WebCQ FAQ
General
Technical
WebCQ is aiming at offering a generic solution to arbitrary Web page monitoring (including static and dynamic pages). The types of objects in a web page can be any change, image, link, selected phrase, key word, table, list, paragraph, and arbitrary text objects.
How does WebCQ differ from OpenCQ?
WebCQ is a change tracking system for Web pages. Comparing with OpenCQ, a unique feature of WebCQ is that it offers change tracking capability without relying on structural information about the web page contents. In this regard, WebCQ can be seen as a information monitoring system for unstructured data. It can monitor arbitrary web pages and track and deliver interesting changes to the right users at the right time. OpenCQ is the first continual query system that was developed by the CQ team, offering systems support for monitoring information changes in both structured data (such as databases) and semi-structured data (such as web pages). In contrast to WebCQ, when used for tracking changes to Web pages, OpenCQ requires using XML wrappers to access Web pages. An XML wrapper adds a structured view and a search interface to the web sources being accessed. OpenCQ utilizes such structural information as triggering and tracking targets in addition to the web pages themselves. Therefore, OpenCQ can only monitor those web sources that have wrappers ready for use.
Do I need to download software to run it?
No. You do not need to download any software. WebCQ has a Web-based interface, which only needs a Web browser to run, such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. Because some of the nice features require JavaScript and Style sheet support, we recommend you use a higher version of either Netscape or IE (4+). Please report to us if you find any incompatibility with your browser.
Can WebCQ monitor dynamic (i.e., program generated) pages?
Yes, but not all types of program generated pages. Some pages have session IDs associated. Some pages have sophisticated JavaScript functions. WebCQ will occasionally fail on these pages. However, we will address these issues in the next release of WebCQ.
What do different sentinel types mean?
"User Center" is the place where a user can manage his/her installed WebCQs, including browsing and deleting currently installed WebCQs. A user can also change his/her password here.
Why does WebCQ respond slowly sometimes?
It could be the web site that WebCQ is accessing has a long response time; or the number of users currently using WebCQ is large; or the page size is huge. It might be also because you choose a more expensive sentinel type (e.g., regular expression) that takes longer to be processed by the WebCQ server. We will keep working on more efficient algorithms in the processing.
How often does WebCQ send me email notifications?
Based on the notification condition you chose when you installed the particular sentinel on the page, as well as the change frequency of the original web page. By default, WebCQ will check page change everyday. Whenever there is a change satisfying your specified sentinel, WebCQ will notify you by email.
WebCQ will not necessarily increase the load of your web server. One of the key technologies used in WebCQ is the proxy cache server that keeps copies of the web pages locally on the WebCQ server. Only when the cache validation fails does WebCQ go out again to fetch the new version of a page. Otherwise, the local caches are used to serve WebCQ users.
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| Maintained by the CQ group (1997-2003). |
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