The tool qc1Ingest, the tool qc1Hide and the SQL queries provide low-level, command-line access to the QC1 database. This is appropriate for day-to-day routine processing, in particular for any interaction with the database which needs write permission.

In addition to these, more comfortable and flexible interfaces have been developed which allow

• extended queries in expert mode: qc1_browser,
• graphical output: qc1_plotter,
• interactive hiding of QC1 parameters: qc1Hide.

These interfaces are web-based graphical user interfaces and are publicly available (except for qc1Hide). The user fills a mask, a cgi script is executed on the database server, and the result is displayed in the web browser. Their usage is described here.

The interfaces are built automatically by internal scripts from the information provided in the configuration files. These scripts treat all instruments in a common way. Any modification in the interfaces (e.g. drop or insert a new key, modify a key name, edit the comment field) has to specified by the QC scientist in the proper configuration file and then passed to the DFS responsible who runs the internal scripts to rebuild the interface.