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Network logs

Network Logs capture performance data such as network traffic, latency, HTTP requests and responses in the HAR (HTTP Archive) format. You can leverage network logs to get a clear picture of all the network requests (e.g. REST API calls) originating from your app, and the time taken for each of these requests. It can help you identify performance bottenecks or debug failed REST API responses. You can visualize HAR files using the HAR Viewer.

Network logs are available on the BrowserStack dashboard for 60 days. These logs will be deleted after 60 days from the day they were generated.

Enable Network Logs

When you run a test without the Network log settings, the Network Logs tab on the dashboard shows the following message: Network Logs Disabled

To enable Network logs, use the capability as shown below.

If you are using BrowserStack SDK, you can set the following capability within the browserstack.yml file:

browserstack.yml
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Network Logs Enabled

  • Free trial users do not have access to the network logs feature for app testing. To subscribe to a paid plan, visit the pricing page.
  • Network Logs feature is supported on all devices except the devices listed here under the Capabilities Reference section.
  • Network Logs feature is not supported for proxy-unaware apps.

Network Log configurations

The following table provides information about the capability:

Capability Configuration Value
networkLogsOptions captureContent true, false
Default: false (no content under Response tab)

Use the following example code snippet to set the network log configurations:

browserstack.yml
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Download network logs

The network logs can be viewed from the test sessions details page on the App Automate Dashboard. You can view or download network logs using the Raw Network Logs**.

View network logs in App Automate dashboard

Example network logs:

Sample Network Logs output

Import network logs using REST API

You can import the network logs from your test session using REST API:

curl -u "YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" -X GET "https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/builds/<build-id>/sessions/<session-id>/networklogs"

Handling certificate pinning issues

App developers may use certificate pinning techniques to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and thus enhance the app’s security. Using certificate pinning, the app developer can associate (or “pin”) a remote host or service with its certificate or public keys at the time of development. When the app makes a network request to a remote host, it compares the pinned certificate with the remote server’s certificate to verify its identity.

However, on BrowserStack, if you have enabled network logs, your tests could fail if your app uses certificate pinning. This is because BrowserStack uses a MITM proxy to capture the network logs, causing network requests between the app and pinned hosts to fail.

BrowserStack provides you additional capabilities to fix certificate pinning errors. Using these capabilities, you can bypass BrowserStack’s MITM proxy while making requests to certificate-pinned remote hosts.

networkLogsExcludeHosts

For example, this will exclude capturing of logs for any requests made to api.example.com and google.com:

Capability Description Value
networkLogsExcludeHosts Use this capability to specify a list of certificate pinned hosts that should bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy while capturing network logs. By doing so, your tests can execute successfully while still capturing network logs for all other remaining hosts. List of certificate pinned hosts (Array) or regex value (String)
browserstack.yml
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Only HTTPS URLs will be ignored for the specified hosts

networkLogsIncludeHosts

For example, this will capture logs only for network requests made to api.example.com and google.com

Capability Description Value
networkLogsIncludeHosts Use this capability if you wish to capture network logs only for specific hosts. Traffic for all other remaining hosts will bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy and won’t be captured in network logs. List of hosts (Array) or regex value (String)
browserstack.yml
Copy icon Copy

Both HTTP and HTTPS URLs will be captured for the specified hosts

BrowserStack SDK is a plug-n-play solution that takes care of all the integration steps for you. Using the BrowserStack SDK is the recommended integration method for your project. To know more, visit the SDK core concepts page.

Use the following code snippet to set the Network logs capability to true:

Capability Description Value
networkLogs Capture network logs for your test true, false
Default: false

Example :

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("networkLogs", "true");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		"networkLogs" : "true",
	},
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("networkLogs", "true");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
    'bstack:options' => array(
        "networkLogs" => "true",
    ),
)

desired_cap = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		"networkLogs" : "true",
	},
}

capabilities = {
    'bstack:options' => {
        "networkLogs" => "true",
    },
}

After you set the networkLogs capability to true, the Network Logs tab on the dashboard shows the following result:

Capability Description Value
browserstack.networkLogs Capture network logs for your test true, false
Default: false

Example :

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogs", "true");

var capabilities = {
	'browserstack.networkLogs' : 'true',
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("browserstack.networkLogs", "true");

$caps = array(
    "browserstack.networkLogs" => "true"
)

desired_cap = {
	'browserstack.networkLogs' : 'true'
}

caps = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Capabilities.new
caps["browserstack.networkLogs"] = "true"

After you set the browserstack.networkLogs capability to true, the Network Logs tab on the dashboard shows the following result:

Network Logs Enabled

  • Free trial users do not have access to the network logs feature for app testing. To subscribe to a paid plan, visit the pricing page.
  • Network Logs feature is supported on all devices except the devices listed here under the Capabilities Reference section.
  • Network Logs feature is not supported for proxy-unaware apps.

Network Log configurations

The following table provides information about the capability:

Capability Configuration Value
browserstack.networkLogsOptions captureContent true, false
Default: false (no content under Response tab)

Use the following example code snippet to set the network log configurations:

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
networkLogsOptions.put("captureContent", true);
capabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogs", true);
capabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsOptions", networkLogsOptions);

var capabilities = {
 "browserstack.networkLogs" : "true",
 "browserstack.networkLogsOptions": {
   "captureContent": "true"
 }
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
networkLogsOptions.Add("captureContent", "true");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("browserstack.networkLogs", "true");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("browserstack.networkLogsOptions", networkLogsOptions);

$caps = array(
 "browserstack.networkLogs" => "true",
 "browserstack.networkLogsOptions" => array (
   "captureContent" => "true"
 )
);

desired_cap = { 
"browserstack.networkLogs" : "true",
"browserstack.networkLogsOptions": {
    "captureContent": "true"
  }
}

Download network logs

The network logs can be viewed from the test sessions details page on the App Automate Dashboard. You can view or download network logs using the Raw Network Logs**.

View network logs in App Automate dashboard

Example network logs:

Sample Network Logs output

Import network logs using REST API

You can import the network logs from your test session using REST API:

curl -u "YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" -X GET "https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/builds/<build-id>/sessions/<session-id>/networklogs"

Handling certificate pinning issues

App developers may use certificate pinning techniques to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and thus enhance the app’s security. Using certificate pinning, the app developer can associate (or “pin”) a remote host or service with its certificate or public keys at the time of development. When the app makes a network request to a remote host, it compares the pinned certificate with the remote server’s certificate to verify its identity.

However, on BrowserStack, if you have enabled network logs, your tests could fail if your app uses certificate pinning. This is because BrowserStack uses a MITM proxy to capture the network logs, causing network requests between the app and pinned hosts to fail.

BrowserStack provides you additional capabilities to fix certificate pinning errors. Using these capabilities, you can bypass BrowserStack’s MITM proxy while making requests to certificate-pinned remote hosts.

browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts

Capability Description Value
networkLogsExcludeHosts Use this capability to specify a list of certificate pinned hosts that should bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy while capturing network logs. By doing so, your tests can execute successfully while still capturing network logs for all other remaining hosts. List of certificate pinned hosts (Array) or regex value (String)

For example, this will exclude capturing of logs for any requests made to api.example.com and google.com:

Example :

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("networkLogsExcludeHosts", new String[]{"api.example.com", "google.com"});
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com'],
	}
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("networkLogsExcludeHosts", new[] {'api.example.com', 'google.com'});
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
	'bstack:options' => array(
		"networkLogsExcludeHosts" => ["api.example.com", "google.com"],
	),
)


desired_cap = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
	}
}

capabilities = {
    'bstack:options' => {
        'networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
    }
}

Instead of using an array, you can also pass a regex value as a string to dynamically match a list of hosts. For example, this will exclude capturing of logs for any requests made to example.com and its subdomains.

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("networkLogsExcludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com',
	}
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("networkLogsExcludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
	'bstack:options' => array(
		"networkLogsExcludeHosts" => "^(.+\.)?example.com",
	),
)

desired_cap = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
	}
}

capabilities = {
    'bstack:options' => {
        'networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
    }
}
Capability Description Value
browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts Use this capability to specify a list of certificate pinned hosts that should bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy while capturing network logs. By doing so, your tests can execute successfully while still capturing network logs for all other remaining hosts. List of certificate pinned hosts (Array) or regex value (String)

For example, this will exclude capturing of logs for any requests made to api.example.com and google.com:

Example :

DesiredCapabilities desiredCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
desiredCapabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", new String[]{"api.example.com", "google.com"});

var capabilities = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com'],
}

DesiredCapabilities capability = new DesiredCapabilities();
capability.SetCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", new[] {'api.example.com', 'google.com'});

$capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
$capabilities->setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", ["api.example.com", "google.com"]);

desired_cap = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
}

desired_caps = {
    'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
}

Instead of using an array, you can also pass a regex value as a string to dynamically match a list of hosts. For example, this will exclude capturing of logs for any requests made to example.com and its subdomains.

DesiredCapabilities desiredCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
desiredCapabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

var capabilities = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com',
}

DesiredCapabilities capability = new DesiredCapabilities();
capability.SetCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

$capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
$capabilities->setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

desired_cap = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
}

desired_caps = {
    'browserstack.networkLogsExcludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
}

Only HTTPS URLs will be ignored for the specified hosts

networkLogsIncludeHosts

Capability Description Value
networkLogsIncludeHosts Use this capability if you wish to capture network logs only for specific hosts. Traffic for all other remaining hosts will bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy and won’t be captured in network logs. List of hosts (Array) or regex value (String)

For example, this will capture logs only for network requests made to api.example.com and google.com

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("networkLogsIncludeHosts", new String[]{"api.example.com", "google.com"});
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com'],
	}
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("networkLogsIncludeHosts", new[] {'api.example.com', 'google.com'});
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
	'bstack:options' => array(
		"networkLogsIncludeHosts" => ["api.example.com", "google.com"],
	),
)

desired_cap = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
	}
}

desired_caps = {
    'bstack:options' => {
        'networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
    }
}

Instead of using an array, you can also pass a regex value as a string to dynamically match a list of hosts. For example, this will capture logs for any network requests made to example.com and its subdomains.

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("networkLogsIncludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com',
	}
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();
Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("networkLogsIncludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
	'bstack:options' => array(
		"networkLogsIncludeHosts" => "^(.+\.)?example.com",
	),
)

desired_cap = {
	'bstack:options' : {
		'networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
	}
}

desired_caps = {
    'bstack:options' => {
        'networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
    }
}
Capability Description Value
browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts Use this capability if you wish to capture network logs only for specific hosts. Traffic for all other remaining hosts will bypass BrowserStack MITM proxy and won’t be captured in network logs. List of hosts (Array) or regex value (String)

For example, this will capture logs only for network requests made to api.example.com and google.com

DesiredCapabilities desiredCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
desiredCapabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", new String[]{"api.example.com", "google.com"});

var capabilities = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com'],
}

DesiredCapabilities capability = new DesiredCapabilities();
capability.SetCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", new[] {'api.example.com', 'google.com'});

$capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
$capabilities->setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", ["api.example.com", "google.com"]);

desired_cap = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
}

desired_caps = {
    'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': ['api.example.com', 'google.com']
}

Instead of using an array, you can also pass a regex value as a string to dynamically match a list of hosts. For example, this will capture logs for any network requests made to example.com and its subdomains.

DesiredCapabilities desiredCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
desiredCapabilities.setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

var capabilities = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com',
}

DesiredCapabilities capability = new DesiredCapabilities();
capability.SetCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

$capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
$capabilities->setCapability("browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts", "^(.+\.)?example.com");

desired_cap = {
	'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
}

desired_caps = {
    'browserstack.networkLogsIncludeHosts': '^(.+\.)?example.com'
}

Both HTTP and HTTPS URLs will be captured for the specified hosts

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