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the end-user
s point of view), and how to create applications from these templates.
Once these applications are exported to the application repository, in end-user view
the gateway presents these applications as simple web-forms for parameterization
by the scientist.
This view completely hides the complex details of workflows and DCIs from the
end-user. On the other hand, creating an application suitable for end-user view is
only a few more clicks when compared to granularity level 2. As a drawback, the
automatically generated forms are relatively rigid, and do not allow much custom-
ization. Also, the user still needs to import the workflows from the internal repository
to the individual account. Altogether, the end-user view provides a viable solution
for quickly developing customized science gateways without any programming or
code development. Therefore, this option is suitable to develop end-user oriented
gateways.
Figure 8.3 illustrates the user interface of the previously introduced molecular
docking experiments using the end-user view. The major difference between the
this view and the concrete workflow con
'
guration windows utilized at Granularity
Levels 1 and 2 is that in the end-user view scientist end-users are restricted to
provide and upload input
files and additional other parameters that are required
to run the application. More speci
cally, users cannot edit the workflow, specify the
DCIs these workflows will be executed on, or upload executables. These charac-
teristics of the application are all pre-defined and fixed. However, users can upload
and de
files and parameters in a more user-friendly way. Command line
parameters are separated and their long names can be provided. Files are uploaded
from the same form. When such a simple form is compared to the complex con-
line all input
figuration interface demonstrated in Fig. 8.2 , it well shows why such a simpli
ed
input form is bene
cial for end-users.
In the random docking example shown in Fig. 8.3 , bioscientists can upload the
necessary input molecule
files (receptor and ligand
files in PDB format), and also
the grid and docking con
files (docking.gpf and docking.dpf). They also
specify some other parameters such as the number of work units to be created
(specifying the number of random docking experiments), and the required number
of best (lowest energy level) solutions that they wish to receive back.
guration
Fig. 8.3 User interface for molecular docking based on the end-user view
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