What is Request Capture?
Request Capture is the ability to store incoming requests and their associated responses to the file system. When request capture is set to requests and responses you will end up with three files for each request. A request file, a body file and a response file. Something like this:
The header xml file holds all information sent to ColdFusion MX by the client. The response xml file holds everything sent back (besides body) and the body file holds the actual returned content.
How do I set up Request Capture?
From the FusionReactor Administrator, click "Request Settings" from the table of contents (Requests section) and you will see the Request Settings screen. Scroll down until you reach a section named "Request Capture". It will look something like this:
From here you can control the request capture feature.
Request Capture: Request Capture can be in three states. Disabled, Capture Requests only, or capture both requests and responses.
Capture Path: This is the directory into which the captured requests will be stored.
Why would I want to Capture Requests?
Request capture can be useful for a variety of reasons from technical to legal, these include:
Auditing
If you were legally bound to store information on all incoming requests to a secure server then FusionReactor makes this task simple.
Analysis
The FusionReactor stored requests hold much more information than you would normally expect to find in web logs and as such they have a much higher value for analyzing your application traffic.
Development
You could use stored requests in order to be able to reproduce specific load conditions or test cases.
Support
Anyone who has had to have a user describe the contents of their screen will instantly realise how much easier life would be if you had an exact copy of their response in easy access.
