SiriusWB is a small, but fully functional application, embedded in a page of a web browser (an applet). Since applets in general are capable of more advanced actions than regular Web content, browsers normally check for security of any given applet.

SiriusWB can be loaded by clicking the View icon from a list of your data items in the Biology Workbench web interface. In this case, the corresponding entry will be loaded into the applet. Alternatively, an empty copy of SiriusWB can be started by selecting the appropriate option on the Workbench page. In this case, it can be used to build or retrieve structure or sequences from locations other than your Workbench account, list the items in your account, as well as edit them.

When the applet is loaded for the first time on a given browser, it will take a little while to download the component (depending on your network, it may be up to a minute). In the process, the browser will display two or three dialog boxes asking you whether it's ok to trust the publisher of the applet. In other words, whether to run SiriusWB or not. Select the option to allow, and if provided by the browser, to always allow the applet to run.

Examples of these dialogs are shown below (Opera running on Windows XP). Other browsers display similar dialogs.

For future convenience, you may click View button, and check the option "Allow connections to sites using this certificate". This will speed up the loading process next time certificate confirmations may be necessary.

Once the loading is completed, you will see the SiriusWB in a new browser window with the 3D workspace displayed.

Next time the applet will be loaded, it will take much less time and, depending on the browser, you will not need to allow the content to be run through the security dialogs.

SiriusWB applet has been tested on a number of popular browsers. The list of recommended browsers is given below

• Firefox 1.5+ (All platforms)
• MS Internet Explorer (Windows)
• Safari (MacOS 10.3+)
• Opera (All platforms)