The Text Search Box
The Text Search box at the bottom of the AAtDB main window is different in function from the Template box. The Template box is used to select which members will be visible in the Main KeySet for a specific class. In effect, it looks at the names of the members that belong to a single class and checks to see if their spelling matches the pattern entered by the user. The members with the matching names, according to the pattern appear in the Main KeySet. In contrast, the Text Search box is, as the name implies, a searching tool. It can be used to retrieve information from anywhere in the database, not just from the class that is displayed in the Main KeySet. This is because the Text Search Box is able to examine all the classes in AAtDB, not just the one selected in the AAtDB main window. Moreover, the Text Search examines the contents of each member in each class as well as the names of the class members.
The Text Search box imposes slightly different pattern matching rules. If the word "john" is typed in the Text Search box, it would match the items "John Doe", "John", and "My name is John Doe". In contrast, if "john" is typed in the Template box it would match only "John" out of these choices. To make the Template box match the other two items you would have to type "*john*".
With the Template box, it is important to be aware of how to match characters at the beginning, middle, or end of a run of characters, and the wild card * is used to cover these possibilities. With the Text Search box, a wildcard is not required. If the characters you want to match are embedded in a run of characters, it won't matter.
The power of the Text Search utility is shown in the accompanying figure. The user has clicked once in the Text Search box with the left mouse button, typed the term "alb", and then pressed the return key. The Main KeySet now contains members from any class that either have "alb" as part of their name or as part of their associated information. Only some of them are visible; click on Page Down with the left mouse button to see the others.
Several different classes are represented by the members in the Main KeySet. Examples include Allele (alb1-1), Germplasm_Resource (NW136), Locus (alb2), 2_Point_data (alb1-an-74), and Map (1.0_Integrated-I). Members of the Paper class are visible in the rightmost column of the Main KeySet, but their names have been truncated to fit in this figure (abdul-1970-a). Not all of these will necessarily be relevant to your search; it depends on what you meant by "alb" in the first place. Albino? Albumin? If either were the case, chances are the Paper class member whose name starts with galbr- is of little interest. More specific Text Search terms can eliminate trivial matches and refine the results considerably (for example, "albino" instead of just "alb").
The items in the Main KeySet are linked to additional information which can be examined by double-clicking the class member name. We have double-clicked on the Strain class member NW136 as an example. Notice why the Text Search identified this as a match: the characters "alb" appear in the information associated with the NW136 strain. Again, remember that the Text Search has the ability to examine information associated with a class member as well as how its name is spelled.
The Text Search box is sophisticated enough to accomplish many search tasks. However, ACeDB contains another powerful search facility - the Query tool - that permits more sophisticated and specific searches. The Query tool is described later.
Next we introduce several additional properties of text windows.