ANALYSIS AND OVERVIEW OF THE YONTOO TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

Overview:

There are specific times in the lifetime of users where he or she wishes to add specific pieces of functionality to a website. Other than browser specialized add-ons (like the Firefox plug-in directory, Internet Explore Add-ons or Google Chrome Extensions), the user is quite limited in the customization of their web experience when it comes to customizing actual web applications online. The next viable option is either searching for a competing site that offers the specific functionality that one desires, or undergoing a project to create a competing site from scratch. Yet the costs in the later options often do not prove to be a viable solution for the problem at hand. This characterizes the problems in which Yontoo Technology (“Yontoo”) proposes to address.

With Yontoo, instead of a building an entire application, a developer can extend a website with a “Layer Extension”. Wrapped into this extension are new features and customizations for the website in which the developer specifies. No technical support from the website in which the developer proposes to extend is necessary. Additionally, no servers or other infrastructure elements need to be added. These elements are provided by a Layer Service Provider (“LSP”) and a special layers browser plug-in (“Layers Plug-in”). The Layers Plug-in is loaded by the user’s browser, and communicates with the LSP. Together, these two pieces of technology determine if a Layer Extension is applicable to the current website page. If one (or more than one Layer Extension) is available, the Layers Plug-in combines the Layers Extension with the existing website by modifying the DOM that was already rendered by the browser from the host site html. The new design and features co-exist with the original, “layerless” website. Users interact with the Layer Extension, as well as the original website as if it is one universal application; when, in reality they are interacting with a Layer Extension and a Web Application.

Use Case Scenario:

Web Products, Inc. has an idea for a new feature for Craigslist. They’ve noticed that Craigslist postings contain links to images, which displays the item for sale. Yet in order to view these images, a user must click through to the link, load a separate page, and then return to the listing page that they were previously on. Web Products, Inc. views this as inefficient. As a result, Web Products, Inc. conceives an idea where a user could mouse over the link and have the image appear in a floating window. For Craigslist, this would be a fairly simple feature to introduce. However, Web Products, Inc. can’t take control of Craigslist’s servers and code to make the change. Web Products, Inc. has two decisions: either, (i) make a Craigslist competitor that possesses this feature, or (ii) develop the feature using Yontoo. In this scenario, option ii serves as a more viable option because option i requires a small company to compete with a large, powerful corporation.

Choosing option ii, Web Products, Inc. writes an implementation of the mouse-over feature using standard web technologies such as HTML and Javascript. The extension also includes XML that describes where and when the extension should apply. For example, it specifies that the extension applies to craigslist.org pages, and that it applies to link elements whose URLs are images. The extension is hosted by the LSP in the cloud. When a user browses to craigslist.org, their Layers Plug-in contacts the service provider. The provider loads Web Products, Inc. extension for craigslist.org, and delivers it to the Layers Plug-in. The Layers Plug-in reads the Layers Extension and applies the appropriate logic and interface to the web page. The page is already loaded in the user’s browser, but the Yontoo platform can make the small required modifications directly without reloading the original page. In this example, it attaches an event handler to all of the link elements that link to images. Now when the user moves the mouse over an image link, the event handler is triggered, invoking Web Products, Inc. Layers Extension code. That code opens the image in a small floating window near the cursor, just as if it were included in the original page from craigslist.com. It looks just the same to the user.