Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Ajax is an umbrella term for a set of technologies that allows web developers to create highly interactive web applications. Ajax applications are complex; they consist of multiple heterogeneous artifacts which are combined in a highly dynamic fashion. This complexity makes Ajax applications hard to understand, and thus to maintain. For this reason, we have created FireDetective, a tool that uses dynamic analysis at both the client (browser) and server side to facilitate the understanding of Ajax applications. Using an exploratory pre-experimental user study, we see that web developers encounter problems when understanding Ajax applications. We also find preliminary evidence that the FireDetective tool allows web developers to understand Ajax applications more effectively, more efficiently and with more confidence. We investigate which techniques and features contributed to this result, and use observations made during the user study to identify opportunities for future work.
Author: Nick Matthijssen
Institution: Delft University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W180972872