sending info to website via post.

[JP123]

Hi,
There is a web application here that I can't modify. To be precise,
the devs don't allow me to incorporate a goose api nor JavaScript
handler. That is my constraint. In the future, this may change.:)

I wrote a post form which in theory ( it works) can move info from the
gaggle to the web application but it requires
too much work on the part of a biologist to hand craft the html
payload.

Here is my question, and excuse me if this has been answered. Is there
a way of modifying the Boss to post a gene list to a non gaggled web
site?

I read about handlers FireGoose/trunk/firefox/chrome/content/handler
but this requires mods to the server as well.
Maybe I am missing something.
Any thoughts ? Thanks.
JP

[cbare]

Hi JP,

Handlers in Firegoose can definitely be used to post a list of genes
to a non-gaggled website. This involves writing a little javascript to
create the appropriate query string or navigate through the page's DOM
(document object model) and populate form fields. We do this with
several sites with no modifications required on the server.

Reading data out of a web resource is much easier if we have either
structured data embedded in the HTML pages or a web service (or
ideally, both to link the browsing experience to the web service).
Screen scraping is possible, too, but is lots more work to maintain.

Depending on your comfort level with scripting, I can help as much as
needed. Let me know the details of what you have in mind, and we can
figure out the best way to procede.

- Chris

[JP123]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the offer. I am comfortable with scripting but not
JavaScript. I know enough of it to be dangerous :). Most of the work I
do is linked to numerics and visualisation not web work.

First off, exporting data from the website to the gaggle is
understood, and it works well.
I experimented with microformats to transmit genelists from the web
site to the Boss and then on to cytoscape or R. I presented the
experimental solution to the website development team who agreed that
this could be implemented within their cgi methods. They do not wish
to tinker with Perl <-> Java API 's for the backend as yet.

The remaining challenge is for the website to receive the proper
information broadcast from the Boss. The first challenge is that the
website expects a pipe delimited string as a genelist with species and
list name. Like so ....

<form name="toCart"action="http://OMITTED ON PURPOSE/
OMITTED_MYMETHOD.cgi" target="cart" method="post">
<input type="submit" value="Add to Cart" />
<input type="hidden" name="method" value="/OMITTED ON PURPOSE/
Input/GeneSet/addGeneSets" />

Some info omitted.

<input type="text" name="testlist" value="At5g66045|At1g73687|
At2g27400" />
</form>


I wrote a program in R, and broadcast its results ( a genelist ) to
the Boss. How would I get it into the website data structure ? The
data structure is nothing more than a file. I can send you a link to
the application if you wish and I can let you log on with no problem.

I studied the handler code examples in the SVN trunk, but I don't know
where the javascript handler belongs ? From my perspective it would
take what' inside the Boss and move the data to the web application.

Let me know what further info you require &/or what info examples -
templates that you can point me to.

Thank you.
JP