A script-based WWW information integration support system and its application to genome databases

With the worldwide spread of the Internet, the WWW is one of the most widely used technologies for sending information. However, since WWW information sources are distributed throughout the world and maintained inde pendently, a user is obliged to perform many manual opera tions in collecting and integrating information on his/her browser. The MetaCommander is a system for collecting and integrating information on behalf of a user who gives his/her requests in a script language. This paper describes the system components and the script language of MetaCommander, and shows its advantages through its applications to genome databases. Finally we compare this script language with other script and programming languages and discuss future enhancement by introducing advanced agent technologies. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 29(14): 32–40, 1998