A world wide web (WWW) server database engine for an organelle database, MitoDat

We describe a simple database search engine ''dbEngine'' which may be used to quickly create a searchable database on a World Wide Web (WWW) server. Data may be prepared from spreadsheet programs (such as Excel, etc.) or from tables exported from relational database systems. This Common Gateway Interface (CGI-BIN) program is used with a WWW server such as available commercially, or from National Center for Supercomputer Algorithms (NCSA) or CERN. Its capabilities include: (i) searching records by combinations of terms connected with ANDs or ORs; (ii) returning search results as hypertext links to other WWW database servers; (iii) mapping lists of literature reference identifiers to the full references; (iv) creating bidirectional hypertext links between pictures and the database. DbEngine has been used to support the MitoDat database (Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance associated with the Mitochondrion) on the WWW.