This section will describe how you can write and develop your own client to call and interact with BioMoby Web Services.

This tutorial only copes the possibility to write a Java programm to connect a BioMoby Web Services, although it is not restricted to Java. You can use any kind of programming language which supports somehow SOAP.

This section demonstrates a library called "Feature Client" which helps you to write a client without getting too deep into the BioMoby API. It also has several nice features which will be explained.

 
If you are interested in a more depth handling of the BioMoby API have a look here (this link is generally recommended to get an insight and understanding of the client programming of BioMoby)

The Feature Client

The Feature Client is a java library which generally shall help one to interact with BioMoby Web Services. It is a client which is able to call several Web Services simultaneously based on explicitly state which services shall be called or by a common input / output definition.

You can download the Feature Client as zip file here (14 Mb).

Features

• Automatic service detection:
• You can define what kind of services you want to call (e.g. all services which return for a given AGI Locus Code Publications. Or all services which return for a given gi the amino acid sequence). The library finds those services at the Moby central and calls all found services.

• Simultaneously calling:
• All services you are selected will be called in parallel and therefore speed up the process.
  

• Service call timeout:
• You can define a timeout in which a service has to respond. If the service responds before the timeout you will get the results immediatley. If the service does not respond in the given timeout you will get an empty result.
  
• Filter unwanted services:
• You can specify a list of services which shall not be called (e.g. during the service finding process - see first point - you can filter out unwanted services).
• Calling service more than once
• If you want to call a service several times, the client allows you to simply call the service with the different inputs.
• Using the concrete data objects
• As with other clients you have to work with the internal datastructure which moby does. With the Feature Client you are able to work with the concrete datatypes like AminoAcidSequence. This simplifies the interaction with the moby objects.
  

How to use

if you unpack the zip file you will find the jar you have to import in your java project. For further detail information you should also read the README file.

Also you can have a look at the API to see the full functionality of the library.