Execution Traces

Ajax-enabled web applications are a new breed of highly interac-tive, highly dynamic web applications. Although Ajax allows develop-ers 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 ap-plications. 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.