In the Intension Mining environment, the user is not expected to be a data mining specialist and it is not necessary for him to be familiar with the data mining algorithms. However, clear understanding of the data mining goals and sufficient expertise to interpret the mined results influences schema design, which ultimately contributes to the success of the mining exercise. The KDS is the guiding force behind the discovery process. A well designed KDS steers the mining process in the direction to deliver the desired results[1]. The Knowledge Discovery Schema Editor helps the user in doing so. The main features of the Knowledge Discovery Schema Editor are as follows :
1. Supports specification of three kinds of knowledge
Using this editor, the user can enter any kind of knowledge discovery schema which mines association rules, or does classification or clustering.
2. Entering a new schema
The user can enter a new schema by entering the name of the schema which is different from the existing schema names and filling out all the entries.
3. Editing an old schema
The user can edit an existing schema. Only valid users can edit a schema. As soon as the user enters the schema name, the editor checks if there exists a schema by that name before. If it does exist, the editor shows the previous entries entered. It shows all the entries but the user can edit only a few entries.
4. Check for mandatory items
When the user wants to store a schema, the editor checks whether the mandatory fields - mining schema name, database schema name, relation name, attributes and the mining algorithm has been specified by the user or not. The user can not store a schema until he specifies all the mandatory fields.
5. Security
The most important feature of this editor is its two-level security. As soon as the editor is invoked, it asks for a login name and password. This is to ensure that the user is authorised to enter a new knowledge discovery schema. Also, when the user wants to edit an existing schema, it asks for another login and password. This is to ensure that no unauthorised user can edit a schema which might have been entered by any other user. This security has been provided keeping in regard that many users can enter new schemas but only a few can make changes in the existing schemas.
6. Output
The output of the Knowledge Discovery Schema Editor is a knowledge discovery schema written using Knowledge Discovery Schema Language(KDSL). By seeing the schema, no one can ever tell as to whether the schema was written using KDSL in some text editor or through the Knowledge Discovery Schema Editor.
This feature of the editor is the very crucial one since it allows editing of schemas which have been entered directly using KDSL through some different editor.