Dc. Jamison et al., AN EXTENSIBLE NETWORK QUERY UNIFICATION SYSTEM FOR BIOLOGICAL DATABASES, Computer applications in the biosciences, 12(2), 1996, pp. 145-150
Database federation enables biological researchers to utilize resource
s move effectively, creating an environment in which the researcher ca
n query multiple data sources without spending time learning new query
mechanisms or issuing redundant queries which need to be integrated.
Several mechanisms exist to federate databases. The ENQ Uire system is
a network database federation system which uses a World-Wide-Web (WWW
) interface to connect the users to various databases. Generic queries
entered via a query generator form are sent in parallel to multiple d
atabases, and the results ave presented to the user in a unified forma
t. All forms building, query generation, and results translation is do
ne on the fly, and individual database translation modules can be adde
d dynamically. ENQ Uire is a flexible answer to the problems of databa
se federation on the WWW.