Developments on the Web-based periodic table database of element properties called WebElements.

Mark J. Winter [M.Winter@sheffield.ac.uk]

Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7HF, England

Abstract number 39 presented at the COMP Division of the 210th American Chemical Society Meeting in Chicago, USA, on 21 August 1995

https://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/www-publications/acs-chicago-95-comp-39

This poster is about WebElements - the periodic table on the WWW.

First launched in December 1993
Used <PRE> and </PRE> tages to define a periodic table interface
Used a HyperCard stack running on a Macintosh to generate the html files
Each element has a single file associated with it
Many errors and speling mistaks in data
Interactive calculators (via AppleScript and HyperCard)
- isotope patterns (you will leave this poster via this link)
- element percentages (you will leave this poster via this link)
Requests from several sites to set up mirror sites of WebElements
A few problems with people lifting WebElements without permission

WebElements version 2 (beta, now testing)

WebElements 2 is in a testing phase in order to elicit comments about the interface and to sort out as many errors as possible before allowing a move to mirror sites. The URL of WebElements 2 is

https://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/web-elements-home.html (you will leave this poster via this link)

Moved development to SuperCard in order to produce colour graphics
Made use of html version 3 table tags to define periodic table
Marked up files for sub and superscripts (Mosaic or Arena OK, but not NetScape!)
Increased amount of data (by a lot)
Divided the data for each element into 12 headings and sub-headings
Lots of encouragement from Oxford University Press and John Emsley (author of "The Elements")
Literature references to data sources
Produced graphical representations for each element of:
- Ionization enthalpies
- Isotope abundances
- Electronic configurations
- Standard reduction potentials
Produced graphical representations of periodic properties in a number of formats
- Colour-coded periodic tables
- Size-coded balls superimposed on periodic tables
- line graphs (colour-coded by period)
- Bar graphs (colour-coded by period)
- Overlay of group properties (under development)
- Overlay of period properties (under development)
Start an analysis of log files in order to improve interface