HWL Converter

Extract text from HttpWatch traffic logs (HWL)


Drop or upload your .HWL file
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How to extract text from your HWL file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HWL file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert HWL to another file type

To convert HWL logs to another format, you need HttpWatch or other Developer software.

Convert a file to HWL

To convert other file formats to the "Traffic Log File" file type, you need software like HttpWatch or a similar tool.


About HWL files

The .HWL file format is a proprietary log file created by HttpWatch. Developers and QA testers use it to record HTTP and HTTPS traffic between a web browser and a server. These files store request headers, response bodies, cookies, cache information, and performance timings. The primary tool to open and analyze these files is HttpWatch Studio. Other minor uses of the .HWL extension include game audio wave libraries by HAL Laboratory or Homeworld level files, but web traffic logs account for over 90% of files found in the wild. The main disadvantage of the .HWL format is its proprietary, closed nature. You cannot open it natively in modern browser developer tools or standard text editors. It forces users to buy or install a specific commercial tool just to read network traces. To share this data with other developers, you must convert the .HWL file to the standard .HAR (HTTP Archive) format. You can also export the data to .CSV for spreadsheet analysis or .XML for programmatic parsing. This file format is exceptionally difficult to convert via standard online tools because the binary structure is undocumented. Standard online converters fail to process it. Often, only the original HttpWatch software can properly read or export the structured data.

Convert.Guru analyzes your HWL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted SAL, TLOG and SLG files.


FAQ

If you want to convert HWL file to , you can use HttpWatch or similar software from the "HTTP traffic logging" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert files to HWL, try HttpWatch or another comparable tool in the "HTTP traffic logging" category.



The HWL Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HWL converter.