[Biojava-dev] SearchIO module for biojava

Sun Aug 30 13:32:06 UTC 2015

Thank you Jose for reviewing my code!
The run module is still not on GitHub, I can add it in case the SearchIO will be accepted. Andreas also wrote me that he is going to view it. However, I remember that unfortunately it lacked an extensive test case section (it is a not so recent project of mine). 
About your other comments: I actually have fear that if we move alignment data structure this could be considered a major change (according to semantic versioning) since this is an Api change and anyone referencing this class will be forced to update his own code. Anyway also in my opinion this would be the best choice. 
About the last blast format isn't supported since this work is older, but as for new parsers the way to go is already defined as I described in my previous. In case, I could face the issue. 

I look forward to hearing from Andrea,
Best wishes,

Paolo

Inviato da iPhone
> 
> Il giorno 30/ago/2015, alle ore 13:51, Jose Manuel Duarte <jose.duarte at psi.ch> ha scritto:
> 
> Hi Paolo
> 
> Sorry for the late reply, only now I've been able to have a quick look at your new SearchIO module and I think it looks fantastic. In my opinion this is a great and needed feature. I would definitely want to use it for my own projects as soon as possible. Some comments inline below.
> 
>> On 22.08.2015 19:26, Paolo Pavan wrote:
>> 
>> Also note that this is a required part of another module I have written that can potentially be of community interest: a biojava-run module, to bless it similarly to something already listened. This latter aims to be a generic module used to run an analysis performed by an external program. In my case I needed ncbi blast search. So the API was written to declare a database of biojava Sequence objects, pass a collection of query sequences and                     retrieve in output Result objects of the SearchIO module. 
>> I know from previous attempt echoed in the mailing list that the orientation of the project was to reimplement the blast algorithm in pure Java and I agree that it would be a great idea. But until now this project as far as I know is late and I solved the platform portability issue by including several binaries for all the platforms (well, the major) packaging all together in one jar file relying upon this great Java facility. 
>> Anyway, all this came later.
> The biojava-run module sounds interesting too, do you have it anywhere in github that we can have a look at it?
> 
>> 
>> Just to spend few technical comments on the SearchIO module:
>> - included in core module since it defines a new base data structure
>> - include a dependency from biojava-alignment. This is not compulsory, it is there since the alignment data structure is included in that package. In my opinion, moving this important data structure in core will solve this and avoid similar problems in the future. This is also the reason why I choose to add those new implemented Hits/Hsp etc directly in core, after all search is one of the most important tasks in bioinformatics.
> 
> I agree it only makes sense to have it in core right now. However the dependency on biojava-alignment is not ideal. In principle the best solution would be to move the alignment data structure to core, I agree with you. For the time being another possibility would be to put all the new SearchIO stuff in biojava-alignment, but that doesn't really improve the structure of things. I'd vote for moving the alignment data structure as a sounder and better long-term solution. 
> 
> This would surely require a new minor version, so that all the new stuff would be released as biojava 4.2.
> 
> 
>> - BlastXML parser is implemented in the BlastXMLQuery class. Maybe this name it is not so meaningful, it comes from the original class that is still there in biojava even if it seems not so much utilised, that I initially started to improve trying to remain tighter to the original project. From here also the use of the class XMLHelper and some deprecated tags I added. From the old thread I understood that there was not any "elective choice" of biojava for XML parsing, but anyway the job was already done with the XMLHelper module and so this class came to new life.
>> - it was designed to be easy to extend: add support for a new file format a developer must just write a single class that implements the ResultFactory interface (I have implemented also a blast tabular parser to show it). The Api for biojava user does not change, it is just:
>>         SearchIO reader = new SearchIO(new File("BlastReport.blastxml"), blastResultFactory);
>> 
>> - it is possible to auto recognise file formats relying upon standard file extension. Just try a different constructor:
>>         SearchIO reader = new SearchIO(new File("BlastReport.blastxml"));
> 
> How about the different blast XML formats? Would it work with all the latest ones? Blast+ 2.2.31 has introduced some modifications to the format (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK131777/)
> 
>> If you agree that this feature would be interesting for the project I can send a pull request for the SearchIO part and then push on my GitHub also the run module.
> 
> I think it is a very nice addition, in my opinion you should go ahead with the pull request which will make it easier for everyone to check it out and review it for a while.
> 
> Jose
> 
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