ChemNews.Com VOL 10 NO 3

ChemFinder.Com (for chemical database searching and web indexing) and ChemACX.Com (for chemical reagent searching and e-commerce purchasing), both popular content sites, greatly benefited earlier this year from the release of ChemOffice WebServer 2000. There are many new features incorporated into ChemACX.Com as a consequence of the recent migration to ChemOffice WebServer 2000 technology.

Edit Query

One of the most requested features by ChemOffice WebServer users worldwide was Edit Query. The request was quite reasonable. After looking at the initial hit list from a search, users wanted to resubmit the same basic search with slight modifications. Formerly, this meant returning to the search page and recreating the previous query, including the laborious process of re-drawing the chemical structure and retyping all text fields. Now you can simply click the Edit Query button and the original search form is automatically recreated including both chemical and text information. This one is a real time saver, especially if you are drawing complex structures or searching for variations on a cumbersome substructure. As a bonus, you can recall the last query you entered even after returning to the query page. The Restore Last button will recall your entire search form even after you have looked at several pages of results.

Refine Your Search

I am lazy. When I first draw a chemical structure to search on, my tendency is to draw (and think) as little as possible. But there is a price to pay for laziness. My queries tend to be much too broad, and typically return far too many hits. This used to really aggravate me since I would have to rethink (and redraw) my query, and then repeat the entire search. With the new Refine feature it is easy to further specify constraints for your search without having to redraw your query, and, optionally, without having to search over the entire database again. Just click Refine from the results page and decide whether the refinement should be applied over the current hit list or over the entire database. Then just draw or type any additional information required for your query and click the Apply button. Now it is no longer unreasonable to start with a quick broad search, and then do multiple refines to get your final hit list. In addition, if you don't like the results of a refinement, just click Undo Refine to get back to your original hit list.

New Table View

Sometimes even a well thought out query returns a large number of hits. At this point, there is no substitute for good old human brain processing-paging through dozens of records and deciding which ones fit your needs. The new Table View in ChemACX.Com is a welcome addition for those resigned to manually paging over long hit-lists. Table View displays your hit-list in a 3-column by N row matrix with just the essential information to help you decide whether a record warrants closer scrutiny. This abridged view presents the chemical structure, registration number, a link to the names (synonyms) associated with the substance, a link (depicted by a magnifying glass) which will enlarge the chemical structure, a link to the full detail view of that record, and finally a check box to mark records of interest.

Mark Hits

In addition to the complete hit-list returned after each search, the server maintains an additional user specific hit list. This list provides a way to collect substances of interest to the user for closer study at a later time. As you are looking over the main hit-list returned by a search, records can be Marked. Marking a record adds it to the Marked hit-list. Results from multiple searches can be added to the marked list thus generating a concise hit-list containing only substances of interest. The Show Marked button at the top right of the screen will display substances currently marked. The strategy here is to quickly skim through long hit lists selecting records of interest and then later view the details for those records in the marked hit list. To drop an undesired record from the marked list, simply uncheck the marked checkbox.

Export Hits

So you have gone to the trouble of repeatedly querying and selecting a few choice records out of the 130,000 substances available in the ChemACX.Com database. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to capture your hit list for further processing or future use? Just click the Export Hits button and the server will generate an SDFile with your hit-list which you can download to your local hard drive. The SDFile will contain the chemical structure, molecular weight and formula as well as the CAS number and ACX ID. Import the SDFile into ChemFinder or ChemFinder for Excel for further processing on your local computer.

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