On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Noel O'Boyle <baoille...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 13 April 2010 13:02, Christian Meisenbichler > <christian.meisenbich...@mu-leoben.at> wrote: >> Is someone interested in creating an openbabel web service? > > It sounds like you are! :-) > > But seriously, it's a great idea. I've never gotten around to doing it > myself, but we really should have one plus a web site frontend. See > how Markus has set up the Chemical Identifier Resolver as a REST-based > webservice (http://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure, and his blog > for background). In the past, it has just accepted string formats > (e.g. InChI, SMILES) but going forward it's going to accept files. > > If you are planning to do this (and I would encourage you to go > ahead), we can link to it from the wiki and give it a virtual home at > openbabel.org/whatever. Where the actual home goes will depend on the > required resources - if we can get a proof of concept going that would > be the first thing (as Tim says). We can then starting thinking about > how to deploy it for mass use.
If you use django, you don't even have to worry about setting up an http server.. It comes with a http server written in python for development purposes. >> Let me explain what I mean by that. I Just recently got convinced by >> the idea of software as a service and the practical elegance of >> knitting together various parts of software by http requests. >> Openbabel as a converter tool would just be perfect for such a >> service. > > Sure - I completely agree. Google "webel cinfony" for an example of a > cheminformatics toolkit that runs only on webservices. > >> The service would accept a http post request with the file to convert >> as post data. The source and target file format is encoded in the URI >> and the request returns the converted file. > >> As there are already python bindings, a simple python http request >> handler that provides this service is something I would quite like to >> implement. Question is if there is someone who would be interested to >> host such a service? Maybe even as a part of the open babel project? > >> Motivation of course is that one sometimes wants to use openbabel >> functionality but it is for some reason impossible or impractical to >> install it or deal with the dependencies. In such an situation the >> script or application must only be able to issue an http request. I >> think thats utterly elegant. >> >> What do you think? > > Bring it on. But do think about the API at least as much as the > technical aspects. > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval >> Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs >> proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. >> See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev >> _______________________________________________ >> OpenBabel-discuss mailing list >> OpenBabel-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-discuss >> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval > Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs > proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. > See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev > _______________________________________________ > OpenBabel-discuss mailing list > OpenBabel-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-discuss > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ OpenBabel-discuss mailing list OpenBabel-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-discuss
