The Network Module in BAS: Cookies, Cache and Requests

The browser is constantly sending and receiving traffic under the hood, and the Network module is where you take control of it — the headers, cookies, cache, requests and downloads that sit between your bot and the server.

What the Network module controls

It works with the browser’s network parameters: cache, cookies, request headers, request masks, request statuses, file downloads and pop-up windows. Together these let you shape exactly what the browser sends out and how it handles what comes back.

Cookies — the session layer

• Save cookies / Load cookies — export the current session’s cookies and reload them later, so a logged-in account doesn’t have to authenticate every run.
• Load cookies into the HTTP client — hand the browser’s session to the HTTP client so fast, browserless requests carry the same authentication. This is the bridge that lets you log in with a browser and then scale with raw requests.

Speed — request masks and cache

• Disable request (mask) — block specific requests by pattern so the browser never loads them. Killing image, font or analytics requests makes pages load faster and threads lighter, which adds up across thousands of runs.
• Allow / clear cache, clear saved data — manage what the browser keeps between actions, so a fresh identity doesn’t inherit stale cached data.

Reading what happened

• Request status / Was there a request — check whether a particular request fired and how it ended, so your flow can branch on the actual network result instead of guessing.
• Get last cache element / Get cache elements — read responses the browser already fetched, useful for pulling data out of XHR calls without re-requesting.

Controlling headers and noise

• Set header — add or change a request header the server sees, for auth tokens or content negotiation.
• Disable / allow pop-ups and file downloads, disable file loading — stop sites from spawning windows or pushing downloads you don’t want, keeping long multi-threaded runs clean.

The Network module is the quiet half of browser control: not what’s on the page, but what crosses the wire. Master cookies and request masks first — session reuse and blocking dead weight are where it pays off fastest.