Any way to view dynamic java content ex-post? Browser session still open
- by Ryan
I feel like a grandpa from 1996 asking this, but is it at all possible to view a representation of a particular screen that was rendered as part of a java-based online checkout process I executed a couple days ago?
I haven't cleared my browser cache or temp files or anything, and I don't think I've restarted the comp or even the browser since. I'm using mac OS X 10.6.8, and the page(s) were viewed with Chrome version 21.0.1180.89 in standard mode (not incognito). Specifically the page in question was part of Verizon Wireless's 'iconic' contract/checkout process, which leads the user through several pages to make selections on various criteria and seems to be based on java. (Obviously I'm a dummy regarding web stuff so the question is probably not very well defined, I'm happy to elaborate).
^This is the tl;dr question. If it belongs on another site please just let me know.
This is what I've been able to figure out on my own, for the bored / ultra-helpful / those who could use a laugh at a noob fumbling his way around cache files with no idea what he's doing:
The progress through the selection pages is very clear in Chrome's browser history, the sequential pages are:
https://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/accountholder/estore/phoneupgrade?execution=e3s2
https://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/accountholder/estore/phoneupgrade?execution=e3s3
https://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/accountholder/estore/phoneupgrade?execution=e3s4
https://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/accountholder/estore/phoneupgrade?execution=e3s5
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/?format=JSON&value={%22action%22:%22START_ORDER%22,%22custType%22:%22EXISTING%22,%22orderType%22:%22UPGRADE%22,%22lookupMtn%22:%22*(NumberA)*%22,%22lineData%22:[{%22mtn%22:%22*(NumberA)*%22,%22upgType%22:%22ALTERNATE_UPGRADE%22,%22eligibleMtn%22:%22*(NumberB)*%22}]}
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicOrder.do?format=JSON&value={%22action%22:%22START_ORDER%22,%22custType%22:%22EXISTING%22,%22orderType%22:%22UPGRADE%22,%22lookupMtn%22:%22*(NumberA)*%22,%22lineData%22:[{%22mtn%22:%22*(NumberA)*%22,%22upgType%22:%22ALTERNATE_UPGRADE%22,%22eligibleMtn%22:%22*(NumberB)*%22}]}
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicEligibility.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicDeviceSelection.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/PlanOptions.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicFeatures.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicAccessories.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicShipmentBilling.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicReview.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicPaymentCreditInfo.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicConfirmation.do
The visual representation I would need could come from any of these pages, as the necessary information was shown at the top of each of them (although the two with long URLs were just like redirects or something). Of course, clicking the link to the page in History right now requires a new sign-in and just returns the user to the initial step for doing the process again; it does not pull up a representation of the page as it was seen several days ago. This I understand.
Instead using Chrome's integrated cache viewer by typing about:cache in the address bar, I can search and find links that appear to be relevant, when I click on the link I just get a http header and a bunch of hexadecimal gobbledygook. I've tried to use the URL at the top of the cache and URLs in the http headers, but they take me to current versions of those pages and not the versions I saw during the checkout process. I tried this with a few of them but stopped because I noticed that it updated the date in the http header to the present moment and I don't want to take chances overwriting the cache files since I don't know what I'm doing. The links to the cache files look like this:
https://login.verizonwireless.com/amserver/UI/Login?realm=vzw&goto=https%3A%2F%2Fpreorder.verizonwireless.com%3A443%2Ficonic%2Ficonic%2Fsecured%2Fscreens%2FPlanOptions.do
https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/screens/customerTypeOverlay.jsp
https://verizonwireless.tt.omtrdc.net/m2/verizonwireless/mbox/standard?mboxHost=login.verizonwireless.com&mboxSession=1347776884663-145230&mboxPC=1347609748832-956765.19&mboxPage=1347776884663-145230&screenHeight=1200&screenWidth=1920&browserWidth=1299&browserHeight=868&browserTimeOffset=-420&colorDepth=24&mboxCount=1&mbox=My_Verizon_Global&mboxId=0&mboxTime=1347751684666&mboxURL=https%3A%2F%2Flogin.verizonwireless.com%2Famserver%2FUI%2FLogin%3Frealm%3Dvzw%26goto%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fpreorder.verizonwireless.com%253A443%252Ficonic%252Ficonic%252Fsecured%252Fscreens%252FPlanOptions.do&mboxReferrer=&mboxVersion=41
and
https://verizonwireless.tt.omtrdc.net/m2/verizonwireless/mbox/standard?mboxHost=login.verizonwireless.com&mboxSession=1347735676953-663794&mboxPC=1347609748832-956765.19&mboxPage=1347738347511-550383&screenHeight=1200&screenWidth=1920&browserWidth=1299&browserHeight=845&browserTimeOffset=-420&colorDepth=24&mboxCount=1&mbox=My_Verizon_Global&mboxId=0&mboxTime=1347713147517&mboxURL=https%3A%2F%2Flogin.verizonwireless.com%2Famserver%2FUI%2FLogin%3Frealm%3Dvzw%26goto%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fpreorder.verizonwireless.com%253A443%252Ficonic%252Ficonic%252Fsecured%252Fscreens%252FIconicOrder.do%253Fformat%253DJSON%2526value%253D%257B%252522action%252522%253A%252522START_ORDER%252522%252C%252522custType%252522%253A%252522EXISTING%252522%252C%252522orderType%252522%253A%252522UPGRADE%252522%252C%252522lookupMtn%252522%253A%252522*(NumberA)*%252522%252C%252522lineData%252522%253A%255B%257B%252522mtn%252522%253A%252522*(NumberA)*%252522%252C%252522upgType%252522%253A%252522ALTERNATE_UPGRADE%252522%252C%252522eligibleMtn%252522%253A%252522*(NumberB)*%252522%257D%255D%257D&mboxReferrer=&mboxVersion=41
and the http headers look like this:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: VZW
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2012 14:55:48 GMT
Cache-control: private
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: 0
X-dsameversion: VZW
Am_client_type: genericHTML
Content-type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Length: 6220
and
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: no-cache
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:16:30 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
Content-Encoding: gzip
X-Powered-By: Servlet/2.5 JSP/2.1
and
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Server: VZW
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:29:32 GMT
Cache-control: private
Pragma: no-cache
X-dsameversion: VZW
Am_client_type: genericHTML
Location: https://preorder.verizonwireless.com:443/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicOrder.do?format=JSON&value={%22action%22:%22START_ORDER%22,%22custType%22:%22EXISTING%22,%22orderType%22:%22UPGRADE%22,%22lookupMtn%22:%22*(*(NumberA)*%22,%22lineData%22:[{%22mtn%22:%22*(NumberA)*%22,%22upgType%22:%22ALTERNATE_UPGRADE%22,%22eligibleMtn%22:%22*(NumberB)*%22}]}
Content-length: 0
^^this last one actually returned me to a page in the middle of the process when I used the "Location:" given in this http header rather than the URL at the top of the cache page (and was signed in to Verizon's website through a separate tab), but the page it took me to had already been updated to reflect new information, it wasn't presented as of the time the actions were taken several days ago when the page was originally viewed. (It's clear I can't achieve what I'm looking for by visiting current versions of these pages on the web…I should actually probably disable my network adapter while testing this out).
The cache folder seems promising, but I don't know what to make of all that hexadecimal mess - if it contains what I'm looking for and if so, how to view it.
Finally, the third thing I've come across is the Google Chrome cache folder on my local machine, at ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/ then there are 'Default' and 'Media Cache' folders within. There are ~4,000 files in the former averaging ~100kb each, and 100 files in the latter averaging ~900kb each. The filenames all start "f_00xxxx" except for files titled data_0 through data_4 in each folder. I'm not sure how to observe the contents of these files and don't really want to start opening them up and potentially overwriting existing cached pages, as I notice there are already some holes in the arrangement of the files which I have never deleted manually.
Hopefully this is an easy question to answer for someone who knows this stuff, admittedly web stuff is my weak point. As such, I've spent the past five hours searching around and trying to provide all the information I can.
I'm probably asking for a miracle - like can those cached pages full of hexadecimal data be used to recreate the representation of the information that was on screen during the process? Or could screenshots of the previously viewed webpages be lurking in the /Caches folder? I have doubt because the content wasn't viewed at a permanent link, rather it seems like the on-screen information was served by Verizon's db, and probably securely so. I'm just not sure if Chrome saves the visual rendering of the page contents somewhere, even just temporarily. Alternatively I would be happy just to get the raw data that was on the page, even if not a visual representation…I just need to be able to demonstrate the phone line that was referenced on this page: https://preorder.verizonwireless.com/iconic/iconic/secured/screens/IconicFeatures.do . Can anyone point me in the right direction?
