Querying Web Databases using WebFINDIT is provided at two levels: metadata level (explore the available information, display meta information about a particular database, etc.) and data level (query actual information stored in databases). A Healthcare scenario has been developed to illustrate the use of WebFINDIT.
 
 

Querying Metadata

WebFINDIT provides constructs to explore the information space including:

• Location of coalitions (ontologies) that contains databases advertising a specific information type (e.g., locating coalitions about "Medical" information type, etc.).

• Navigation within a coalition (e.g., displaying subclasses of a coalition, displaying databases that are members of a given coalition, etc.)

• Educating users about the information space (e.g., displaying documentations such as HTML, video clips, etc.)

• After finding databases that are most likely to hold requested type of information the user can display their access information (e.g., displaying exported information types).

Querying Actual Data

After locating relevant databases, users are provided with constructs to access these databases. Querying actual data can be done with embedded queries using native query languages. If the underlying database supports SQL (e.g., the ATO database in our scenario), the user can write and submit SQL statements (e.g., Select * From TaxPayer) to be executed directly on this database.

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