NATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM ON ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

Transcription

1 NATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM ON ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS P.K. BATRA AND D.K. SEHGAL Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute Library Avenue, New Delhi Introduction The information needs of agricultural research data are growing day-by-day and there is a need to develop information systems for expanding the knowledge base, distributing it as widely as possible, and preserving it for meeting the research demands. More importantly there is an urgent need of making these information systems available online for use of the NARS. In the last few decades, the country has made impressive progress in the field of animal production, which is one of the most vital sectors of Indian economy. This has been possible due to researches undertaken by different research institutes under ICAR set up and agricultural/veterinary universities and other organizations. The development of information system from the results obtained from the experiments undertaken in the field of animal sciences will be of immense value to the livestock development in the country. The development of database and information system requires input from various sources, their processing and dissemination to planners, policy makers, researchers and development agencies, etc. These information systems are repository of technologies developed for various species to increase animal production and also serve as a reference material for future research programs. An online information system has been created giving the details of experiments conducted in the country and salient results obtained there from. 2. Source and Data Availability The experiments in various disciplines of animal sciences are being conducted at various ICAR institutes dealing with Animal Sciences, Agricultural/Veterinary Universities, etc. The key source of information in this system has been the annual reports published by these organizations. From these reports it is seen that research in NARS is conducted through formation of projects and sub-projects with experiments planned under these projects/sub-projects. At present, the information on 722 projects classified in 23 disciplines, undertaken at twenty one research organizations during the period have been obtained. (Annexure-1) 3. Software Development Keeping in view the information available, the database structure has been developed using RDBMS principles. The information of the experiment has been divided into following data items: i) Title ii) Names of investigators iii) Subject iv) Source

2 v) Research station vi) Species vii) Breed viii) Period of experiment ix) Year of conduct x) Funding agency xi) Salient results achieved The feature, architecture, designing and development of the database and user interface developed for the system is now discussed. 3.1 Feature of the System The information system has been designed keeping in view that the system is user friendly and can be used by individuals having no knowledge of computer based information system and/or computer software background. Therefore, it is a computer-based record keeping system related to animal research experiments conducted in the country where overall purpose is to record, maintain and retrieve the information. 3.2 Data Sharing The system has been developed to form an organized and structured database on the basis of the data obtained. The database has been designed to provide support for a wide variety of applications on the available data so that many types of users can share the data. Thorough investigations have been made about the type of questions that might be raised in the context of development, utilization and general characteristic of NISAE and to build up the structure of database and its potential for application. 3.3 Reduction of Redundancy and Inconsistency For ease in data entry, separate database tables have been created. It has been ensured that except for primary keys and foreign key no field appears in more than one database table. This has taken care of the aspect of redundancy. These database tables have been created keeping in mind the types of reports to be generated and queries to be answered on-line. Efforts have been made in particular to minimize the number of tables, which are required to generate individual reports and answer specific queries. This structure also helps in removing inconsistencies of information stored in the data bank. 3.4 Adoptability to Future Requirements The NISAE has been designed as a feasible system to accommodate changes in respect of research in animal sciences in near future e.g. establishment of new Institutes, Agricultural Universities, formation of new discipline and others, would be easily accommodated in the software system. 4. Architecture of NISAE NISAE has been developed as a web-based application using JAVA technology. Therefore, it is platform independent and can be connected from any computer connected to the Internet. The user only has to confirm that computer has a Web-browser. The architecture using three-layered structure is shown in Fig

3 Fig. 4.1: Architecture of NISAE The purpose of making the system with Three-layer architecture is to provide independence to all layers so that it functions properly. All the layers in this architecture are made by using appropriate technology and provide enough space to upgrade a particular layer without disturbing underlying or overlying a particular layer. NISAE is composed of following three layers. 1. Client Side Interface layer 2. Server Side Application layer 3. Database layer 4.1 Client Side Interface Layer (CSIL) The client side interface layer has been developed by using HTML, JavaScript using browser as front-end. This interface enables incorporating the validation checks in data entry forms. NISAE runs at any node of the network through browser. To run the NISAE with full functionality one must have internet explorer 5.0 or Netscape Navigator preinstalled. 4.2 Server Side Application Layer (SSAL) Server side application layer is implemented using Java Server Pages (JSP). These JSP generate HTML pages according to the users' action and request as presented in Fig

4 Java Server Fig. 4.2: Building Web Pages with JSP Fig. 4.2 shows one of the most common ways of using JSP. A user (1) requests some information by filling out a form containing link to JSP and clicks the submit button (2). The server (3) locates the requested JSP (4). The active JSP is then translated into an Active X class, which is then complied in to a Servlet File. Servlet (5) then gathers the information needed to satisfy the user s request and constructs a Web Page (6) containing the information. The web page is then displayed in User s Browser (7). 4.3 Data Base Layer (DBL) Database layer is implemented using Microsoft Access It is used for designing the Tables, Relationships, Referential Integrity rules and Queries. The relational approach is used to design the database. The fundamentals of normalization theory are used to normalize the different tables of database. All tables have proper interaction among themselves via primary key, foreign key relationship. 4.4 Software Interfaces As presented in Fig. 1 for the architect of NISAE, two interfaces are required: one between CSIL and SSAL and other between SSAL and DBL. The CSIL-SSAL interface is implemented using JSP. The SSAL-DBL interface is implemented using Java Data Base Connectivity (JDBC). JDBC is a set of specification that defines how a program written in Java can communicate and interact with the Database. It defines how the communication is to carry out and how the application and database interact with each other. More specifically the JDBC defines how an application opens a connection, communicates with database, executes SQL statements and retrieves Queries, Results. JDBC provides a vehicle for the exchange of SQL between Java application and Database. 4

5 5. Designing and Development of NISAE NISAE is based on three-tier (layers) architecture as described earlier. The upper layer depends upon database design. Database used for the development of NISAE has been structured using Microsoft Access The tables with their respective content fields and other specifications are designed using the relational database approach and proper normalization. 5.1 Designing of Tables Microsoft Access 2000 has been used to provide database tables in NISAE. The description of database tables used is given below: Name of Table Description Breed List different species and their breeds Research Station List names of different research organizations in India conducting research in Animal Sciences Project Type List different types of projects Species List different species of animals Sponsoring Agencies List names of sponsoring agencies State List names of states of Indian Union Subject List different disciplines of Animal Sciences under which research is carried out User List names of users who are accessing the system Use Type List different types of users like Administrator, End user and Special users. Salient results project List projects undertaken at various research stations Salient result sub-project List sub-projects under various projects Salient results experiment. List experiments with in the projects and subprojects Salient results experiment-ext. List salient results of an experiment year wise All tables in this database contain their respective attributes, primary keys and in some cases foreign keys for setting the relationship among the tables. 5.2 ER-Diagram The E-R diagram shows all the relationships between tables in the database. The master table Salient Results Experiment_ext is related to other tables through different types of relationships and referential integrity. Salient Results Experiment_ext contains all the relevant data for the information system. 5

6 6. Designing and Development of User interface The user interface has been developed using HTML, Java and Java Script embedded in Java server pages according to the design discussed earlier. Home page is the first page to be displayed which contains a link to the log-in page. The home page allows the login of existing users as well as provides facility for opening accounts for new users. For new user the authentication level (3) is automatically generated. The log-in page verifies user's validity i.e. his log-in name, password and authentication level. In case of Invalid User, an error page is generated giving the details of invalidity. When a user successfully logs on to NISAE as an end user the relevant pages are loaded on browser. The broad classifications of authentication levels are 1, 2 and 3 viz. super user/ administrator, intermediate user and ordinary users. When the user authentication level is 1 or 2, a menu bar with administrator privilege like adding or editing the data is displayed, where as in authentication level (3) only retrieval / search facility is made available. The user can generate the query pertaining to a specific research station, subject, species, breed and investigator name to obtain the desired information. With an authentication level (1) administrator can upgrade or downgrade the levels of other users. Home page also Links to other Sites, like IASRI, ICAR. It also gives information about NISAE and its Objectives, Contact us, Names of participating Institutes. 6

7 Annexure-1 (i) List of Institutes: S.No. Name of the Institute 1. Central Avian Research Institute (CARI), Izatnagar (U.P.) 2. Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar (Haryana) 3. Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Mathura (U.P.) 4. Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute (CSWRI), Avikanagar (Rajasthan.) 5. Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar (U.P.) 6. National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal 7. National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana) 8. National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore 9. National Research Centre for Mithun, Jharnapani, Nagaland 10. National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner (Rajasthan.) 11. National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar (Haryana) 12. National Research Centre on Yak,West Kameng,(Arunachal Pradesh) 13. Project Directorate on Cattle, Meerut (U.P.) 14. Project Directorate on Poultry, Hyderabad (A.P.) 15. Acharya N.G.Ranga Agri. Univ., Rajendernagar, Hyderabad (A.P.) 16. Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi (Jharkhand) 17. Central Agricultural University, Selesih, Aizawl 18. Govind Ballabh Pant Univ. of Agri. & Technology, Pantnagar 19. Gujarat Agricultural University, Ahmedabad 20. Maharana Pratap Univ. of Agri. & Technology, Udaipur (Rajasthan) 21. Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri (Maharashtra) 7

8 (ii) List of Subjects: S.No. Subject 1. Animal Genetics and Breeding 2. Animal Nutrition 3. Animal Reproduction and Physiology 4. Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology 5. Biological products 6. Veterinary Epidemiology 7. Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology 8. Veterinary Surgery 9. Veterinary Public Health 10. Veterinary Medicine 11. Veterinary Microbiology 12. Livestock Products Technology 13. Livestock Production and Management 14. Dairy Chemistry 15. Dairy Engineering 16. Dairy Microbiology 17. Dairy Technology 18. Veterinary Immunology 19. Veterinary Pathology 20. Veterinary Parasitology 21. Veterinary Virology 22. Avian Disease 23. Veterinary Extension 8