Annotating Packets

The decoder window allows each packet to have its own annotation. Clicking the small circle in the first column will open the annotation editor for that packet. Annotations are great ways for providing information about a packet or narrating a capture file. Annotations support Markdown syntax which allows the text to be formatted in various ways. Markdown also supports linking, which a great way to link directly from an annotation to another capture file, trouble ticket, bug report etc.

Watch this video to see annotations in action!

The annotation editor allows you to save, update, delete and preview the annotation. Here you can also select colors for the text and background of the annotation.

When annotations are applied to a packet the blue circle in the second column for that packet will light up.

Annotations are also available via the API using the annotations API call.

Markdown Syntax

CloudShark annotations support Markdown syntax. For complete description of Markdown, please see this page. Here are some simple examples of common formatting tweaks available with Markdown:

To make a link:

[an example](http://example.com/ "Title")

The annotation converts the Markdown after you are done editing. Just click something else on the page to tell CloudShark you’re done editing the annotation.

To make a header, put an equal sign by itself on the next line:

This is a header
=

When you click away, it will be converted to a large, header style text. You can make a smaller header:

A smaller header
-

Lists are prefixed with an asterisk and a space:

* list1
* list2