MySQL Database of the ICTY Trial Transcripts

The forms below are access to a database schema of the ICTY Trial Transcripts in a MySQL database. MySQL is an open source database system and this particular "distributed" database installation is commercially hosted.

If you are familiar with databases, it might help to know how the transcripts have been broken down into this database schema. I have processed the trial transcripts for legibility and these can be found at the links above. But here I have also processed each HTML page so that each court divided page becomes a record, or row, in the database. Since the court recorded page breaks interrupt the flow of the court report, I have also tailored the results so that sentences and paragraphs are not left hanging.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please email me, Paul, at pksky@sbcglobal.net.

Search Text

Insert a term to search transcript pages below. You may use multiple search terms seperated by a space. A "Boolean Search" is an additional feature provided by the MySQL database system. With the Boolean Search option checked, preface each term with the following operators in order to add greater command to your search:

+

 The word must be in the matched index.

-

 The word must not be in the matched index.

~

 The word's relevance is inverted. This is related to MySQL's Full Text Indexing and Searching feature which rates matches in the record it is searching. Results are not based on matches alone. This prevents results being recovered for words that might be especially common in the database or record. For more information see MySQL's on line manual here: 12.7.1. Boolean Full-Text Searches

<

 Decreases the word's contribution to the overall relevance of a match.

>

 Increases the word's contribution to the overall relevance of a match.

*

 This operator (it is an asterisk) comes after the word it modifies. It works much like a wildcard, matching any words that start with the specified word.

()

 Groups words into subexpressions.

" "

Words between the quotes are searched as a phrase. For example, +"United Kingdom" is the only way to search for both United and Kingdom together as a phrase. Just inserting +United Kingdom might turn up United States in the results.

The above list is taken nearly completely from page 54 of "Managing and Using MySQL" by George Reese, et al, published by O'Reilly

You are encouraged to experiment. Try 'Deutschmark' alone with the Boolean Search off and then with ' +Deutschmark -"National Defence" -terrorist* ' with the Boolean Search checked. The input window adds directly to the WHERE MATCH part of the SQL query phrase like this, ... AGAINST (' <your input goes here> ' ...) . The single quotes should not be a part of the input.

Please note: This report system still requires some work. It was posted as of October 10, 2006.
Some improvements have been made as of May 1, 2007. Some fields have been indexed to improve speed and the layout has been repaired for some searches.

Select Trials for Search
This check box is only to speed selection of more than half the trials. Use it to check all the boxes and then deselect the ones you don't want. If you want to search all the trials, use the "Search All Trials" button above, else the search will be much slower.