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Databases and Systems

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168<br />

Figure 3 : An Example of AGIS Database Links<br />

There are two basic access methods for the plant genome data in AGIS: 1.)<br />

Browsing interface; 2.) <strong>and</strong> Query interface. Each method has advantages <strong>and</strong><br />

disadvantages, <strong>and</strong> the interface of choice will be strongly dependent upon both the<br />

data desired <strong>and</strong> the familiarity of the user with ACEDB. Database access is<br />

restricted to single databases at present -- no concurrent or cross-database querying is<br />

supported. The following sections present the three interfaces arranged by<br />

complexity <strong>and</strong> power. Finally, a section on the hypertext ACEDB objects is<br />

presented.<br />

Browse Mode<br />

For novice users, the browse mode is certainly the simplest interface. Browse is a<br />

point <strong>and</strong> click interface which allows the user to w<strong>and</strong>er through the data in a<br />

completely hyper-linked mode. A problem with this approach is the complexity <strong>and</strong><br />

amount of the data can be overwhelming. Still, using the browse mode allows the<br />

user to avoid the complexities of the ACEDB query language.<br />

Selecting the browse mode presents the user with a form listing the available<br />

classes in the database. The available classes choice page for the RiceGenes database<br />

is shown in Figure 4. Selection of a class (in this case Locus) presents the user with a<br />

list of all objects available for that class. When there are too many objects to be<br />

comfortably listed, the list is collapsed into a set of sublists. Selecting a sublist<br />

(Figure 4) brings up a shortened list of all objects in that particular range. The user<br />

always has the option to import the entire list.<br />

Selection of an object from the final list retrieves a hypertext version of the<br />

object, as described below.

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