hfweb june 3, 1999 towards web macros: automating common tasks on the web alex safonov, joseph a....
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Towards Web Macros: Automating Common Tasks
on the WebAlex Safonov, Joseph A. Konstan,
John V. CarlisUniversity of Minnesota
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Automatable Web Tasks: Examples
On-line flight reservations– NWA, Internet Travel Network, etc.– multiple, “equivalent” airports (SFO/SJC/OAK)
Cited reference search– re-run for each database, merge results– plug found citations into full-text DL
Persistent shopping cart– multi-vendor?
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Actions to automate
Navigation; form filling and submission; user authentication
Iteration over multiple information services– integrate results
Connecting services “back-to-back”
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Vision of a Solution: Web Macros
Client-side programs that:– Emulate user actions on the Web– Can be created by end users
Requirements for Web Macros– infer navigation and control– support parameters– deal with dynamic, unstructured data– maintain the browsing context
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Related Work
Internet Scrapbook– Sugiura and Koseki, UIST 98
InfoBeans– Bauer and Dengler, IUI 99
AgentSoft’s LiveAgent WebL
– Kistler and Marais, WWW7
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Proxy-based Prototype
Special URLs http://macros/...
HFWEB June 3, 1999
“Get me here” Web macros
Goal: re-establish browsing context– authentication, hidden form fields, cookies
Iteratively generates and test macros– from longer history segments
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Get me to: Housing Search Results
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Invoking Web Macros
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Future Work
Concrete plans– intelligently comparing Web pages– let users specify start and end of macro– update macros based on playback
“deviations”
Neat ideas– use browsing history for improving macros– visual manipulation environment for Web
macros
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Conclusion
Why automate common tasks Requirements and our prototype system Goals
– A free system for automating Web tasks by end-users
– Extensions to Programming by Demonstration techniques for the Web
– Recommendations for content developers
HFWEB June 3, 1999
Existing Tools
Bookmarks/favorites– record static URLs only
Server-based Tools– comparison shopping services; auction
proxies; customizable home pages– limited flexibility: user is not in control
• competing services are excluded