Getting started with Proxyman

This tutorial is going to demonstrate how we can quickly capture the HTTPS Response and identify the bugs 🐞 on macOS, iPhone, and iOS Simulator with Proxyman.

We hope Proxyman can boost your debugging productivity 👏.

1. Download Proxyman

First, we must download the latest Proxyman at https://proxyman.io or update directly from your current version by navigating to “Proxyman -> Check for Update…”

2. Proxyman dashboard

There are three essential parts.

1. Source List (Left Panel): this is where all apps and domains are listed.
2. Request List (Middle Panel): All requests/responses from the selected Source.
3. Content (Bottom Panel): this is where you can see all Request/Response content.

As soon as you start the Proxyman, Proxyman will:

1. Automatically override your HTTP/HTTPS Proxy in System Network Preference. It’s super convenient for you since you can see the traffic immediately without doing anything.
2. Prompt to install Proxyman Helper Tool.

We highly recommend you install the Helper Tools because you can gain the following features for free:

• Automatically override HTTP/HTTPS Proxy with high performance. You can notice the bottleneck when opening Proxyman for the first time.
• Gracefully revert the HTTP/HTTPS Proxy if the app is unexpectedly crashed.

3. Search and Pin your app/domain

You could quickly search your apps/domains by using “Ctrl+Shift+F” and then selecting the “Pin” in the right menu.

Pin your working domains

We choose Product Hunt as the best example to demonstrate.

Pin Product Hunt app

Distraction-free is an integral feature of Proxyman since all other domains are entirely ignored. You won’t get lost by the flooding of additional requests.

That’s cool 👏

4. Inspect HTTP/HTTPS Request & Response

In order to see HTTP/HTTPS Traffic in plain text from the ProductHunt app, please follow the following step:

1. Select your desired domains or app on the Left Panel.
2. Select Enable SSL Proxying for this domain or the entire app on Bottom Panel.

Enable SSL Proxying on domains or apps

By enabling SSL for particular apps or domains, Proxyman only intercepts these particular domains and proxies other traffic.

As a result, Proxyman doesn’t burden your Macbook CPU and has less energy for your Macbook battery.

5. Proxyman CA Certificate

We understand that this process is so complicated with other tools, so we carefully re-design it to simplify it.

As soon as you enable SSL Proxying, Proxyman would prompt a Certificate Installation Windows:

You can either install the certificate in an Automatic or Manual way.

• Automatic: It’s a useful solution for installing and trusting the Proxyman Certificate in one step.
• Manual: You can install and trust manually. It’s suitable for power-user.

If you’re a beginner, we highly recommend using the Automatic way because it can be done with a single click.

Install Proxyman Certificate on macOS Device

6. HTTP/HTTPS Request and Response Previewer

After installing the Proxyman Certificate, it’s a perfect time to debug 😋.

Proxyman is now capable of intercepting the HTTPS request & response and automatically displaying it in pretty-JSON viewers.

From the Content panel (Bottom-Panel), you can navigate to:

• Header, Query, Cookies, and JSON response

All content viewers are built-in with a native search bar. So you can manipulate or search the content by pressing CMD + F as usual.

Inspect HTTP/HTTPS Request and Response

Alternatively, even with your favorite Editor apps ❤️

7. Debug with different params

Proxyman is built-in with a useful collection of debugging tools:

Repeat and Edit the request

• Repeat: Repeat your Request with current parameters => It’s super easy to try out your API, to make sure it works or not
• Edit & Repeat: Start editing the parameters => Test new context quickly. It’s useful when you want to know how the Backend responds to new requests.
• Map Local: Map-matched requests with a local file as a response.
• Map Remote: Change the destination of the request. Ex: Change all localhost:8080 to https://api.myserver.com
• Breakpoint: Modify the request and response on the fly.
• …..

Try out new params

8. Export your current Session

You can export your current Proxyman Session and share it with your teammates or QA team ❤️

From there, your co-workers could open and reproduce the bugs/issues immediately.

Or directly attach the log session to any Project Management like Jira or Trello.

9. Multiple Tabs

Proxyman take advantage of Cocoa Document-Based app, so you can work in different tab efficiently.

More interesting, all tab hot-keys are consistent with Google Chrome and Safari so that you can increase your productivity significantly 🚀

• Ctrl+T to open a new Tab.
• Ctrl+Shift+ [ or ] to navigate the tab forward or backward.
• Ctrl+1, 2, 3 (number) to quickly open specific tabs.

10. Where to Go From Here?

If you have any questions or feature requests, don’t hesitate to open the ticket in our Github.

Follow us on Twitter, Github or send us a “Hi” 💌 to nghia@proxyman.io