[DAS] CORS

[Andy Jenkinson]

Since this seems to have been given the thumbs up, shall we make CORS support mandatory from 1.6 onwards?

I suggested this when it first came up last year, but I got no replies so didn't put it in the spec. I suspect because it was in the middle of a flurry of emails about "maxbins" :)

On 3 Aug 2010, at 22:28, Thomas Down wrote:

> Jonathan's written a nice summary here:
> 
>              http://biodasman.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/cors/
> 
> But briefly...  it's the "official" way to work around the same-origin
> policy (by default, browsers only allow unsigned javascript to trigger HTTP
> requests to the server from which it was originally downloaded).  The
> specification is here:
> 
>                http://www.w3.org/TR/cors/
> 
> (Please don't be too alarmed by the datestamp!  The core parts have been
> stable for > a year now, and it's well supported by Mozilla, WebKit, and --
> via a slightly different API -- Internet Explorer).
> 
> If you're running a public server and want it to be CORS accessible, all
> that is needed is to emit the header:
> 
>          Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
> 
> ...and you're done.
> 
> (If you're running password-protected DAS servers, or DAS servers hosting
> sensitive information behind a firewall, you might want a slightly more
> sophisticated CORS implementation.  Happy to discuss if anyone is
> interested).
> 
>                    Thomas.
> 
> On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Lincoln Stein <lincoln.stein at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
>> Someone give me a quick summary of CORS support. I want to make sure that
>> GBrowse exports DAS 1.53 with CORS (is it just the registry metadata, or
>> something new?)
>> 
>> Lincoln
>> 
>> On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Jonathan Warren <jw12 at sanger.ac.uk> wrote:
>> 
>>> This is very cool - I had a look the other day. Was wondering why some
>>> sources could be attached and some can't....
>>> Best browser experience yet by far I'd say.
>>> 
>>> No problems about adding CORS support - for the record I'm very happy to
>>> implement new capabilities testing and other suggestions to the registry
>>> from anyone who cares to drop me a line. Especially if it's going to enhance
>>> and promote the use of the registry :)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 3 Aug 2010, at 20:41, Thomas Down wrote:
>>> 
>>> As some of you already know, I've been experimenting recently with a
>>>> web-based DAS client for genomic data.  It's still in
>>>> a unashamedly prototypical state (in particular, some of the popups and
>>>> configuration stuff is outright clunky, and we know it!), but we're
>>>> starting
>>>> to find it quite useful, and would be interested to receive more
>>>> feedback.
>>>> So if you're curious, you can try it here:
>>>> 
>>>>             http://www.biodalliance.org/human/ncbi36/
>>>> 
>>>> It's a fully-fledged DAS/1.53 client (with a few bits of DAS/1.6, and
>>>> hopefully rather more coming soon), but has one major caveat: since it's
>>>> pure Javascript code running in your web browser, there are limitations
>>>> to
>>>> which servers it can connect to.  Specifically, it will only work with
>>>> DAS
>>>> servers that implement the W3C cross-origin resource sharing model (which
>>>> has been discussed on this list before, but drop me a line if you've got
>>>> any
>>>> questions).  What does this mean in practice?  If you're adding
>>>> datasources
>>>> from the registry, things are simple because Dalliance will only allow
>>>> you
>>>> to add CORS-enabled sources (a huge thanks to Jonathan Warren for adding
>>>> some support for this in the registry).  If you run your own DAS servers
>>>> and
>>>> don't list them in the registry, you'll need to check for CORS
>>>> compatibility
>>>> yourself.  The latest versions of Proserver and Dazzle should both be
>>>> okay.
>>>> 
>>>> All comments, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome!
>>>> 
>>>>                 Thomas Down.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> DAS mailing list
>>>> DAS at lists.open-bio.org
>>>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/das
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Jonathan Warren
>>> Senior Developer and DAS coordinator
>>> blog: http://biodasman.wordpress.com/
>>> jw12 at sanger.ac.uk
>>> Ext: 2314
>>> Telephone: 01223 492314
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome ResearchLimited,
>>> a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and acompany registered
>>> in England with number 2742969, whose registeredoffice is 215 Euston Road,
>>> London, NW1 2BE._______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> DAS mailing list
>>> DAS at lists.open-bio.org
>>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/das
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Lincoln D. Stein
>> Director, Informatics and Biocomputing Platform
>> Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
>> 101 College St., Suite 800
>> Toronto, ON, Canada M5G0A3
>> 416 673-8514
>> Assistant: Renata Musa <Renata.Musa at oicr.on.ca>
>> 
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