Browser Diagnostics

This article should be used as a quick diagnostic mechanism for solving common browser problems. It is not meant to be exhaustive and cover all possible things that could go wrong. When in doubt, do not hesitate to reach out to Appian Support for assistance.

It is often helpful to utilize browser diagnostics tools when additional information on CSS, JavaScript, or HTML messages or errors is required. These tools allow the developer to see the structure of the page and the network traffic, which help in diagnosing problems related to the interface.

Common issues that may require doing diagnostics from the browser include:

• Performance variability between different client sites, computers or browsers
• Dropped requests
• Authentication problems, i.e. lost cookies, session inconsistency
• Request or response timeouts
• HTTP errors (401, 403, 404, 502)

Developer Tools

Most modern web browsers include a powerful suite of Developer Tools. This is accessible via the browser menu bar, or by pressing F12 on the keyboard. This suite makes it easy to:

• Monitor performance of the network and page rendering
  • to identify any lags in and optimize the page load
  • to understand the source of HTTP errors
  • to analyze performance variability
• Monitor request, response and cookie activity
  • to identify the source of request or response timeouts
  • to target issues in authentication or session inconsistency

For example, in the Chrome web browser:

• The Network panel provides insight into exactly what is downloaded over the network in real time.
• The Timeline panel gives you an in-depth look at the timing of events loading in the page.
• The Resources panel shows the resources of the inspected page - cookies, the contents of the cache, and local storage.

Please read the documentation for your web browser for in-depth information on how to use these.

• Google Chrome - DevTools Overview
• Edge - Developer Tools
• Internet Explorer - Using the F12 Developer Tools
• Firefox - Developer Tools
• Safari - Web Development Tools

Third Party Tools

If the in-browser Developer Tools do not provide sufficient information to help diagnose the issue, there are a variety of third party tools available for download:

• Fiddler - free web debugging proxy that works with any browser
• Wireshark - network protocol analyzer
• HTTPWatch - HTTP and HTTPS traffic monitor (supports only IE and Firefox)