QBD*: A Fully Visual Query System
Michele Angelaccioukpmc.ac.uk
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Abstract
The need of a friendly man-machine interaction is becoming crucial for a large variety of applications, in particular, those requiring frequent extraction of information from the database. Experience suggests that traditional query languages are not friendly enough for the casual user: she/he is requested to formulate queries in a textual language, without any iconic or spatial clues to help the querying
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Query by diagram: A fully visual query system+
Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 1990
The need of a friendly man-machine interaction is becoming crucial for a large variety of applications, in particular, those requiring frequent extraction of information from the database. Experience suggests that traditional query languages are not friendly enough for the causal user: s/he is requested to formulate queries in a textural language, without any iconic or spatial clues to help the querying process. A new generation of languages (visual languages) has been recently investigated, that attempts to make extensive use of the person's instincts and senses. In this paper we propose a fully visual system, called Query by Diagram* (QBD*), which is based on a conceptual data model, a query language defined on this model and a graphical user interface. The main characteristics of the interface are the ease of use, and the availability of a rich set of primitives for both schema selection and query formulation. Unlike many present proposals of graphical query systems, graphical operations are formally defined from both a syntactic and a semantic point of view.
Query by diagram: A visual environment for querying databases
Software: Practice and Experience, 1993
In recent years, several attempts have been made to define query languages characterized by both high expressive power and easy query formulation. Several issues concern graphical applications, based on the diagrammatic representation of a semantic model and visual interaction. This paper describes the architecture and the implementation of a graphical query system, based on the diagrammatic representation of entity relationship schemata. The query language underlying the system allows the formulation of recursive queries; moreover, user interaction in both managing diagrams and expressing queries is simplified by the presence of a fully visual environment and a rich set of interaction strategies.
Fundamental Graphical Primitives for Visual Query Languages
Information Systems, 1993
The need of a friendly man-machine interaction is becoming crucial for a large variety of applications. In order to reach such a friendliness a new class of languages has been proposed (Visual Languages), based on the extensive use of graphical and iconic mechanisms. We are interested in a particular subclass of Visual Languages, called Visual Query Languages (VQLs), devoted to the extraction of information from databases. VQLs are mainly based on the idea of applying new interaction mechanisms, based on the "direct manipulation" paradigm, on visually represented databases. Various VQLs have been proposed, but only a few of them are provided with a formal definition and, also when such a formal definition exists, it does not give the semantics of the graphical operations performed by the user. In this paper we aim to provide such a semantics by proposing a graphical data model, the graph model, in which the visual representation is part of the model itself, and a minimal set of Graphical Primitives, in terms of which general query operations may be visually expressed. Moreover, we show that: a) such a model may be used as a general visual representation for the most common data models; b) the Graphical Primitives have the same expressive power as well-known query languages; c) the graph model and the Graphical Primitives may be used as basic constituents of more complex existing visual representations and visual query languages, thus giving them a semantics independent from the underlying data model.
An Evaluation of a Visual Query Language for Information Systems
In the recent years, many non-expert user applications have been developed to query Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS are also being used to browse and view data about space and time thus naming them spatio-temporal databases. Many approaches to querying spatio-temporal databases have been recently proposed. The Location Based Services (LBS) which are considered as part of the spatiotemporal field, concern the user who asks questions related to his current position over a mobile phone. Our research aims at designing and developing an Intelligent Visual Query Language (IVQL) that allows users to query databases based on their location. The databases are installed on a GIS server computer. The queries are sent to the server using a mobile phone through the Short Messages System (SMS). With the emerging Globalization of user interfaces, IVQL is meant to have a global and international user interface that could be understood by all users worldwide who are from different countries with different cultures and languages. We propose a user interface consisting of smiley icons that are used to represent and build an international query language. Smiley icons enable the users to access data and build queries easily and in a user-friendly way. A query is formulated by means of selecting the smiley icon that represents the operation to be executed then selecting the theme or object to be found. IVQL is an expandable language. It can include as many icons as needed whether they represent themes or objects. The visual query language and its user interface are explained. The IVQL model is described. The query formulation is illustrated using a sample GIS system for tourists. The IVQL user interface and query formulation can be applied to other fields such as Management Information Systems specifically in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), air traffic and bioinformatics. We then conclude about our future work.
Visual Query Systems: A Taxonomy1
1992
Abstract Visual Query Systems (VQS) are query systems using visual representations to denote the domain of interest and express related requests; they may be seen as an evolution of query languages adopted in database management systems. VQS are investigated to solve present day problems of conventional query systems.
Diagrammatic vs textual query languages: a comparative experiment
1995
Abstract The significance of usability as one of the most important system characteristics is widely recognized in all the application fields, including databases. This also implies the involvement of the user in the activities of design and testing of any interface. However, very few studies aiming at validating the usability of a system have been proposed in the database field, in contrast to many other computer science areas.
Are visual query languages easier to use than traditional ones? An experimental proof
1995
The importance of designing query system which are effective and easy to use has been widely recognized in the database area. Also, it is well known that the adequacy of a system can be mainly tested against actual users in a well settled experiment. However, very few such experiments have been conducted.
VISUAL: a graphical icon-based query language
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Data Engineering, 1996
VISUAL is a graphical icon-based query language designed for scientific databases where visualization of the relationships are important for the domain scientist to express queries. Graphical objects are not tied to the underlying formalism; instead, they represent the relationships of the application domain. VISUAL supports relational, nested, and object-oriented models naturally and has formal basis. In addition to set and bag constructs for complex objects, sequences are also supported by the data model. Concepts of external and internal queries are developed as modularization tools. A new parallel/distributed query processing paradigm is presented. VISUAL query processing techniques are also discussed. * @ This research is partially supported by the National Science Foundation grants IRI-92-24660 and IRI-90-24152 * Appendices in this paper are for the benefit of the reviewers, and not part of the paper.
Comparative Ease of Use of a Diagrammatic Vs. an Iconic Query Language
Electronic Workshops in Computing, 1996
The importance of designing query systems which are effective and easy to use has been widely recognized in the database area. Also, it is well known that the adequacy of a system should be tested against actual users in a well monitored experiment. However, very few such experiments have been conducted. The objective of our study is to measure and understand the comparative ease with which subjects can construct queries in two kinds of visual languages, one diagrammatic and the other iconic. More specifically, we are interested in determining if there is significant interaction between: 1) the query class and the query language type; and 2) the type of query language and the experience of the user. Experimental results indicate that the effectiveness of a diagrammatic or an iconic query language varies depending on the classes of queries and the kinds of users. This supports the opinion that an interface offering to the user various visual representations and query modalities is the most appropriate for a wide set of users and applications.
VISIONARY: a Viewpoint-based Visual Language for Querying Relational Databases
Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 1999
Page 1. 1 VISIONARY: a Viewpoint-Based Visual Language for Querying Relational DatabasesFRANCESCA BENZI, DARIO MAIO, STEFANO RIZZI DEIS, Università di Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy e-mail: {dmaio|srizzi}@deis.unibo.it Abstract ...
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IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 1990
One of the main problems in the database area is to define query languages characterized by both high expressive power and ease of use. In this paper, we propose a system to query databases, using diagrams as a standard user interface.
User-Defined Visual Query Languages
Visual Languages/Human-Centric Computing Languages and Environments, 1994
Previous research in visual query languages has focusedon pre-defined visual representations of data andqueries, which are suitable for specific applications,but difficult to extend and generalize. In this paperwe propose a meta-language to query an objectorienteddatabase with user-defined pictures. By manipulatingthese pictures, the user can extract informationabout the data in a purely visual fashion. Theproposed meta-language is rule-based and uses a
Visual Diagrammatic Queries in ViziQuer: Overview and Implementation
Baltic Journal of Modern Computing
Knowledge graphs (KG) have become an important data organization paradigm. The available textual query languages for information retrieval from KGs, as SPARQL for RDFstructured data, do not provide means for involving non-technical experts in the data access process. Visual query formalisms, alongside form-based and natural language-based ones, offer means for easing user involvement in the data querying process. ViziQuer is a visual query notation and tool offering visual diagrammatic means for describing rich data queries, involving optional and negation constructs, as well as aggregation and subqueries. In this paper we review the visual ViziQuer notation from the end-user point of view and describe the conceptual and technical solutions (including abstract syntax model, followed by a generation model for textual queries) that allow mapping of the visual diagrammatic query notation into the textual SPARQL language, thus enabling the execution of rich visual queries over the actual knowledge graphs. The described solutions demonstrate the viability of the model-based approach in translating complex visual notation into a complex textual one; they serve as "semantics by implementation" description of the ViziQuer language and provide building blocks for further services in the ViziQuer tool context.
PICASSO: a Graphical Query Language
Software - Practice and Experience, 1991
PICASSO (PICture Aided Sophisticated Sketch Of database queries) is a graphics-based database query language designed for use with a universal relation database system. The primary objective of PICASSO is ease of use. Graphics are used to provide a simple method of expressing queries and to provide visual feedback to the user about the system's interpretation of the query. Inexperienced users can use the graphical feedback to aid them in formulating queries whereas experienced users can ignore the feedback. Inexperienced users can pose queries without knowing the details of underlying database schema and without learning the formal syntax of SQLlike query language. This paper presents the syntax of PICASSO queries and compares PICASSO queries with similar queries in standard relational query languages. Comparisons are also made with SystemAJ, a non-graphical universal relation system on which PICASSO is based. The hypergraph semantics of the universal relation are used as the foundation for PICASSO and their integration with a graphical workstation enhances the usability of database systems.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DESIGNING A GRAPHICAL QUERY LANGUAGE
2012
During the last two decades, information has been stored in a plethora of different databases, locations and data models. In many cases, companies and organizations use data, that is stored in a variety of data models and remote database servers, which can be correlated. A challenge would be to define queries joining data from all those different sources. Thus, data can be found in Relational, Object-Relational, Object-Oriented, XML databases or even in text files. For each model there is a corresponding query language, i.e. SQL, SQL3, OQL and XQuery. Moreover, it is very tricky to join data from different sources and we have not found in the literature a query language that has been designed to use data in the same query from Relational, Object-Relational, Object-Oriented and XML databases.
Visual query systems for databases: A survey
1997
Visual query systems (VQSs) are query systems for databases that use visual representations to depict the domain of interest and express related requests. VQSs can be seen as an evolution of query languages adopted into database management systems; they are designed to improve the effectiveness of the human-computer communication. Thus, their most important features are those that determine the nature of the human-computer dialogue.
A graphical query language: VISUAL and its query processing
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 2002
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Feasible database querying using a visual end-user approach
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCHI symposium on Engineering interactive computing systems, 2010
Querying databases is a common daily task carried out by a great deal of end-users who do not have specific skills in SQL language. Today, most of the database interaction is achieved by means of query interfaces provided by the database environment. However, most of these interfaces suffer from expressive limitations, since they are mostly based on metaphors that drastically restrict the expressiveness of the SQL language that is generated and executed in the background. In this paper, we present a visual interaction language and tool focused on easily querying databases by end-users. We make no assumption on the level of the user's experience with query languages, as our visual metaphor is intended for querying databases by unskilled end-users and also leveraging the restriction on the expressiveness of the queries created by them. We also report on some late braking results obtained by an experiment carried out with real users.
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