port 443 allows SSTP to pass through virtually all firewalls and proxy servers except for authenticated web proxies.

In computing, Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced in 2007/2008 a new networking stack named Next Generation TCP/IP stack, to improve on the previous stack in several ways. The stack includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as a complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after a change in settings. The new stack, implemented as a dual-stack model, depends on a strong host-model and features an infrastructure to enable more modular components that one can dynamically insert and remove.

Web2py is an open-source web application framework written in the Python programming language. Web2py allows web developers to program dynamic web content using Python. Web2py is designed to help reduce tedious web development tasks, such as developing web forms from scratch, although a web developer may build a form from scratch if required.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WebSocket</span> Computer network protocol

WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. The WebSocket protocol was standardized by the IETF as RFC 6455 in 2011. The current API specification allowing web applications to use this protocol is known as WebSockets. It is a living standard maintained by the WHATWG and a successor to The WebSocket API from the W3C.

Web performance refers to the speed in which web pages are downloaded and displayed on the user's web browser. Web performance optimization (WPO), or website optimization is the field of knowledge about increasing web performance.

Upload components are software products that are designed to be embedded into a web site to add upload functionality to it. Upload components are designed to replace the standard HTML4 upload mechanism. Compared with HTML4, Upload Components have a more user-friendly interface and support a wider range of features.

References

  1. "Charles Web Debugging Proxy Application – Version History". 4 April 2023.
  2. "Charles Web Debugging Proxy Application – Download Charles".
  3. Jesse Wilson (2016-08-01). "Charles 4 has HTTP/2".
  4. "Tutorial: Using Charles Proxy With Your iOS Development And HTTP Debugging". 2016-04-11.
  5. Erik Straub (2017-06-20). "Using Charles Proxy to Debug Android SSL Traffic".
  6. David Walsh (2016-01-21). "Remote Debugging with Charles Proxy".