Um método probabilístico para o preenchimento automático de formulários Web a partir de textos ricos em dados

Abstract

On the Web of today the most prevalent solution for users to interact with data-intesive applications is the use of form-based interfaces composed by several data input fields, such as text boxes, radio buttons, pull-down lists and check boxes. Although these interfaces are popular and effectiver, in many cases, free text interfaces are preferred over form based ones. In this work we present, the implementation and the evaluation of a novel method for automatically filling form-based input interfaces using data-rich text. Our solution takes a data-rich free text as input (e.g, an ad), extracts implicit data values from it and fills appropriate fields using them. For this task, we rely on knowledge obtained from values of previous submissions for each field, which are freely obtained from the usage of the interfaces. Our approach, called iForm, exploits features related to the content and the style of these values, which are combined through a Bayesian framework. Through extensive experimentation, we show that our approach is feasible and effective, and it works well even when only a few previous submissions to the input interface are available.