HTTP Werkzeug 1.3 walkthrough
Although a formal release of HTTP Werkzeug 1.3 is astronomically unlikely, I thought it might nevertheless be useful to present a view of my plans for this release. A semi-functional copy of this version can be found in my development builds directory.
Version 1.3 introduces a revised main window:
A toolbar is now present with buttons for common tasks, and the menu bar is revised. The confusing Mac Window menu is replaced in the Windows version with a conventional Tools menu, and Preferences is renamed Options and moved here from the Edit menu:
Resizable dialog boxes feature size grips to indicate that they’re resizable; quite a few changes have been made to the Mac OS X and Windows builds to make them feel more at home in their environment.
The program offers various new features. Full cookie jar support was added; the cookie jar windows shows both live and appropriately-marked expired cookies and permits cookie creation, editing and deletion:
Status code 401 is now detected and authentication can be performed automatically (if credentials are on file) or manually, on demand:
The authentication prompt:
Credentials that are permanently saved are indicated with a floppy disc icon in the credentials window:
Authentication is at alpha readiness and who knows what it might do.
The main window also replaces the horrible pop-up menu control with an almost-as-horrible and ten-times-as-broken dropdown menu:
Borrowing from iCab, autocompletion is full substring; Firefox 3 will eventually introduce this but even HTTP Werkzeug effectively beat them to it (teeheehee):
The updated Request menu indicates more new features, as well as using proper bullet marks under Windows to indicate radio button groups, something Apple cannot comprehend:
Data can now be written to disc instead of displayed on screen, useful in Windows where the text box is not binary safe the way it is on a Macintosh:
A Find feature is provided that will search the select text box (Header or Contents) or the most appropriate one if none selected:
The custom request settings window is updated to match the new feature set:
You can also save and restore complete settings sets for convenience; this is the saved sets window:
Editing a settings set:
Finally, the Preferences/Options dialog is also updated:
Everything depicted above works to some extent or other, my bugs and REALbasic’s bugs aside, in all three platform builds. However, this is still alpha code and there are bugs! Be warned.