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  Contents     1. Intro     2. Before installing     3. Installing     4. Managers     5. Curators     6. Public     7. Scripts     8. Use of HTML  

LOVD Manual

Introduction

LOVD stands for Leiden Open (source) Variation Database. LOVD is designed to provide a freely available tool for Gene-centered collection and display of DNA variants with minimal phenotype and patient data, although more data fields can be added if needed.

LOVD was developed approaching the "LSDB-in-a-Box" idea for the easy creation and maintenance of a fully web-based gene sequence variation database, which is platform-independent and uses PHP and MySQL open source software only. The basic gene-centered and modular design of the database follows the recommendations of the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) and focuses on the collection and display of the DNA sequence variations but it is extendable with clinical data with minimal effort. The open LOVD set up also facilitates functional extensions with scripts written by the community.

The development of (then nameless) LOVD started in late 2002, while it was first officially released January, 2004. Before that LOVD was only in use by the Leiden Muscular Dystrophy pages, as a not-so-modular system with lots of characteristics specific for that website only. With the official release of LOVD in 2004 the system had become much more dynamic and customizing LOVD was made easy mostly by editing text-files.
In 2004, LOVD became available under the open source license GPL and with the 1.1.0 release most of the text-files had been replaced by online forms so customisations can be done through the web interface. Early 2005 the LOVD article was published, and in 2005 the development of LOVD is more targeted at improving the ease of use of the system.

Last modified 2019/02/21 15:22:59


When using or discussing LOVD please refer to:
Fokkema IFAC, Den Dunnen JT and Taschner PEM (2005). LOVD: easy creation of a locus-specific sequence variation database using an "LSDB-in-a-Box" approach.
Hum Mutat. 2005 Aug;26(2):63-8.

Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
Ing. Ivo F.A.C. Fokkema, Dr. Johan T. den Dunnen