Integrating Databases and Multimedia Information on the Web

The enormous advances in Web technology have taken information systems literally to another dimension. Therefore, the need for proper organization and manipulation of the information provided online has been emerged very intensive nowadays. An attempt was undertaken in this study referring to a research work into the integration of agricultural databases and multimedia presentations of agricultural data on the Web, using an interactive information system created for this purpose and called AgroModel. The aim is to provide a proper Web structure for data integration and manipulation online in order to be used for research by a global network of agricultural research centres. Arising out of a need for a better organization and integration of information on the Web, an integrated interactive multimedia environment for agricultural research and information distribution was developed and used efficiently in local area research cases. This integrated online information system for research and information distribution aims to be the model platform used for research in agriculture and environmental studies in general. Results of the system's application and usage have shown it's immense potential into the integration and manipulation of large amounts of different types of data. It seems that the current state of this environment could present a substantial contribution to the global organization and access of data on the Web. Introduction Based on primary agricultural research needs, an appropriate database structure was created on a relational model scheme. In continuation, various plant and animal descriptive and research data were stored into database structures grouped and incorporated within the AgroModel environment. The databases are under continuous improvement and updates since new data and findings are continuously being found. AgroModel was created to provide tools for database management, data manipulation and data analysis. The system is built using object-oriented visual languages (an integration of Visual Basic, SQL and Web development languages HTML, Java) [2], [3] used also for advanced programming and work with the system. The overall integrated environment obtained is the platform which is finally placed on the WWW (http:/biometry.agr.uth.gr) in order to make the information in agricultural research available for the benefit of agricultural society and any scientific society in general. The environment provides build-in tools as well as interfaces to software packages (e.g. SPSS, SYSTAT, STATISTICA) for mathematical and statistical analysis applied mainly to agricultural data, but also to any type of data online on the Web. In this way the environment constitutes also a system for distance learning education in agricultural science available to anyone interested in studying or researching on the Web. Being in such an integrated environment, where the compatibility between the databases and various statistical packages is available, the researcher could undertake any type of statistical analysis from the simplest descriptive statistics to the most sophisticated stability statistics approaches (regression models, cluster analysis, etc.). The overall system comprises a flexible structure that is under continuous improvement and evolvement in order to maintain the research information up to date. The idea of a fully integrated computing environment for agricultural data management, until now suffered from one major flaw, communications. Microsoft Corporation, addressed this problem by proposing an Open Architecture structure, open database connectivity protocols, etc. [4]. Based on a such approach an interactive quantitative modeling environment, called AgroModel [6] as in Figure1, was constructed using object-oriented software and incorporating certain statistical analysis packages and techniques, in order to achieve: (a) an interactive computing platform for agricultural data manipulation for practical purposes, (b) an integrated computing platform for efficient use of agricultural data analysis and comparisons. AgroModel sessions administrate a huge database, called AgroDB, consisted of various animal and plant data (particularly cattle properties, Charolais breed specific), that encapsulates the high-level knowledge of the human expert in cattle breeds’ management. The basic idea in this study was to provide an integrated environment, where various data analysis tools could be used in order to extract and propose solutions to certain case problems. A general view of this environment is presented in Figure2. Materials and Methods The development of the interactive application environment of this study was based mainly upon the use of object-oriented [1] and visual development tools (Visual Basic 6.0), and the use of open architecture technology drivers and methods (ODBC interface, SQL) to interact initially with Microsoft Access and Excel databases and later on with certain statistical packages, as the SPSS and STATISTICA, on a Windows 98 operating system platform. In particular software modules were created as VBasic modules and scripts, SQL queries in order to facilitate the communication of model components and execution of internal functions and procedures. The hardware and software requirements for the application to run are not of a particular demand; the basic use requires simply an elementary training at the level of a modern farmer. The application currently provides a set of basic tools for agricultural data management: Figure1: A front-end view of the AgroModel. • Database basic data manipulation (retrieval, update, filter, report, queries, etc.) • Data analysis (e.g. statistical, etc.) through build-in functions, spreadsheet functions, etc. • Advanced data management (based upon logical reasoning, SQL queries, etc.) At the design stage, a fundamental decision was the choice of the appropriate database logical structure (namely which database model: hierarchical, relational or network?), which describes how the data (entities and their attributes) within the database are related at all levels (linked or related to other data inside the database). Taking into consideration that relational databases are formed on the basis of a mathematical reasoning (relational calculus, relational queries), while hierarchical and network databases have no mathematical footing, a relational database schema was selected and used in the construction. In addition, hierarchical and network data models allow very fast, but more limited access to data within databases. Finally, looking at the market the recent years we realize that the entire database market has moved towards the ideas of relational database models. It seems therefore, that over the next few years, the relational-database models are going to be in excess of the other data structure techniques [3]. A database subset of real data (of Charolais Breed) from the MLC Beef Cattle recording scheme is used as an example case in this study. Figure2: The basic computer environment Figure3: The Charolais data structure. Results and Discussion The overall application is based on a multimedia-based database consisted mainly of agricultural data. This agricultural database, called AgroDB, as a whole is designed in the form of subsets of interrelated tables, grouped together according to the specific type of the agricultural data (i.e. scientific field, plant species, breed, etc.) and related to certain key features. Based on a bottom-up design strategy, in a hierarchical relational structure, the individual groups of data tables of each agricultural species (plant or animal) are organized within the global agricultural database. A part of the internal DATABASE MANAGEMENT (Maintenance, Development)