Oryzabase: Enhancing the Search Functionality with Genes and Image Gallery

Oryzabase (www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/rice/oryzabase/) is an integrated rice science database. We disseminate information on oryza from all over the world and distribute rice strains to domestic and international researchers. Due to the large amount of data in Oryzabase, we started to use an open source full text search system called Solr to implement our search functionality since 2011. As a result, we were able to improve the search performance and provide predictive text for keywords (autocomplete). Moreover, we categorized the results so that it is visually easy to understand and give users an advanced refine search capability (faceted search). These functionalities were used to improve the usability of tools such as Reference Search and Rice ID Checker.

This time, we have extended the search functionality to include genes and image gallery. Specifically, in regard to genes, we created a synonym dictionary for Plant Ontology which enables a flexible keyword search that tolerates ambiguity. The search result also displays a categorization of Plant Ontology, Gene Ontology, Trait Ontology and Trait Class to enable a faceted search, making it easier for users to obtain their desired search result instead of painstakingly filtering through the huge amount of data. Aside from Gene Search, we have enhanced the rest of our existing Solr search functionality so that it has the same capabilities as the Gene Search.

In future, we intend to use Solr for the Strain Search to further develop Oryzabase.