Gazebo GUI Tutorial

Here's a screen shot of the Gazebo GUI:

The GUI is divided into three panels:

1. The Query Constructor, on the upper left
2. The Result Browser, on the lower left, and
3. The Full Text Panel, on the right.

The Query Constructor

Use the tabs to switch between "simple" and "full" query construction GUIs. In the "simple" one, you can simply type a query term in the text box and hit enter or hit the Search button to start the search. In the "full" one, construct queries by typing words into the text box and hit enter to add them to your query. Selecting OR or AND will change which operator is used to add them to the query. The query structure will be displayed below. Terms are added to the query at the selected node. Operators are represented by "folder" icons and terms by "document" icons. Below the query is a tree of attributes. To indicate which attribute to associate with a term, select the term in the query panel and select the desired attribute from the attribute panel. For instance if the term you typed is an author's name, click on it and then click on an attribute representing "author" in the attribute panel.

The Result Browser

The left half of the result browser is a list of results returned by databases. Each item indicates the name of the database and the number of hits. As results come back from a query, items should appear on this list. When they do, click on them and summary records will appear in the right panel. Not all summary records will be retrieved initially and they may load on demand as you scroll through right-hand list. Clicking on an item in that list will bring up the full record in the full record panel. Depending on the size and complexity of the record, this may take some time.

The Full Text Panel

The right half of the GUI is an HTML browser. Note that it can be made larger or smaller by dragging the border between it and the panels on the left. Links can be followed by clicking on them, but at the moment there is no back button. Obviously it is not a full-featured web browser.

Some Useful Menu Commands

The Edit menu allows you to clear a query or remove individual query terms. The Search menu has a useful command for cancelling a search in progress. And the DB menu shows a list of all the data sources that can be searched using the Gazebo gateway to which the GUI is connected, and they can be unchecked if you want to control which ones are searched.