Web Services
GeneCruiser v3.0 provides an application programming interface (API) that allows programmers to access GeneCruiser
functionality from within their own applications. GeneCruiser provides this API using web services.
GeneCruiser has
two categories of web services: new web services and legacy web services. The new web services are implemented using a
REST-like architecture. The legacy web services
were created using SOAP (Apache Axis). The web services are described below in more detail.
New Web Services
GeneCruiser v3.0 includes new web services that provide the same functionality as the
Find Variations and
Variations to Genes pages. In
addition, this version also provides web services for:
- Retrieving Genes by genomic identifier (i.e., gene, transcript, or translation identifier)
- Retrieving Variations by name (i.e., dbSNP RS number)
These new web services are implemented using a REST-like
architecture. Queries are performed using an URL and the response is formatted as XML. For example, to retrieve a gene using
a HUGO id:
http://genecruiser.broad.mit.edu:8080/axis2/rest/gene/byGenomicId?idType=HUGO&id=brca1&firstResult=0&email=john_doe@somewhere.edu
Note that the email address must be the address for a registered GeneCruiser user. The response to the query is an
XML structure.
Full documentation for the new web services can be found
here.
Legacy Web Services
The GeneCruiser legacy web services provide the same functionality of the as the
Annotate Probes and
Convert genes pages.
These web services were created using SOAP (Apache Axis).
Note: Any service that handles identifiers from disparate sources
must be able to recognize the context or scope of the identifiers. The GeneCruiser legacy web servies use Life
Science Identifiers (LSIDs) to unambiguously identify Affymetrix probe IDs. For more information, see
Liefeld, et al. (2005).
View the GeneCruiser Legacy Web Service WSDL. We
plan to replace these Legacy web services with a REST style implementation in a future version of GeneCruiser.
