Appendix B. Silverlight 2 Debugging with HTTP Sniffing Tools

SOAP, REST, ADO.NET Data Services, and other types of web services make a tremendous amount of information available to Silverlight 2 applications. When problems arise and the culprit is the communication between Silverlight 2 and web services, debugging the issues can be difficult. That is why it is good to have some solid tools and techniques to help with debugging problems between Silverlight 2 and web services.

Fiddler2, the Web Development Helper, and Firebug are three good, free tools that have many features, some of which overlap among the tools. This appendix discusses how to get started with the features of these tools that are most useful when debugging Silverlight 2 applications. It also provides tips on how to use the tools with Silverlight 2, and discusses key problems they can help you to solve. You can download the tools from the links shown in the following table.

Fiddler2

Fiddler2 is a free, standalone tool that can log all HTTP network traffic. Developed by Eric Lawrence of Microsoft, Fiddler2 works independently of a web browser, as it can sniff network traffic from any source, web browser or otherwise.

Capturing Traffic

The F12 shortcut key toggles the setting for Fiddler2 to capture network traffic. Often, it is good to toggle traffic capture off after debugging so ...

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