Web operation recorder and player

This paper describes mechanisms for recording and playing back Web browser operations. A recorder detects a user's operations on a Web browser and saves them as an event sequence called a scenario. A player plays back the scenario by controlling an actual Web browser. In addition, the recorder and player allow a user to add explanations to existing HTML contents by making "ink" annotations and attaching text, images, and hyperlinks on a Web page. The recorder and player not only enable a Web site owner to gather users' behavior at his or her Web site, but also make it easy to create a Web-based automatic presentation scenario, which can be played back later. The recorder and player run in a Java-enabled Web browser. Users do not have to prepare the Web contents to be recorded; they can work with ordinary Web pages.