Web Historian - Community Edition

This is a research data collection tool created by Ericka Menchen-Trevino.

Quick Start

If you just want to run the extension locally to see the interface and visualizations:

• Download the repository including the core submodule. You may use git clone --recurse-submodules.
• Rename manifest.json-template.json to manifest.json.
• Create the folder _locales/en/ and rename _locales/en_messages.json-template.json to _locales/en/messages.json.
• Rename the file js/app/config.js-template.js to config.js.
• In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions, turn on Developer Mode, and choose Load Unpacked extension, and select the folder where you cloned or downloaded this repository. The extension will also load in Firefox if you prefer. Chrome will say there is an error in the manifest because there are Firefox specific settings, but it does not impact the extension.

If you use this tool please cite this paper:

Menchen-Trevino, E. (2016). Web Historian: Enabling multi-method and independent research with real-world web browsing history data. Presented at the iConference, Philadelphia: IDEALS. https://doi.org/10.9776/16611

And/or cite the code itself.

Menchen-Trevino, E., & Karr, C. (2018). Web Historian - Community Edition. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1322782

If you are interested in using Web Historian for your own research you will need to:

• Set up a server running PassiveDataKit-Django.
• Download the repository including the core submodule. You may use git clone --recurse-submodules.
• Rename manifest.json-template.json to manifest.json and configure the version number and the default locale.
• Customize Web Historian to describe your research in all of the languages your study supports
  • Rename _locales/xx_messages.json-template.json to _locales/xx/messages.json for each language code xx.
  • Edit at least messages html0021, html0029 and html0054.
• Customize the configuration settings
  • Rename js/app/config.js-template.js to config.js and customize the settings and put in your PDK server address.
• (Optional) Customize the categories of websites relevant to your research by editing the file core/js/app/categories.json.