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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/MailList.shtml  - About the mailing lists

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 email or the web:

  bioperl-bugs@bio.perl.org
  http://bio.perl.org/bioperl-bugs/

AUTHOR - Jason Stajich

Email jason@chg.mc.duke.edu

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_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 = $db->get_Seq_by_acc([$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()

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

retrieval_type

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

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