[OWASP-WEBSCARAB] WebScarab 20060621-003 notes

[Andrew van der Stock]

Hi Rogan (and everyone),

I have tried out the latest version of WebScarab, and I've got some  
notes for you. :)

BTW, I like this version better than the earlier versions. I'm  
seriously going to try and become an ex-Paros user, but I need it to  
be relatively easy to work with. Paros had a nice learning curve, and  
I think with by bringing the WebScarab UI back into line with common  
UI guidelines, I think a easy to learn but deep interface is possible.

Bugs

Palette - the palette is black on MacOS X. See screen shot. 
  
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I don't know how to fix that, but if you like, I can find out.

Memory leaks - I will find out from my mates in the J2EE room at work  
how they diagnose memory leaks. I'm sure you're already working on it.

Message log - Once the message log is clicked, it cannot be closed. Why?

Cosmetic

Menu bars

In MacOS X, a small amount of repackaging (Stephen De Vries knows  
exactly how) allows the menu bar to move to the Apple menu without  
any code changes. This would be great for MacOS X users as it gets us  
~ 40 vertical pixels back, which on most of the widescreen laptops is  
absolutely essential.

Tool buttons

Some of the buttons are preferences. Some are tools. Some are views.  
I'd suggest only "verbs"=actions / tools go across the top. The other  
things should be in the menus. Search for example, should just be a  
text entry box with a "Search" button.

Pull down menus

These should be constrained to be a certain width wide at maximum. I  
have a screen which is 1400 pixels wide. No other application has  
near 1400 pixel wide pull down menus.

Message log

This produces a secondary window which is not properly placed on the  
screen. It looks like it is part of the lower pane of the underlying  
screen. It might be best to make this more of a dialog.

Tools menu

Has a mixture of options / preferences, and tools. Should be divided  
into a clear delineation - the Windows, KDE, Gnome, Java, and Mac UI  
guidelines all suggest that preferences are in the one area.

Tools -> Scripted events

Has two tree views, but without any nodes to populate either tree,  
you can't activate the tree and see the  tree nodes. The tree  
metaphor could very well be the wrong approach here; maybe a left  
pane for enable and right hand pane is for the properties of the item  
being selected.

Manual Request - this screen requires a very big window. On my G4  
laptop, it's not big enough. Might I suggest that you use Request and  
Response on two different pages, either as a master tab? Parsed /  
raw / hex is a radio button combo anyway - not a tab.

That's enough for tonight - I need to do some work before getting to  
work tomorrow.

What's the best method for dealing with this - should I check out a  
copy in Eclipse and hack away at the issues? What do you use to code  
with?

thanks,
Andrew
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