The MG-RAST API explorer: an on-ramp for RESTful query composition

Journal Article · 07 November 2019 · BMC Bioinformatics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-019-2993-0 · OSTI ID:1609142

Paczian, Tobias ^[1]; Trimble, William L. ^[1]; Gerlach, Wolfgang ^[1]; Harrison, Travis ^[1]; Wilke, Andreas ^[1]; Meyer, Folker  ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

Background The MG-RAST API provides search capabilities and delivers organism and function data as well as raw or annotated sequence data via the web interface and its RESTful API. For casual users, however, RESTful APIs are hard to learn and work with. Results We created the graphical MG-RAST API explorer to help researchers more easily build and export API queries; understand the data abstractions and indices available in MG-RAST; and use the results presented in-browser for exploration, development, and debugging. Conclusions The API explorer lowers the barrier to entry for occasional or first-time MG-RAST API users.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1609142
• Journal Information: BMC Bioinformatics, Journal Name: BMC Bioinformatics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 20; ISSN 1471-2105
• Publisher: BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English