Names on Nodes provides an automated bridge between biology and biological nomenclature. Phylogenetic definitions are stored as MathML, to be applied to phylogenetic hypotheses. Rank-based definitions may also be applied, using distance metrics. The principles of this application were laid out by Keesey (2007).
The user interface of Names on Nodes is built in Flash Builder, using Adobe's Flex framework, Flare visualization tools, and Keesey's Three-Pound Monkey Brain ActionScript library. The server component is built with Java for a JBoss server, using BlazeDS and Hibernate. The database is PostgreSQL.
This project is divided into three subprojects:
- namesonnodes-html: the static website accompanying the application, including index page and namespace definitions
- namesonnodes-lib: the ActionScript libraries used by the application; these could potentially be reused for other applications
- namesonnodes-app: the rich Internet application itself, including the server component, UI components, and connectivity logic
The current status of this project is prealpha. It not complete, and will not compile to a useable web application right now, but much of the underlying code and test cases are ready.
