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3.3 Queries 
When the Database Information Window is dis- 
played, a default server is connected to the client. 
The user can select a desired server by clicking on 
the Servers button in the window. All queries in the 
session will be sent to the connected server. To 
search the chosen server’s database, a search 
option must be specified. One can search the data- 
base by any of the following options: keywords, 
data set name, category code, category name, 
agencylowner name, contact person name, data- 
base name, application name or project name. The 
$ummary button gives a summary of the data sets 
in the database. Apart from querying the database 
for the summary of the data sets, for each search 
option specified, the corresponding entry must be 
entered in the entry field that follows the option 
button. This field is marked “Enter options:” in 
figure 3. Entries in this field need not match 
exactly the content of the database. A partial match 
is sufficient for a successful search. The search 
string entered can be in any case, upper or lower 
case, since the field is case-insensitive. On a return 
(pressing the Enter key) or a click on Accept but- 
ton, the search will begin. While an operation is in 
progress, e.g., a search of the database, the user 
may proceed to perform other operations. 
The results if any, is displayed in the scrollable 
window marked *' Search Results:" in figure 3, oth- 
erwise a message of no match is displayed. The 
results returned are the data sets that qualify given 
the search criteria. The results for any search, 
except for the Summary option, are a list of quali- 
fying data set keys (as we will discuss later, these 
keys may be useful to users with SQL knowledge), 
acronyms and data set names. The Summary search 
result is a list of category code, category name and 
a count of data sets in each category. Having 
received the search results, the user may proceed to 
view or retrieve further information on the data set 
that interest him/her. These include information 
about the owner of the data set, the contact persons 
of the data set, available documents, applications 
and projects of the data set and the data sets storage 
and access informations. 
To access the information, the user must highlight 
the data set that he/she is interested in (at the scrol- 
lable list window) and then select the desired infor- 
mation at the area marked ‘Retrieved info:” in 
figure 3. The A// button will automatically select 
all the available information for the user. After 
selecting the information desired, a click on the 
Retrieve button will send the request to the server. 
If the desired information is available, it is dis- 
played in one or a number of windows in turn at the 
user's workstation. 
The sequence of actions to be followed at a client 
workstation to retrieve information is illustrated as 
follows. Assuming that the user has invoked the 
Database Information window shown in figure 3. 
Let the Search option chosen be the Dataset Name. 
If the string entered is canad", then the display in 
the Search result of the window shows the infor- 
mation returned as the result of the query. If the 
user now highlights the line shown, i.e., “Cana- 
dian Vessel Marine Surface ...", then further infor- 
mation about this data set may be retrieved. 
Suppose the user now clicks on the buttons Owner 
and Contact and then request that information be 
retrieved, the result of such a query is the display 
of the two windows in Figures 4 and 5 respectively. 
The information in these windows correspond to 
contents of forms that can be printed. 
When the required information windows are dis- 
played, the user has three button for the next 
sequence of operation. The user may choose to 
close the window, get detailed help about the win- 
dows, or save the contents of the window in his/her 
working directory. If a user elects to save the infor- 
mation, the save file corresponding to the window 
is given as <window-name>.mv, where <window- 
name> is the information being viewed. For exam- 
ple, if we save the owner information of figure 4, 
the file name will be owner.mv. Any subsequent 
saving of owner information of any other data sets 
will be appended to this file. Detailed information 
367