MOWServ

MOWServ provides integrated access to distributed bioinformatics web services and databases to enable interoperable execution and pipelining of BioMoby-compatible analysis services.

Key Features:

• Integrated access: Unified access to distributed bioinformatics services and databases to coordinate multi-service analyses.
• Service expansion and compatibility: Contributions to the EMBRACE Biocatalogue and a curated, extended ontology ensure compatibility across web services.
• Enhanced service discovery: Integration of Magallanes and biodataSF to identify relevant bioinformatics services.
• Secure data management: Storage of user data on the main server with an authentication protocol, task monitoring, and support for pipelining successive data processing services.
• Metadata management: Extensions to the BioMoby standard to handle extended descriptions, keywords, and datafile examples.
• Qualified registry: A qualified registry mechanism to assess and enhance service quality.
• Error handling and asynchronous services: Support for asynchronous execution and explicit error handling to improve robustness.
• Service replication: Replication mechanisms to increase reliability and availability of services.

Scientific Applications:

• Workflow integration: Integration of BioMoby-compatible services into analysis pipelines to combine multiple sources of biological data.
• Data interoperability and discovery: Interaction with multiple biological data sources and discovery of relevant services via Magallanes and biodataSF.

Methodology:

An ontology-based approach using a curated, extended ontology ensures cross-service compatibility; Magallanes and biodataSF are used for service discovery; BioMoby extensions provide metadata management, a qualified registry, asynchronous execution, error handling, service replication, and authentication protocols to support secure data storage, task monitoring, and pipelining.