Automatic Filling of Hidden Web Forms: A Survey

A significant part of the information available on the Web is stored in online databases which compose what is known as Hidden Web or Deep Web. In order to access information from the Hidden Web, one must fill an HTML form that is submitted as a query to the underlying database. In recent years, many works have focused on how to automate the process of form filling by creating methods for choosing values to fill the fields in the forms. This is a challenging task since forms may contain fields for which there are no predefined values to choose from. This article presents a survey of methods for Web Form Filling, analyzing the existing solutions with respect to the type of forms that they handle and the filling strategy adopted. We provide a comparative analysis of 15 key works in this area and discuss directions for future research.