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From 2010.igem.org

Part search server

Because the partsregistry has limited capabilities, a part information service was created, running at: [http://igempartview.appspot.com igempartview.appspot.com]. You can use this server to browse parts by category, as specified by each part in the partsregistry editor. It also supports a range of other webservices that can be used by javascript or other applications, described [http://igempartview.appspot.com/api.jsp here].

Why make another webservice?

The current partsregistry [http://partsregistry.org/Registry_API web interfaces] are pretty limited.

• There is no interface to search for parts.
• The XML interface cannot be used by scripts that are not on the partsregistry wiki, due to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_origin_policy Same-Origin-Policy]

This service supports a webservice mechanism called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON JSONP], which allows team wiki javascript to query part information (properties, categories, or DNA sequence) in a dynamic way, something that is not possible with the current [http://partsregistry.org/Registry_API registry API]. A small example of using this interface can be found here, but next year teams could make more advanced use of this (Protein sequence for example)

Implementation

The server uses the [http://partsregistry.org/DAS_-_Distributed_Annotation_System DAS server] to look for new parts, and the [http://partsregistry.org/Registry_API#XML_Part_Information XML Part information] to read part information. It refreshes it's content once a week (Look [http://igempartview.appspot.com/content_update.jsp here] for accurate update information).

The service runs on [http://code.google.com/intl/nl-NL/appengine/ Google App Engine], so uptime is pretty ok. There are no server maintainance costs, because it will be able to run within the [http://code.google.com/intl/nl-NL/appengine/docs/quotas.html free quota's] of Google App Engine.

iPhone part browser app

The TU Delft team is working on an iPhone app to allow quick lookup of part properties, and browse parts by category. The new webservice above is being used for this. There used to be a more extensive application on the App Store known as "[http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=107869&expand=false Biobrick Studio]" but it seems to have disappeared.

iPhone apps have to be approved by Apple before they end up in the App Store. Once this is done for our app, details will be put on this page: http://igempartview.appspot.com/iphone.jsp