The Desktop Client features a built-in web browser that lets you embed the web interface or web client of third-party software directly into Nx Witness. This integration allows you to manage third-party applications without switching windows.

The VMS uses the Qt WebEngine, which is based on Chromium. Because the in-client browser has certain limitations, you can enable Developer Tools in an external Chromium-based browser (e.g. Chrome, Chromium, Edge, etc) to debug and troubleshoot web pages running inside the VMS.

Enable and access Developer Tools

To investigate issues with the in-client browser, you must start the Desktop client from the command line and specify a remote debugging port.

Step 1: Set the debugging port and launch the client

Follow the instructions for your specific operating system.

For Windows

1. Open the Command Prompt.

2. Navigate to your applicable client directory.

   • Initial installations: 
     C:\Program Files\Network Optix\Nx Witness\Client\<version>

   • Updated or latest versions: 
     C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Network Optix\client\default\<version>

3. Set the remote debugging environment variable by entering the following command (replace 8090 with your preferred port if necessary): 
   set QTWEBENGINE_REMOTE_DEBUGGING=8090

4. Start the desktop client from the same command prompt: 
   "HD Witness.exe"

For Linux

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Navigate to your applicable client directory.

   • Initial installations: 
     /opt/networkoptix/client/<version>/bin

   • Updated or latest versions: 
     /home/$USER/.local/share/'Network Optix'/client/default/<version>/bin

3. Set the remote debugging environment variable by entering the following command (replace 8090 with your preferred port if necessary): 
   export QTWEBENGINE_REMOTE_DEBUGGING=8090

4. Start the desktop client from the same terminal: 
   ./client-bin

Step 2: Open the Developer Tools in a browser

1. Open an external Chromium-based browser window. (e.g. Chrome, Chromium, Edge, etc)

2. In the address bar, navigate to:
   localhost:<port> 
   (for example, localhost:8090).

3. Select the web resource you want to investigate.

The external browser opens the standard Chromium Developer Tools interface, allowing you to debug the page running inside the Desktop client.

Additional Information

The built-in web browser in the VMS is based on Chromium. For more details on how the underlying framework renders web pages and executes JavaScript, see the following Qt documentation:

• Qt WebEngine Overview

• Qt Wiki: Qt WebEngine