A framework to develop meta web interfaces

Abstract

Web interfaces are used nowadays for virtually every kind of computer application. The proliferation of web interfaces created the need to collect and analyze data on how users interact with them. Many web applications used for this purpose rely on what can be called a meta web interface. Meta web interfaces are used for different purposes but they share a set of common features: a web interface based on the subject interface with a second layer interface for collecting data, a central repository for persisting the collected data, and an API for retrieving aggregated data on user interaction. This paper describes Z-Web - a framework for developing meta web interfaces that provides these three features. To create a second layer in the meta web interface a Z-Web server is placed as a proxy between the web client and the subject web server and injects modifications while forwarding HTTP requests. These modifications are typically JavaScript libraries that collect and store data related to user interaction. The framework caches the pages it proxies and provides persistent storage for the collected data. An application interface (API) makes this data available to client application supported by Z-Web. This paper presents an overview of Z-Web, with the general architecture of a web application based on this framework, and describes the design and implementation issues of its main components. Two systems developed with Z-Web are also presented to evaluate the applicability of the framework and its overhead when compared with similar systems.