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A Java Framework for Search Engines

Purpose

We want a Java class framework for implementing different search algorithms. Our goals (or requirements) are to design and implement:

• An abstract Java class Search that encapsulates the data required for storing nodes in a network, and the connections between nodes. This class will also supply common behavior for specific search algorithm classes that we derive from this abstract class.
• Two sample classes derived from Search:
  • DepthFirstSearch - search nodes depth first
  • BreadthFirstSearch - search nodes breadth first

We also want a nice way to display networks and to visualize how the search algorithms work for a given network, and for a given starting and ending path point. We will design and implement a Graphics User Interface (GUI) class SearchPanel that can be created with any instance of a sub-class of Search.

As a final task, we will write two Java applets (that is shown on the first page) that demonstrates both depth first and breadth first search.

These three Java classes are Open Source software; please feel free to remove the search specific code from the two test applets, and use it in your own applications!

Next : Implementing Depth First Search

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