Interaction Middleware
Interaction Middleware is a proxy-based technology that intercepts, reconstructs, and synchronizes web content between multiple users in real-time. It enables universal co-browsing on any website without requiring code installation or plugins, serving as the core architecture of the Surfly platform.
What you need to know about Interaction Middleware
Surfly’s co-browsing technology is based on Interaction Middleware, a content-rewriting proxy that controls the session without modifying the target website. During a co-browsing session, the middleware retrieves, processes, and synchronizes web content across all users in real-time.
Proxy-based co-browsing solutions like Surfly, differ from JavaScript solutions that inject scripts into target websites and replicate user actions. These embed-based approaches often break when websites contain iframes, complex third-party content, or when users navigate to domains without the script. Surfly's Interaction Middleware operates independently of the target website, enabling consistent functionality across all sites without requiring installation or modification.
How Surfly's Interaction Middleware Works
The technical process for establishing a collaborative session involves several key steps:
- Request Interception: When a user initiates a co-browsing session, their browser's request for a webpage is routed through Surfly's proxy servers instead of going directly to the website.
- Request Modification: The proxy modifies the request headers to make it appear as if it originates from a
surfly.comdomain. This step is important for handling cross-domain security policies. - Content Retrieval: The modified request is sent to the target website's server, which returns the page content as it normally would.
- Content Rewriting: The Surfly proxy receives the website's response and rewrites its code to ensure they function correctly within Surfly's sandboxed environment.
- Synchronized Delivery: The modified, collaborative-ready version of the site is streamed to all session participants. All subsequent actions are captured as DOM events and synchronized via a persistent WebSocket connection, ensuring all users see the same state in real-time.
The importance of Interaction Middleware
The use of Interaction Middleware provides specific operational and strategic advantages, directly influencing implementation speed, user experience, and security posture.
- Accelerated Time-to-Value: The "zero-integration" nature of the proxy allows organizations to deploy a co-browsing solution across all their web properties, and even third-party sites, without a lengthy and costly IT project. This reduces the time from purchase to productive use from months to minutes.
- Complete Customer Journey Support: Businesses can support customers across their entire digital journey, even when it involves moving from a main website to a partner portal for a payment or a third-party site for a credit check. This creates a continuous support experience where script-based solutions would fail.
- Reduced Security and Compliance Overhead: The zero-storage architecture means no customer session data is ever stored on Surfly's servers, which simplifies compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. Data masking is applied at the proxy level, preventing sensitive information from ever reaching an agent's device.
- Future-Proof Compatibility: Because the middleware works independently of a website's underlying code, it remains compatible even when a company updates or completely redesigns its website. This eliminates the maintenance overhead associated with keeping an embedded script up to date.
A Practical Example of Interaction Middleware
Frequently asked questions about Interaction Middleware
We’ve compiled answers to the most frequently asked questions about
Interaction Middleware
.
Interaction Middleware is a proxy that works without any changes to your website. It can co-browse on any site, including third-party ones. An embedded JavaScript solution only works on the specific web pages where you have installed its code, and it often breaks when encountering iframes or navigating to other domains.
No. Surfly is built on a zero-storage architecture. Data passes through the proxy servers for real-time rewriting but is never written to disk or stored persistently. This is a core security principle of the design.
Yes. The content-rewriting proxy is designed to handle modern web applications built with frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js. It proxies all underlying data requests (APIs) and correctly handles the dynamic DOM manipulations that characterize these applications.
Nothing. The primary benefit of this architecture is its universal compatibility. You do not need to make any code changes, installations, or modifications to your website or web applications.