W2H: About
W2H is a free WWW interface to sequence analysis software tools like
the
GCG-Package (Genetic Computer
Group),
EMBOSS
(European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite) or to derived
services (such as
HUSAR, Heidelberg Unix
Sequence Analysis Resources).
The state of W2H
The development of W2H started in 1996 by
Martin Senger
at the
DKFZ
(Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany) and is maintained
since 1997 in a collaborative project between DKFZ
and
EMBL-EBI (European
Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK) by
Peter Ernst and
Martin Senger.
Details can be found in W2H's history
file.
The latest available version of W2H is 4.0.
W2H and JavaScript
W2H heavily relies on JavaScript 1.0 because of its capabilities to
provide functions on the client side without time-consuming network
round-trips. The JavaScript language is capable to verify user's
inputs, to suggest the default values and to provide sufficient
help. Entering a single value in the form can consequently produce the
derived values to appear in other places not even in the same form,
but also in a quite separate window. It makes the user interface much
more powerful and user-friendly.
W2H and cookies
W2H also uses non-persistant cookies, traveling transparently between
client and server carrying global options during one sessions. These
objects are easily accessible both by JavaScript and by the server
side program tools. In our particular case they serve as a storage for
the user defined graphical devices, the user's working directory and
global qualifiers for all applications.
W2H's maintenance
W2H is constantly maintained by its authors.
W2H development
The interface is designed to be used on a UNIX server (we do not plan
a version for VMS). It was developed and tested on HP-UX, Solaris,
Irix and Linux operating systems with NCSA, Apache and Netscape HTTP
servers. We do not know about any principle compatibility problem
when porting to an another platform.
During testing, the following browsers were used: Netscape vers.4
(Unix, Win, Mac) and InternetExplorer vers.5 (Win).