Automated Relevancy Feedback Modification of Mozilla source code

Automated Relevancy Feedback • Modification of Mozilla source code to add in event tracking and modify content of incoming pages & outgoing requests (HTTP POST/ GET). • Modification of existing HTTP proxy server to modify content. • Implementation of new proxy server in PERL.

Mozilla • The code is huge (something on the order of 10 megabytes of source, it’s hard to tell exactly what a minimal source distribution would be) and would therefore be pretty unwieldy for individuals to deal with. • We would need to upgrade to CVS 1. 10 and use gcc 2. 7. 2. x instead of gcc 2. 8. x which they don’t recommend.

Mozilla • A fairly short searh of the code seemed to yeild an obvious place for logging a time / url / incoming HTTP stream, though of course it’s impossible to be sure without building it. • The source distribution is 64+ megabytes, making it an issue in terms of disk quota.

Modification of existing HTTP proxy server • A number of servers are available. • Squid is the most popular, and also does caching (http: //www. squid-cache. org). • A number of proxies available for Linux and other UNIX flavors at http: //www. freshmeat. net, all written in C or Python.

Implementation of a New Proxy Server in PERL • We are working on an implementation of HTTP proxy in PERL that will be available for project groups in the next two weeks. • Open architecture will support setting up events on incoming and outgoing HTTP requests so that users can write their own functions to handle these requests based upon a history of actions. • Software will run in a single user space, and work with existing browser supporting proxy (IE, Netscape, Mozilla, etc. ).