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What is ModHeader?

Discover a super useful Chrome extension called ModHeader, which allows you to modify your browser's HTTP request headers.

If you read about Postman, you might remember that you can use it to modify request headers before sending a request. This is great, but the main problem is that Postman can only make static requests - meaning, it is unable to load JavaScript or any dynamic content.

ModHeader is a Chrome extension which can be used to modify the HTTP headers of the requests you make with your browser. This means that, for example, if your scraper using a headless browser Puppeteer is being blocked due to an improper User-Agent header, you can use ModHeader to test the target website and quickly solve the issue.

The ModHeader interface​

After you install the ModHeader extension, you should see it pinned in Chrome's task bar. When you click it, you'll see an interface like this pop up:

Modheader's simple interface

Here, you can add headers, remove headers, and even save multiple collections of headers that you can easily toggle between (which are called Profiles within the extension itself).

Use cases​

When scraping dynamic websites, sometimes some specific headers are required to access certain pages. The most popularly required headers are generally User-Agent and referer. ModHeader, and other tools like it, make it easy to test requests to these websites right in your browser before writing logic for your scraper.