C-TORI: An Interface for Cooperative Database Retrieval

C-TORI (Cooperative TORI), a cooperative version of TORI (Task-Oriented Database Retrieval Interface), is presented in this paper. It extends interactive query formulation and result browsing by supporting cooperation between multiple users. In the cooperative environment, three basic additional operations are provided: copying, merging and coupling for three types of TORI objects (query forms, result forms, and query history windows). Cooperation with query forms allows end users to jointly formulate queries; cooperation with result forms supports users in jointly browsing through results and in sharing retrieved data without re-accessing the database; cooperative use of query histories yields a specific mechanism to share “memory” between users. The implementation is based on the concept of shared UI objects as an application-independent cooperation and communication model.

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