Webservices and Workflows. Taverna, Biocatalgue and myExperiment.
1. Proteomics Bioinformatics
WTAC
13-17 December 2010
Rafael Jimenez
rafael@ebi.ac.uk
EnCORE
presentation
Webservices and Workflows
Taverna, Biocatalgue and myExperiment
Katy Wolstencroft, myGrid, University of Manchester
2. Introduction to Web Services at EBI
Table of contents
• Web Services
• Workflows
• myGrid solutions
– Biocatalogue
– Taverna
– myExperiment
4. Introduction to Web Services at EBI
Web Service
• What
– API that is accessed via HTTP
• Aim
– Expose sources and services to third party applications
• Why
– Platform-independent and language-independent
• Types
– REST
– SOAP
API: Application programming interface
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
5. Web Services
How it works
How should I invoke you?
Documentation
Make a request
Results
Web serverClient
1
2
3
4
Web Service
Application
describes the methods and variables to query the service2
6. Web Services
REST: REpresentational State Transfer
Find documentation
Documentation (html, pdf, …)
HTTP request (GET, POST, … )
Results
Web serverClient
1
2
3
4
Web Service
Application
7. Parameters
Web Services
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
WSDL request
WSDL
SOAP request
SOAP response
Web serverClient
1
2
3
4
Web Service
Application
WSDL: Web Services Description Language
XML
• SOAP request
Results
XML
• SOAP response
SOAP envelopeSOAP envelope
3 4
9. Introduction to Web Services at EBI
Workflow
• Workflow
– Sequence of tasks that produces a result of observable value
• Workflow management system
– Computer system to compose and execute workflows.
• Workflow components
– Input
– Service
– Output
– Shims
11. Finding Shims
• BioCatalogue – some shims are regular SOAP or REST
services
• myExperiment – look for all workflows containing the
scientific services. Has anyone linked them together
before?
• Shim Library – a dedicated resource only for shim
services. Coming soon
Katy Wolstencroft, myGrid, University of Manchester
12. Services
• Data Resources
• Analysis tools
• Knowledge Resources
• Web Services
– SOAP
– REST
• Grid Services
• Local scripts
• Workflows
14. Create and run workflows
Share, discover and reuse workflows
Discover and reuse services
myGrid solutions
15. • A public centralised and curated registry of Life
Science Web Services
• ‘Web 2.0’-style website and API
• Allow anyone to register, discover and curate Web
Services
• Community oriented with expert guidance
• Open content, open source, open platform
Paul Fisher, myGrid, University of Manchester
Biocatalogue
http://www.biocatalogue.org
18. Workflow
diagram
Tree view of
workflow structure
Tree view of
workflow structure
Available
services
Taverna
• Workflow management system
• Java desktop application
• Open source and extensible
• Includes access to Biocatalogue and myExperiment
• http://www.taverna.org.uk/
19. What do Scientists use Taverna for?
– Data gathering, annotation and model building
– Data analysis from distributed tools
– Data mining and knowledge management
– Parameter sweeps and simulation
Users from Systems Biology, Proteomics, Sequence analysis,
Protein structure prediction, Gene/protein annotation, Microarray
data analysis, QTL studies, Chemioinformatics, Medical image
analysis, Public Health care epidemiology, Heart model simulation,
Phenotype studies, Phylogeny, Statistical analysis,
Pharmacogenomics, Text mining, Astronomy, Music, Meteorology
Katy Wolstencroft, myGrid, University of Manchester
20. Sharing Experiments
• Taverna supports the in silico experimental process for individual
scientists
• How do you share your results/experiments/experiences with your
– Research group
– Collaborators
– Scientific community
• How do you compare your results with others produced by e.g.
Kepler / Triana / Trident?
Paul Fisher, myGrid, University of Manchester
22. Recycling, Reuse, Repurposing
• Paul writes workflows for identifying biological pathways
implicated in resistance to Trypanosomiasis
• Paul meets Jo. Jo is investigating mouse Whipworm
infection.
• Jo reuses one of Paul’s workflows.
• Jo identifies the biological pathways involved in sex
dependence in the mouse model, believed to be involved in
the ability of mice to expel the parasite.
• Previously a manual two year study by Jo had failed to do
this.
Workflows are protocols
Paul Fisher, myGrid, University of Manchester
24. Acknowledgements & thanks
All the myGrid team, and specially to Katy
Wolstencroft, Shoaib Sufi, Peter Li, Paul
Fisher, Eric Nzuobontane
ProteomicsServicesTeam