Searching APStracts

# How to search through the online APStracts database

Send a message to apsearch@usa.healthnet.org with the body containing the search command. For example:

SEARCH APS97 cardiac muscle

will search for a 1997 physiological abstract containing the words 'cardiac' and muscle, while

SEARCH APS95 cardiac or heart

will search for a 1995 abstract containing either the word 'cardiac' OR the word 'heart'.

See the APStract online help for info on more complicated queries, like "SEARCH APS96 smooth not lung".

On each search, you can search either the 1995, 1996, or the 1997 database by selecting specifying either APS95, APS96, or APS97 on the command-line.

After submitting your search, you will receive an e-mail message back containg a list of URL's which match your query. You can follow those URL's by following the directions below.

You can also use the directions below to browse the APStracts web page, which sorts all of the abstracts by journal and by month. Simply send a message to apsearch@usa.healthnet.org with the body:

GET http://www.uth.tmc.edu/apstracts/

# How to use the GetWeb MailBot server

This software is currently in beta testing. Please report any problems to getweb-admin@usa.healthnet.org.

Please note all requests are logged; we cannot guarantee that your requests will remain private.

To request a document from the World Wide Web, send a message to apsearch@usa.healthnet.org with the body containing one or more requests like:

GET url

Where url is the URL of the document you request. If the message contains more than one request, separate each request with a blank line.

Here is a message which would fetch the HealthNet home page:

`GET http://www.healthnet.org`

After recieving the above message, the GetWeb server would format the HealthNet home page as human-readable plain-text and send it to you.

You can enclose your commands in a begin/end block, or comment out lines with '#':

    This preamble will not be processed by the MailBot...
    begin
    GET http://www.healthnet.org
    # ...neither will this comment
    end
    ...and neither will this signature.

A hotlist of URLs which we consider especially interesting is available.

Each hypertext link is represented by a number in brackets. Suppose you get a message like this from a GetWeb server:

    Some important conferences carried by SatelLife include:

         * ProMED: Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases[1]
         * ProCAARE: Program for Collaboration Against AIDS[2]
         * E-Drug: Essential Drugs[3]

    ** References from this document **
    [1] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/promed.html
    [2] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.html
    [3] http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html

To get more information about ProCAARE, you would look up link 2 at the bottom of the message to find out the URL is http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.html. You would then send a message to the GetWeb server:

`GET http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare.html`

Follow the links below for more help.

How can I:

- search the Web?
- break a long command between multiple lines?
- follow chains of linked documents with a single command?
- request raw HTML source rather than formatted text?
- configure how documents are delivered?
- use Agora (w3mail) commands?
- decode binary files?

How quotas limit server load

Accessing ProMED archives

About the GetWeb MailBot server software

Also see the GetWeb home page.

Send bugs or suggestions for improvement to getweb-admin@usa.healthnet.org.