Skip navigation
National Library of Medicine, HTTP://www.nlm.nih.gov WebMIRS Title Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, HTTP://www.lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/
 
Home
CEB Home
Installation
Dataset
Site Map
User Guide
Help

WebMIRS Current Release Notes

Next Previous Table of Contents

2.1 Version

The current release of the WebMIRS application is Version 1.1 (March 2006). The major new piece of functionality in this release is the ability of WebMIRS to avoid firewall issues. Up until this release, WebMIRS made a direct connection to our database server, but we now use a third party package to make this connection through port 80. See Version History for a complete list changes for each release.

2.2 Capabilities

WebMIRS is currently supporting the following features:

  • Remote connection to the NHANES II and III database over the internet.
  • Optional image download for each data query.
  • Result saving on client machine with flexible options.
  • Graphical representation of the databases which let users easily comprehend and navigate through the tables.
  • Use the new Java 2 capabilities and Swing user interface which displays in either the standard or native look and feel.
  • Display of statistical information for each query (Pseudo-PSU and strata information to help the user determine statistical validity of the query).
  • Delivery using the new Java Web Start mechanism instead of Java applet as in previous releases.
  • Ability to query a subset of the data comprised of Quantitative Data and Measurements using the Georgetown vertebra dataset. The ability to display these points on top of the x-ray images is also provided.

2.3 Known problems

There are a few open issues that may cause problems when using WebMIRS:

  • Screen Resolution

    • While WebMIRS will work at resolutions as low as 640x480, it is suggested that 800x600 be the lowest monitor resolution used. At lower resolutions, some of the GUI controls can be difficult to reach. Even though this issue has been partially resolved as of version 1.0.7, it is still recommended that a resolution higher than 640x480 be used for ease of use.

  • Memory

    • As of WebMIRS 1.0.2, many of the memory problems have been fixed or reduced. There are still some size issues to be aware of, however. There is a limit to how many records can be displayed in the Results Table (images turned off). With a normal Java memory configuration, a maximum of 25-30 attributes can be displayed with the entire NHANES III dataset (33994 records). With the NHANES II dataset (20322 records) 35-40 attributes can be selected before the application runs out of memory.

    Secondly, an out of memory error can occur when displaying many (20 or 25) images at once, especially LUMBAR images. This issue is being worked on, but until fixed the workaround is to simply display fewer (15 or less) images at once.

  • Firewall Issues

    • Users with a firewall at their site will probably get the following message when they connect: "Can't connect to server - there may be a firewall in the way. java.net.ConnectException:Operation time out". If you have a Proxy Server at your site, you may be able get around this problem. See our Proxy Setup for directions on how to set this up. A more complete solution will be provided in the future.

Next Previous Table of Contents
    Return to top of page

CEB Home | CEB Projects | Related Work | Publications | Repositories | NHANES | Site Index

U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health | U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
Copyright information | Privacy policy | NLM Accessibility
USA.gov | Need a plug-in?

URL: http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/webmirs/userGuide/index-2.php
Updated March 14, 2006

Send questions or comments about this site to