User interface software

We are required to provide remote user access to the archive on a number of levels ranging simple form-based GUI through to advanced data mining, finally enabling the user to carry out remote data exploration, analysis, and visualisation. To enable this functionality, we envisage the following options:

• Form interfaces loadable in a Web browser. These could be developed using CGI scripting, but PHP is an interesting new technology that will also be considered.
• Remote client GUI based tools for advanced SQL querying of the archive. Probably implemented as a browser applet written in Java.
• Web services can provide users with remote data analysis capability by means of remote procedure calls embedded in SOAP encode envelopes and transported by http.

Web services implemented via SOAP can easily communicate across platforms. Web services also allow the users to make their own custom client interfaces in their own platform of choice which does not necessarily have to be on the same platform as the service. Web services will also enable the archive to be accessed as an AstroGrid resource.

Currently, we expect the WSA end-user interactive interface to be implemented using a SkyServer-like system, i.e. having the SQL capability of SQLServer along with a remote client GUI query tool (a browser applet probably implemented in Java). Web services will be implemented as detailed above.

Feasibility of such a solution is currently being assessed via our implementations of the SSS and mirror of the SDSS.