BMC Genomics 2009, 10(Suppl 3):S7 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/10/S3/S7 by Hibernate (v3.0.5) [46]. This framework controls mapping of every schema (table) in the database of MP- PBmice to the underlying relational database MySQL (v5.0.22). Every operation on an object will be auto- matically persisted into the database. As a transparent back-end layer, it is easy to execute data queries and feature extractions. The Controller layer is implemented with Spring frame- work (v1.2.8) [47], a highly customizable and extensible framework that provides basic infrastructures. This framework is also used by DAO to offer the connection pooling and transaction management so that the database connections can be reused by future users. In addition, this framework integrates the service layer containing several services to supply the main functions of the web application developed using Eclipse 3.3.1 http://www.eclipse.org, a freely available Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The View layer of the application is constructed primarily using a combi- nation of Java Server Pages (JSP) (v2.0) and the Struts framework (v1.3.5) [47]. Tiles [48] is also used in the View layer to create reusable view components. Client- side functionality is programmed with JavaScript. Based on the above architecture, the application was implemented to retrieve, store and operate Mice, Inserts, data-input, and user-management related information as a set of database models defined by Java objects. Results and discussion The MP-PBmice has been developed and is already used for the mapping of the new insertional mutants produced in the large-scale PB project. User interfaces This MP-PBmice system allows users to log in their different roles to carry out corresponding tasks. Here we give one example about how this system works. The complete user menu is available with the source code. The main entry page is the login page (Figure 4a). A pull- down menu provides the choice of the roles for the specific user. After the Experimenter logs into the system, he/she can fill in his/her own experimental data on the form-filling page (Figure 4b). Once the Experimenter has submitted the data, the Group_leader will allocate a different user as the Checker for this Experimenter to confirm the data (Figure 5). IDM internal users are able to perform quick searches to obtain the detailed information of the experimental data related to his/her work easily (Figure 6a). The search result will be listed and the detailed information will be retrieved through the “viewDetail” linkage (Figure 6b). In the detailed information page (Figure 6c), there is a comment box for remarks and opinions and an email message will be sent to the corresponding PI to report any mistake for correction. Main features Strict access control The MP-PBmice is destined to be a web-based applica- tion to meet the needs of concurrent operation of the database by multiple users. An entire strict access control system is introduced into this system to ensure data accuracy. This access control system is divided into three units: 1) user registration, 2) user information manage- ment, and 3) user permission management. Each user has only one entry in the user information unit, while each user can be allocated multiple roles in the user permission unit after registration (Figure 7). Different roles in different groups are allocated different permis- sion to perform designated tasks. In each group, the Experimenters perform the allocated experiments, fill in their own data, and submit the data to the database. For each step of the experiment, the Checkers validate the data and are allowed to make modifications only once. If anybody finds an error, she or he may report the mistake through the mistake tracking system. Only the person with the PI role is able to allocate the wrong experiment record to a specific experimenter to correct the data and/ or repeat the experiment. The Director role decides to publish the experimental records to the world. All the internet-published data can be accessed without registra- tion. Each operation and the time the operation was performed are recorded into the database. Every error record is also kept in the database as an old version, rather than being replaced. All of these records can be queried by specific roles to show the rate at which error occurred. The strict division of the work and step-by-step checking may reduce the number of mistakes in experimental data submitted, ensure timely data exchange, and improve the efficiency of the whole process. This control will be developed further to meet more complicated requirements of each role and will generate new roles needed throughout the progress of the project. Workflow control MP-PBmice is developed to have a strict control of the experimental procedure. In practice, each step of the experiment carried out would result in various situa- tions, and the mapping process won’t be smooth for every new Insert from the start to the end. Figuring out the complicated branches of the process is the most important part in making the whole project methodi- cally organized. The detailed experimental process and Page 7 of 13 (page number not for citation purposes)