Searching
Lou Montulli (montulli@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu)
Fri, 18 Dec 92 15:26:25 CST
From: montulli@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
Message-Id: <9212182126.AA24621@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Searching
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 15:26:25 CST
WAIS searching is adequate for many applications but ergonomically
it has a long way to go. The currently search methods provided by
WWW and Gopher are inadequate for many needs.
For an example, assume a hypothetical database for calendar information.
It is designed to allow the user to pick among a finite set of events
and show them based on a date range. A CWIS interface to the data
might look like the following.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to The University of Kansas Events Server
Press return at any time to show events.
Starting search date: Dec, 18 1992
Ending search date: Jan, 18 1993
Categories
* Academic field * Museum & gallery
* Academic year * Music
* Athletic * Other cultural
* Ceremonies & recognitions * Parties
* Club & group meetings * Recreational
* Conferences & workshops * Service & charitable
* Film * Special academic matters
* Holidays, etc * Theatre
* Lecture * Training events
* Local & area * University governance & structure
Categories with a '*' are selected
'a' to select all, 'n' to select none
Use '+', '-', or space, to change fields
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The user can select any of the 20 fields as being on or off.
The program will search for records and display those that are within the
date range and are in the selected categories. How can this be done
given the current implementation of WWW and others like it?
This kind of search is much easier for the user than having to
interact with line oriented input. It also produces a number of
implementation challenges.
Comments??
:lou
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