Some web-based features require communication with a server that is driven by an unpredictable user interaction or utilizes an open-ended number of URLs to retrieve the data to support that feature. These features cannot be exported easily due to their dependence on a live website and cannot be captured well using web archiving, which depends on identifying every unique URL. Examples include: dynamic maps (e.g. Google Maps), full text or faceted search, web forms, data visualizations (e.g. ArcGIS), IIIF image viewers, and streamed content. Some features can be redesigned to remove their dependency on a live server, but if they can’t, publishers will need to consider what can be preserved. There are many strategies for this, for example: create a simpler static version of the feature that incorporates the key features for the purpose of preservation; embed a local copy of a server based resource rather than depend on a third party service; supply code or data for the feature with documentation for re-assembling the functionality; record a video of the interaction as it behaves in the published environment for future playback; or, a combination of these.
These guidelines offer alternative ways to manage features that depend on a live server:
16. Captions add important context to non-text features
53. Consider web page designs that pre-load all data when the page loads
63. Supply raw data, documentation for data visualizations