Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI(3)

NAME
Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI - Object Interface to generalize Web Databases for retrieving sequences

SYNOPSIS
   # get a WebDBSeqI object somehow
   # assuming it is a nucleotide db
   my $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_id('ROA1_HUMAN')

DESCRIPTION
Provides core set of functionality for connecting to a web based database for retriving sequences.

Users wishing to add another Web Based Sequence Dabatase will need to extend this class (see Bio::DB::SwissProt or Bio::DB::NCBIHelper for examples) and implement the get_request method which returns a HTTP::Request for the specified uids (accessions, ids, etc depending on what query types the database accepts).

FEEDBACK

  Mailing Lists
User feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to one of the Bioperl mailing lists. Your participation is much appreciated.

  bioperl-l@bioperl.org                  - General discussion
  http://bioperl.org/wiki/Mailing_lists  - About the mailing lists

  Support
Please direct usage questions or support issues to the mailing list:

bioperl-l@bioperl.org

rather than to the module maintainer directly. Many experienced and reponsive experts will be able look at the problem and quickly address it. Please include a thorough description of the problem with code and data examples if at all possible.

  Reporting Bugs
Report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track the bugs and their resolution. Bug reports can be submitted via the web.

  http://bugzilla.open-bio.org/

AUTHOR - Jason Stajich
Email < jason@bioperl.org >

APPENDIX
The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal methods are usually preceded with a _

  get_Seq_by_id
 Title   : get_Seq_by_id
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_id('ROA1_HUMAN')
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by its name
 Returns : a Bio::Seq object
 Args    : the id (as a string) of a sequence
 Throws  : "id does not exist" exception

  get_Seq_by_acc
 Title   : get_Seq_by_acc
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_acc('X77802');
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by accession number
 Returns : A Bio::Seq object
 Args    : accession number (as a string)
 Throws  : "acc does not exist" exception

  get_Seq_by_gi
 Title   : get_Seq_by_gi
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_gi('405830');
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by gi number
 Returns : A Bio::Seq object
 Args    : gi number (as a string)
 Throws  : "gi does not exist" exception

  get_Seq_by_version
 Title   : get_Seq_by_version
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_version('X77802.1');
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by sequence version
 Returns : A Bio::Seq object
 Args    : accession.version (as a string)
 Throws  : "acc.version does not exist" exception

  get_request
 Title   : get_request
 Usage   : my $url = $self->get_request
 Function: returns a HTTP::Request object
 Returns :
 Args    : %qualifiers = a hash of qualifiers (ids, format, etc)

  get_Stream_by_id
  Title   : get_Stream_by_id
  Usage   : $stream = $db->get_Stream_by_id( [$uid1, $uid2] );
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by unique identifiers
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of unique identifiers for
                   the desired sequence entries

  get_Stream_by_acc
  Title   : get_Stream_by_acc
  Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_acc([$acc1, $acc2]);
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by accession numbers
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of accession numbers for
                   the desired sequence entries
  Note    : For GenBank, this just calls the same code for get_Stream_by_id()

  get_Stream_by_gi
  Title   : get_Stream_by_gi
  Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_gi([$gi1, $gi2]);
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by gi numbers
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of gi numbers for
                   the desired sequence entries
  Note    : For GenBank, this just calls the same code for get_Stream_by_id()

  get_Stream_by_version
  Title   : get_Stream_by_version
  Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_version([$version1, $version2]);
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by accession.versions
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of accession.version strings for
                   the desired sequence entries
  Note    : For GenBank, this is implemeted in NCBIHelper

  get_Stream_by_query
  Title   : get_Stream_by_query
  Usage   : $stream = $db->get_Stream_by_query($query);
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by way of a query string or oject
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $query :   A string that uses the appropriate query language
            for the database or a Bio::DB::QueryI object.  It is suggested
            that you create the Bio::DB::Query object first and interrogate
            it for the entry count before you fetch a potentially large stream.

  default_format
 Title   : default_format
 Usage   : my $format = $self->default_format
 Function: Returns default sequence format for this module
 Returns : string
 Args    : none

  request_format
 Title   : request_format
 Usage   : my ($req_format, $ioformat) = $self->request_format;
           $self->request_format("genbank");
           $self->request_format("fasta");
 Function: Get/Set sequence format retrieval. The get-form will normally not
           be used outside of this and derived modules.
 Returns : Array of two strings, the first representing the format for
           retrieval, and the second specifying the corresponding SeqIO format.
 Args    : $format = sequence format

  get_seq_stream
 Title   : get_seq_stream
 Usage   : my $seqio = $self->get_seq_sream(%qualifiers)
 Function: builds a url and queries a web db
 Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream capable of producing sequence
 Args    : %qualifiers = a hash qualifiers that the implementing class
           will process to make a url suitable for web querying

  url_base_address
 Title   : url_base_address
 Usage   : my $address = $self->url_base_address or
           $self->url_base_address($address)
 Function: Get/Set the base URL for the Web Database
 Returns : Base URL for the Web Database
 Args    : $address - URL for the WebDatabase

  proxy
 Title   : proxy
 Usage   : $httpproxy = $db->proxy('http')  or
           $db->proxy(['http','ftp'], 'http://myproxy' )
 Function: Get/Set a proxy for use of proxy
 Returns : a string indicating the proxy
 Args    : $protocol : an array ref of the protocol(s) to set/get
           $proxyurl : url of the proxy to use for the specified protocol
           $username : username (if proxy requires authentication)
           $password : password (if proxy requires authentication)

  authentication
 Title   : authentication
 Usage   : $db->authentication($user,$pass)
 Function: Get/Set authentication credentials
 Returns : Array of user/pass
 Args    : Array or user/pass

  retrieval_type
 Title   : retrieval_type
 Usage   : $self->retrieval_type($type);
           my $type = $self->retrieval_type
 Function: Get/Set a proxy for retrieval_type (pipeline, io_string or tempfile)
 Returns : string representing retrieval type
 Args    : $value - the value to store

This setting affects how the data stream from the remote web server is processed and passed to the Bio::SeqIO layer. Three types of retrieval types are currently allowed:

   pipeline  Perform a fork in an attempt to begin streaming
             while the data is still downloading from the remote
             server.  Disk, memory and speed efficient, but will
             not work on Windows or MacOS 9 platforms.

   io_string Store downloaded database entry(s) in memory.  Can be
             problematic for batch downloads because entire set
             of entries must fit in memory.  Alll entries must be
             downloaded before processing can begin.

   tempfile  Store downloaded database entry(s) in a temporary file.
             All entries must be downloaded before processing can
             begin.

The default is pipeline, with automatic fallback to io_string if pipelining is not available.

  url_params
 Title   : url_params
 Usage   : my $params = $self->url_params or
           $self->url_params($params)
 Function: Get/Set the URL parameters for the Web Database
 Returns : url parameters for Web Database
 Args    : $params - parameters to be appended to the URL for the WebDatabase

  ua
 Title   : ua
 Usage   : my $ua = $self->ua or
           $self->ua($ua)
 Function: Get/Set a LWP::UserAgent for use
 Returns : reference to LWP::UserAgent Object
 Args    : $ua - must be a LWP::UserAgent

  postprocess_data
 Title   : postprocess_data
 Usage   : $self->postprocess_data ( 'type' => 'string',
                                     'location' => \$datastr);
 Function: process downloaded data before loading into a Bio::SeqIO
 Returns : void
 Args    : hash with two keys - 'type' can be 'string' or 'file'
                              - 'location' either file location or string
                                           reference containing data

  delay
 Title   : delay
 Usage   : $secs = $self->delay([$secs])
 Function: get/set number of seconds to delay between fetches
 Returns : number of seconds to delay
 Args    : new value

NOTE: the default is to use the value specified by delay_policy(). This can be overridden by calling this method, or by passing the -delay argument to new().

  delay_policy
 Title   : delay_policy
 Usage   : $secs = $self->delay_policy
 Function: return number of seconds to delay between calls to remote db
 Returns : number of seconds to delay
 Args    : none

NOTE: The default delay policy is 0s. Override in subclasses to implement delays. The timer has only second resolution, so the delay will actually be +/- 1s.

  _sleep
 Title   : _sleep
 Usage   : $self->_sleep
 Function: sleep for a number of seconds indicated by the delay policy
 Returns : none
 Args    : none

NOTE: This method keeps track of the last time it was called and only imposes a sleep if it was called more recently than the delay_policy() allows.

  mod_perl_api
 Title   : mod_perl_api
 Usage   : $version = self->mod_perl_api
 Function: Returns API version of mod_perl being used based on set env. variables
 Returns : mod_perl API version; if mod_perl isn't loaded, returns 0
 Args    : none