Accessing Biomart Web Service Using Java
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2
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13.1 years ago
Manjulapra ▴ 70

Hi All, I am newbie in using Biomart. I want to access the COSMIC Biomart using the Martservices and Java. The documentation says that I should POST the XML file to there link and that is it. I tried with the following code but it returns nothing.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;



public class accessDB {

    public static void saveDbData(String xmlName)throws Exception{


try {
    URL url = new URL("http://www.biomart.org/martservice");

String fileContents=readFileAsString(xmlName);

URLConnection urlc = url.openConnection();

urlc.setDoOutput(true);

urlc.setDoInput(true);

PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(urlc.getOutputStream());
pw.write(fileContents);

pw.close();

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlc.getInputStream()));

String inputLine;

while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)

System.out.println(inputLine);

in.close();

}

catch (Exception e) {


}
    }

        private static String readFileAsString(String filePath)
    throws java.io.IOException{
        StringBuilder fileData = new StringBuilder(1000);
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
                new FileReader(filePath));
        char[] buf = new char[1024];
        int numRead=0;
        while((numRead=reader.read(buf)) != -1){
            String readData = String.valueOf(buf, 0, numRead);
            fileData.append(readData);
            buf = new char[1024];
        }
        reader.close();
        return fileData.toString();
    }
    }

When I change the pw and input a the file buffer without a string it gives a general information page. Can somebody help me please. What is missing here?

Thank you

biomart webservice java • 4.3k views
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0
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Oh, About the XML file, it's just a simple file saved using XML button in the Biomart Web Interface.

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0
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can you show use this XML file please.

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0
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you don't need to 'new char[1024];' for each loop; flush your ouputstream, don't ignore the exception, you don't need this PrintWriter (write the bytes in the output sream), etc...

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you should put a main() method in your code so people can actually test it

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6
Entering edit mode
13.1 years ago
Joachim ★ 2.9k

As far as I can tell it seems that the URL is wrong to start with. The correct base URL for an 0.7 mart would be http://www.biomart.org/biomart/martservice/result where a ?query=... parameter determines the actual query (... is the XML text).

For example:

I can get an XML query text as shown below from www.biomart.org, which I then prefix with the string "query=".

query=<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE Query>
<Query  virtualSchemaName = "default" formatter = "TSV" header = "0" uniqueRows = "0" count = "" datasetConfigVersion = "0.6" >         
    <Dataset name = "hsapiens_gene_ensembl" interface = "default" >
        <Filter name = "chromosome_name" value = "1"/>
        <Filter name = "with_illumina_humanwg_6_v3" excluded = "0"/>
        <Attribute name = "ensembl_gene_id" />
        <Attribute name = "ensembl_transcript_id" />
    </Dataset>
</Query>

This query can be send to the server via:

curl -d@query.xml http://www.biomart.org/biomart/martservice/result

The server then responds by sending you TSV output as:

ENSG00000200913 ENST00000364043
ENSG00000202031 ENST00000365161
ENSG00000207421 ENST00000384690
ENSG00000206680 ENST00000383953
...

Now, coming back to your question, the complete URL query string would be as follows:

http://www.biomart.org/biomart/martservice/result?query=%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3C!DOCTYPE%20Query%3E%0A%3CQuery%20%20virtualSchemaName%20%3D%20%22default%22%20formatter%20%3D%20%22TSV%22%20header%20%3D%20%220%22%20uniqueRows%20%3D%20%220%22%20count%20%3D%20%22%22%20datasetConfigVersion%20%3D%20%220.6%22%20%3E%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CDataset%20name%20%3D%20%22hsapiens_gene_ensembl%22%20interface%20%3D%20%22default%22%20%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CFilter%20name%20%3D%20%22chromosome_name%22%20value%20%3D%20%221%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CFilter%20name%20%3D%20%22with_illumina_humanwg_6_v3%22%20excluded%20%3D%20%220%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CAttribute%20name%20%3D%20%22ensembl_gene_id%22%20%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CAttribute%20name%20%3D%20%22ensembl_transcript_id%22%20%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2FDataset%3E%0A%3C%2FQuery%3E

You can test this getting this exact URL with curl:

curl 'http://www.biomart.org/biomart/martservice/result?query=%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3C!DOCTYPE%20Query%3E%0A%3CQuery%20%20virtualSchemaName%20%3D%20%22default%22%20formatter%20%3D%20%22TSV%22%20header%20%3D%20%220%22%20uniqueRows%20%3D%20%220%22%20count%20%3D%20%22%22%20datasetConfigVersion%20%3D%20%220.6%22%20%3E%0A%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CDataset%20name%20%3D%20%22hsapiens_gene_ensembl%22%20interface%20%3D%20%22default%22%20%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CFilter%20name%20%3D%20%22chromosome_name%22%20value%20%3D%20%221%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CFilter%20name%20%3D%20%22with_illumina_humanwg_6_v3%22%20excluded%20%3D%20%220%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CAttribute%20name%20%3D%20%22ensembl_gene_id%22%20%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CAttribute%20name%20%3D%20%22ensembl_transcript_id%22%20%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3C%2FDataset%3E%0A%3C%2FQuery%3E'

All that besides, it might be easier though to use the new BioMart 0.8 Central Portal (http://central.biomart.org), which already generates Java code for you.

Joachim

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+1 for the full query string as stated in the documentation.

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Thank you all, I am working on the information given, and thank you for telling that java code is available in Central. BTW, where should we download the libraries? Thank you again

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13.1 years ago
Graslevy ▴ 240

One thing jumps out already; you are not declaring your http method. You must explicitly send a 'POST' request for the server to respond.

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you don't need to tell the URLConnection about the method: http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.net/Post.html

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0
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The setRequestMethod("POST") is necessary I am afraid.

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Haven't tested the code yet but I assume the setRequestMethod("POST") is essential. I stand corrected otherwise...

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