Data Acquisition

The Learning Wizard can handle two different sources for acquiring data for the learning:

Plain Text Files

The plain text files must conform to a certain standard: A sample data file could be:

field1,field2,field3
true,true,false
N/A,true,true
false,false,true
false,true,false
false,N/A,false

Using this datafile will result in a model with three nodes named: field1, field2, and field3. Each node will contain the states: true, false.

Text File Specification

TThe specification of the text file is entered using the fields in the text file pane:


The data file can either be typed manually in the text field, or the "Browse" button can be used to locate the data file. If the data file has an encoding other than the default "UTF-8" the correct encoding should be selected in the encoding drop down box.

If the datafile does not contain the names of the fields, the "Read node names from file" checkbox should be unchecked. This will cause the Learning Wizard to treat the first line of the file in the same way as any other line. Furthermore, the nodes will get generic names (i.e., Field_n, where n = 0,..,m)./p>

If the fields in the text file is not separated by one of the standard separators (or if one or more of the standard separators are used in the field values), the user should specify a separator:



This may actually be a set of separators (each character typed in the separator specification field will be treated as a separator), but this is not recommended.

Databases

Currently, the Learning Wizard can access data from the following databases:

Oracle 8i

To access an Oracle 8i database, the Learning Wizard needs five pieces of information:

Once this information has been given, the "Next" button will be enabled, and the Learning Wizard is ready to configure the tables which are to be used for acquiring the data.

ODBC Databases

ODBC is an Application Programming Interface, which allows transparent access to a wide range of databases.

For the Learning Wizard to access an ODBC database, it is required that the database is registered with the ODBC manager. When this is done, the only piece of information needed to access the database is the name of the database.



JDBC Databases

To access any JDBC database, the Learning Wizard needs the following information.