Analyzing Web 2.0 Applications with Ajax View

The information published in this post is now out-of-date and contains links which are no longer valid.

—IEBlog Editor, 18 August 2012

Hi everyone,

In June I posted information about a number of developer tools, one of which was Ajax View. Ajax View, developed by Microsoft Research, can help improve a developer's visibility into their web application’s performance and behavior. Recently, the researchers building Ajax View – Emre Kıcıman and Ben Livshits – released a public version of the tool (licensed for academic or other non-commercial use) so I want to share a link and provide a little more information about it.

What can I do with it?

As shown in the demo from MIX07 and described in detail here, you can use Ajax View to profile a site’s JavaScript from your dev machine. Ajax View includes a few default instrumentation policies for basic profiling (timing based on before and after a function call in the caller, timing based on before and after a function call in the callee, etc.) but you can create a plug-in to track the JavaScript you’re interested in. 

How does it work?

Ajax View is an HTTP proxy that instruments JavaScript as it’s served to the client based on a set of rules defined by plug-ins. The download includes a plug-in that contains a commented sample instrumentation policy. This design has a couple important effects:

  • You can customize Ajax View to monitor exactly the JavaScript behavior you’re looking for, whether it’s about performance, or how people navigate through your site.
  • Using Ajax View does not require modification of either the page source or the browser.

Where do I download it and send feedback?

Visit the Ajax View project siteto download the latest prototype and try it for yourself. 

We’d love to get your feedback on the kind of instrumentation you’d find useful. Let us know what data about your web application’s behavior would help you detect or debug problems. You can send feedback directly to the project team, or, as usual, comment on this post. 

Thanks! 

John Hrvatin
Program Manager
Internet Explorer

Edit: Updated link for "send feedback directly to the project team"