Biomart API for Cytoscape

Use Case

• I have a network in Cytoscape session and want to import some attributes ONLY FOR genes which exists on current network.
• I want to import ID conversion table from Ensemble Gene ID to HGNC Symbol for all human genes

Function Request

• Cytoscape sends list of IDs/terms as a query. This list should be included returned data table. Otherwise, Cytoscape cannot map any attributes.
• Cytoscape BioMart client needs nicer GUI just like MartView? web UI.
  • Need to create category-oriented list of attributes.
  • Need to tell user Max-selectable value

Desired API

public interface BioMartUtil {
	

	public Collection<String> getMartList(URL martLocation);
	
	public Collection<String> getIDListFilter(String martName);
	public Collection<String> getBooleanListFilter(String martName);
	
        // Simply returns list of entry as table.  FIRST COLUMN IS ALWAYS ID LIST SENT AS QUERY.
	public Collection<String[]> getResult(Query query);
}

Implementation Plan

• REST API does not support some of the metadata, such as sub-category of attributes and filters
• To extract those metadata fields, I need to use SOAP. However, SOAP has some overhead and not as efficient as REST.

Solution

• For building user interface, use SOAP. Then the client has full-access to the metadata.
• Send actual Query through REST. This is faster than SOAP.