Prerequisites

You can install the Ruby language runtime using the installer at http://rubyinstaller.org/ .

Accessing HttpWatch from Ruby

The HttpWatch automation library is packaged as a COM component. To access it from Ruby you will need to use WIN32OLE::new from the win32ole library. It can be referenced by adding the following require statement to your Ruby source file:

require 'win32ole'

Communicating with the HttpWatch Extension

You can only directly create an instance of one class in the library - the Controller class.

All communication with the HttpWatch extension stems from this class, so the first step is to create an instance of it:

# Controller is the only creatable class in the HttpWatch automation interface

controller = WIN32OLE.new('HttpWatch.Controller')

Having created a Controller object, the next step is to create an instance of the extension and attach it to a browser instance. The exact code depends on whether you are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, but the principles are the same in either case. The Controller object has a property named Chrome. This property returns a reference to the Chrome object.

The New method creates a new instance of the Chrome browser with the HttpWatch extension enabled for automation. AttachByTitle allows the user to use the HttpWatch extension within a browser instance that has already been created by some other component. Both methods return a reference to the Plugin object that represents the HttpWatch extension.

The following code creates a new instance of a Chrome tab with an attached HttpWatch plugin object:

controller = WIN32OLE.new('HttpWatch.Controller')

plugin = controller.Chrome.New()

For Microsoft Edge using the Edge property of the controller instead.

All of these code fragments return a reference to a Plugin object, through which the HttpWatch extension can be controlled.