How to capture an http archive (HAR) file

An http archive (HAR) file can be useful for troubleshooting network or browser issues.  A HAR file is a recording of your browser's activity for a given moment in time.  If your computer is having difficulty accessing streaming video, you may be requested to capture an http archive.  The following steps should work in almost any modern browser.  However the screen shots seen below were taken using the Google Chrome browser.

Navigate to your cloud streaming portal's catalog page:

 If you are a K-12 student, the portal catalog page may not be available to you.  In that case, copy your Direct Watch film link and paste it into a web browser window.  Then click Return or Enter on your keyboard.  The login screen should appear.  Enter your login credentials, but do not click the login button.  Continue to follow the steps as outlined below.

Right-click on any blank area of the screen and select "Inspect"

If your computer does not have a right-click available, pressing F12 on your keyboard should also open the browser's Inspector utility.

The Inspector should now appear.  Select the "Network" tab and check the boxes for both "Preserve log" and "Disable cache."

Select a video to play.  Click the Watch button.  Allow the video to load for a few seconds.  

K-12 students will want to click the login button instead of the Watch button.  The video should begin playing automatically upon logging in.

Click the red "record" button to stop the recording process.  Likewise, stop the recording process if either an error message appears or if the video fails to load entirely.

Right click on any of the lines that appear in the Inspector and select "Save all as HAR with content."

Once the HAR file is saved to your computer, you can email the file to [e-mail] for analysis.  If the file is too large to send as an email attachment (over 50 MB for example), you can upload the HAR to a cloud file sharing service of your choosing.  You can then email us a link to the file using the same email address as before.

How to generate a HAR capture on an iOS device

Applies To

• iOS
• iPad
• iPhone
• MacOS X

Steps

1. On your iOS Device, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Enable Web Inspector
2. Connect your iOS device to your Mac computer using a cable and make sure your iOS device is recognized
3. On your iOS device, launch Safari and reproduce the issue
4. Using your Mac computer, launch Safari, then click on Develop > Select your iPad > Click on the session and that will open the developer tools
5. From here, you can export the HAR file