[BiO BB] Advanced web query interfaces for biological databases

[Keith Callenberg]

Shameer, thank you for you suggestions. I have heard good things about
Flex's UI capabilities and I will check it out. I think many people's
concept of the web is limited by a notion that scripting languages
like php, ruby, python and perl are as far as we can go within the
browser. I think it will take a combination of new technologies --
perhaps a combination like the one you've suggested -- to go further.

Keith

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Shameer Khadar <skhadar at gmail.com> wrote:
> It will be an interesting UI design.
>  Now many bioinformatics web resources are coming up with intuitive use of js
>  libraries like YUI, scriptaculous etc. Flex is also an excellent tool for
>  revolutionary UI development. If I were you, I would have used a combination
>  of js library + flex
>
>  thats my 2 cents
>  cheers,
>  Shameer
>
>  On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 12:37 PM, Keith Callenberg <kcallenb at email.sjsu.edu>
>  wrote:
>
>
>
>  > I am working on the web interface for a fairly complex database that
>  > integrates several different types of data (gene expression, sequence,
>  > annotation). A basic interface for accessing individual records in the
>  > database has already been written, but my lab's biologists would like
>  > to see a more powerful form interface. They would like to be able to
>  > add thresholds on arbitrary fields and set other parameters for
>  > several fields at a time.
>  >
>  > I have been pointed to the Query Builder on NCBI's Trace Archive
>  > (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/trace.cgi) as the basic concept,
>  > and I can see how that could be implemented with its helpful
>  > auto-complete text, but it seems like it still has quite a learning
>  > curve and is not really very intuitive. I have also found BioCyc.org's
>  > Advanced Query page (http://biocyc.org/query.html) and several others
>  > that are similar or harder to use. AJAX can help, and we plan to
>  > integrate auto-completion of some text, but I would like to build
>  > something powerful and yet intuitive that does not require someone to
>  > read a manual before using. Any suggestions? I suppose innovation in
>  > UI design often starts in other places first so I'd appreciate any
>  > non-biological examples as well.
>  >
>  > Thanks!
>  >
>  > Keith Callenberg
>  >
>
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>
>  --
>  K Shameer
>  =========================================
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