Interaction with CrystalWorks by external webpages

This page illustrates the system which enables linking between an external 3rd party webpage and CrystalWorks resident on the CDS/DL server.

The external webpages include lists of structures and pass them through to CrystalWorks.

What is being attempted

A webpage author may have a list of interesting structures from one or more of the major 'small molecule' and materials crystallographic databases. The aim is to link such a list to the CDS/DL server and make use of CrystalWorks.

Using a simple interface it is now possible to transfer the related collection codes, together with some brief annotational details, to the CrystalWorks server. This then provides its full bibliographic display, structure graphics and other functionality.

What has been achieved so far

Example webpages have already been set up to illustrate how the system can function. Links to these pages are included in the next section.

Further links to examples webpages may be added to this page. To ensure you see the latest collection of webpage links you should use the "refresh" button on your web browser. If you encounter problems or have any comments please contact cdsbb@stfc.ac.uk

Entries passed to CrystalWorks are taken from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), the Inorganic Structural Database (ICSD), the Crystallography Open Database (COD) and the CRYSTMET database.

Some example webpages with linking to CrystalWorks

Space Group List Project

There is now a page of example structures illustrating the 230 crystallographic space groups. These examples have been taken from the Space Group List project.

The Space Group List project was completed during 2014 (the International Year of Crystallography) by Frank Hoffmann at the University of Hamburg. Full details are made available on his Fascination of Crystals and Symmetry Blog

Allotropes of elemental sulphur

This page shows structures of various allotropes of elemental sulphur. These include both molecular and polymeric forms. Most of the structures were picked from results for a simple CrystalWorks search. The rest were selected from links found using the RSC ChemSpider system.

The Crystallography365 Project

A selection of structures presented in Crystallography365. Crystallography365 is a project set up to celebrate the UN "International Year of Crystallography". The associated web site presents details of a different materials (with a focus on crystallography) for each day in the Year 2014.

Links from WebElements

Ideas for links from compounds in WebElements. They relate to the WebElements page describing manganese compounds.

Refining Hits Lists

The examples above give access to CrystalWorks with full display functionality except for the Hits List refinement. CrystalWorks also allows relabelling, reordering and filter of Hits Lists. This is not appropriate for the examples above.

For most real CrystalWorks searches manual filtering of Hits List using the "Refine Hits List" option can be very useful. The following link allow you to check this out.

Searching Databases using CrystalWorks

There are no plans to include CrystalWorks search facilities from external webpages such as above. To search over the full collection of "classic" crystallographic databases you need to be a registered CDS/DL user or access CrystalWorks via the Royal Society of Chemistry National Chemical Database Service portal.

Further information, useful links and News updates are available on the CDS/DL homepage (link at the top left of this page).

Crystallography Open Database searching

The Crystallography Open Database is an established addition to CrystalWorks. Moreover we are able to make COD searches freely available within CrystalWorks without need for any registration.

The Crystallography Open Database receives new structures on a continual basis. Updates to our CrystalWorks implementation are performed daily. To see further details on the Crystallography Open Database and search the very latest data go to the COD homepage.