Understanding Ajax Applications by Connecting Client and Server-Side Execution Traces

Author's version of the work published in: Empirical Software Engineering (Springer), 18 (2), 2013; doi:10.1007/s10664-012-9200-5 Ajax-enabled web applications are a new breed of highly interactive, highly dynamic web applications. Although Ajax allows developers to create rich web applications, Ajax applications can be difficult to comprehend 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. We evaluate FireDetective using (1) a pretest-posttest user study and (2) a field user study. Preliminary evidence shows that the FireDetective tool is an effective aid for web developers striving to understand Ajax applications.