Question

Can We Access David Programmatically ?

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13.5 years ago

Radhouane Aniba ▴ 790

Well,

the question says it all, I am talking about David (NIH)

• 2.3k views

ADD COMMENT • link updated 13.5 years ago by Chris Miller 22k • written 13.5 years ago by Radhouane Aniba ▴ 790

score 3 · Answer 1 · 2011-06-21

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13.5 years ago

Pierre Lindenbaum 164k

it seems that there is an API: http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/content.jsp?file=DAVID_API.html

ADD COMMENT • link 13.5 years ago by Pierre Lindenbaum 164k

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What prevents you from using Perl (or Java, etc.) to fetch results through this mechanism? You asked how to access DAVID programmatically, and you can do it using this API.

ADD REPLY • link 13.5 years ago by Mikael Huss 4.8k

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I've seen it but for me this is not an API , playing with what comes after the url I don't call that API, for me API is allowing people to write perl/java/whatever wrapper to access a db :/

ADD REPLY • link 13.5 years ago by Radhouane Aniba ▴ 790

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You want the DAVID knowledgebase, then go get it: http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/content.jsp?file=/knowledgebase/DAVID_knowledgebase.html . You're better off writing a query through the web interface and leaving the unpleasant work of maintaining the database to the people who are doing it for you for free.

ADD REPLY • link 13.5 years ago by David Quigley 11k

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I feel like an agressive Tone, but anyway thx for your answers

ADD REPLY • link 13.5 years ago by Radhouane Aniba ▴ 790

score 3 · Answer 2 · 2011-06-21

I wrote a bare-bones API in Ruby a while back that interfaces with the website: https://github.com/chrisamiller/davidapi

I haven't used it in a year or two, so I'll provide it with no warranty. Wrappers like this that rely on scraping are rather brittle, and I'm not sure if they've changed anything on the site that would affect it. You're welcome to give it a shot, and if it doesn't work, I may be able to spare a little time to help fix it.