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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Towards Web Macros:
Automating Common Tasks
on the Web Alex Safonov, Joseph A. Konstan,
John V. Carlis
University of Minnesota
Department of Computer Science and
Engineering
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Automatable Web Tasks:
ExamplesOn-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?
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Actions to automate
Navigation; form filling and submission;
user authentication
Iteration over multiple informationservices
– integrate results
Connecting services “back-to-back”
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Vision of a Solution:
Web MacrosClient-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
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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
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Proxy-based Prototype
Special URLs http://macros/...
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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
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HFWEB June 3, 1999
Get me to:
Housing Search Results
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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
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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
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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
