A Graphical User Interface to the Object-Oriented Database System VODAK on the Basis of the Generic Visualisation Toolkit Lyberworld

With the Lyberworld system a new approach offering the user a convenient interface to the data stored within an information retrieval system has been introduced. Accessing database contents by using the visualisation metaphors search tree and relevance sphere has achieved two main benefits: first, the user can construct and pose queries much easier than using a query language and second, query results are presented in a way which in opposition to, e.g., tabular output displays the relations between the different queries and query results. In our most recent research work we are aiming at integrating the visualisation concepts of Lyberworld with the object oriented database system VODAK, a powerful tool to implement database applications which require a complex database schema. Posing queries against such a database is a complex task which requires profound knowledge of the database schema and a query language. The approach presented within this paper integrates the Lyberworld concepts with the requirements for a visual interface to the VODAK database system. Furthermore, it develops Lyberworld towards a system which integrates and visualises data from various heterogeneous data sources.