Q1. What does CMKb stands for?
Q2. What is CMKB? What are its objectives?
Q3. Who can access the database? Who are the end users?
Q4. What software programs are used for developing CMKb and its various functionalities?
Q5. The website looks different in Firefox and Internet Explorer web browser. Why?
Q6. How do I search the database?
Q7. I do not know what to look for. How do I browse CMKb?
Q8. Why cannot I find specific medicinal plant species information?
Q9. How can I share the information on customary medicinal plants knowledge?
Q10. I would like to download the data. How do i download it?
Q1.
What does
CMKb stands for?
Ans.
CMKb
is an acronym for Customary Medicinal Knowledgebase.
Q2.
What is
CMKB? What are its objectives?
Ans. CMKb is an online prototype database developed to document and manage primary information shared by the indigenous communities and secondary information collated from the published literature resources on customary medicinal plants. The objective of the database is to conserve the threatened Australian customary medicinal plant knowledge and to contribute towards the global priority of Indigenous knowledge conservation.
Q3.
Who can
access the database? Who are the end users?
Ans. The database houses primary and secondary information on customary medicinal plants. Access to primary information shared by the indigenous communities is under restricted access due to cultural and intellectual rights issues. Only users with authenticate login and password will be able to access the restricted information. The secondary information collated by doing literature surveys is freely accessible. The database will be able to serve wider audience such as academics, researchers, students, Aboriginal communities and policy makers.
Q4.
What
software programs are used for developing CMKb and its
various functionalities?
Ans. The database is developed using MySQL relational database and the dynamic web pages are created using PHP scripting language. The web pages are served using Apache web server. Jmol, a Java based applet is used to display 3D chemical structures. CMKb also uses free academic version of MarvinSketch developed by ChemAxon Pty Ltd for creating and editing 3D chemical structures.
Q5.
The website
looks different in Firefox and Internet Explorer
web browser. Why?
Ans. CMKb website is developed in compliant to W3C standards. Firefox web browser along with many other browsers obeys W3C standards which apparently IE does not. Due to this incompatibility there is a page rendering difference between these browsers. Firefox is also cross-platform independent, so the website can be viewed by the users using different operating systems. CMKb developers are working on to make the website look the same across all the browsers.
Q6.
How do I
search the database?
Ans. CMKb search engine can be accessed using the Search link located on the upper left hand side of the website. The search facility can be used to query database using either Scientific name, Native name, Common name, Chemical name or Locality name using logical parameters such as contains, begins with, is, and ends with.
Q7.
I do not
know what to look for. How do I browse CMKb?
Ans. For browsing the CMKb database Browse facility is provided on the website. The link for browse is located on the left hand side of the menu. This link can be used for browsing the contents of the database using the alphabetical listing of the scientific names, which are linked to different detailed information pages.
Q8.
Why cannot
I find specific medicinal plant species
information?
Ans. Since this project has been started recently it is quite likely we have not come across the name of the species that you are looking for. The database would be getting populated with new information as an when we acquire it. In the meantime we would appreciate, if you can let us know about the missing information from our database. The other probability is that you might have mistyped the scientific name or the use which is different from what is present in CMKb.
Q9.
How can I
share the information on customary medicinal
plants knowledge?
Ans. For sharing the information with us you will need first to register yourself on CMKb website. The link for registering is provided on the left hand side of the webpage on the menu. Once you register with us, your information will be scrutinized and you will be provided with valid login-password to share your information.
Q10. I would like to download the data. How do i download it?
Ans. Each species maps to multiple tables in the database and therefore aggregation of this information into a single table for downloading has to be implemented. We are working on it and this feature will be available soon.