Database explorer

• Student: Nan Guo 6/2000, now at Celera Genomic
• Purpose: Build a application that lets novice users interact with any compliant database.
• Method: Write a GUI in Java with the JFC/Swing package. The GUI uses RMI (remote method invocation) to speak with a proxy server, also written in Java. The proxy server dynamically loads JDBC drivers for databases and uses them to connect to and interact with the database back-ends, which are vendor-specific.
• What the student learned
  1. Design and implementation of a three-part network application. (This part took considerable cleverness.)
  2. Using JDBC, Swing, and RMI.
  3. Design of a GUI for databases.
  4. Technical writing skills in preparing the write up and packaging the resulting tool (in gzip form).