QUICK: Graphical User Interface to Multiple Databases

Wang Chiew Tan Nat'l Univ of Singapore Singapore 119260 Email: [email protected] Ke Wang Nat'l Univ of Singapore Singapore 119260 Email: [email protected] Limsoon Wong Inst of Systems Science Singapore 119597 Email: [email protected] Abstract Formulating queries to access multiple databases can be a formidable task, especially when many terms from various databases and complex constraints are involved. To specify a multidatabase query, the user usually has to search through documents for exact database terms and learn the multidatabase language. This report presents QUICK (QUery Interface to CPL-Kleisli), a graphical user interface to multiple databases. CPL is a high-level multidatabase language built on top of an open query system Kleisli. QUICK allows users to handle overwhelming information from di erent data sources in an intuitive and uniform manner. The query speci cation is reduced to specifying user's terms in his/her own world, selecting paths and specifying constraints in a graph. QUICK is able to automatically generate a CPL query that corresponds to the user's intent.