SPOT’s web interface makes use of different technologies and programming languages. From the user perspective, it only requires any modern web browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari or Opera. Mainly it is a web application developed with XHTML, JavaScript and CSS at the client-side (AJAX) and PHP/Perl at the server-side. It respects the model view controller paradigm and isolates the user interface from the logic and the data of the application. The JavaScript codes reuse and take advantage of several JavaScript libraries such as jQuery (http://jquery.com), Prototype (http://prototypejs.org), jqGrid (http://www.trirand.com/blog) and their plug-ins. Then the web user interface allows the user to navigate through the MySQL database created by the Perl script. We have created a Wiki for SPOT (http://confluence.pegasus.isi.edu/display/CGSMD/Howto+install+SPOT) with detailed technical information and resources for downloading and installing a local copy of SPOT, including the underlying MySQL relational database of biological information.
