Chiba Hirokazu, Uchiyama Ikuo
National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Nishigonaka 38, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8585, Japan.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2017 Feb 8;18(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s12859-017-1531-1.
Toward improved interoperability of distributed biological databases, an increasing number of datasets have been published in the standardized Resource Description Framework (RDF). Although the powerful SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) provides a basis for exploiting RDF databases, writing SPARQL code is burdensome for users including bioinformaticians. Thus, an easy-to-use interface is necessary.
We developed SPANG, a SPARQL client that has unique features for querying RDF datasets. SPANG dynamically generates typical SPARQL queries according to specified arguments. It can also call SPARQL template libraries constructed in a local system or published on the Web. Further, it enables combinatorial execution of multiple queries, each with a distinct target database. These features facilitate easy and effective access to RDF datasets and integrative analysis of distributed data.
SPANG helps users to exploit RDF datasets by generation and reuse of SPARQL queries through a simple interface. This client will enhance integrative exploitation of biological RDF datasets distributed across the Web. This software package is freely available at http://purl.org/net/spang .
为了提高分布式生物数据库的互操作性，越来越多的数据集已以标准化的资源描述框架（RDF）发布。尽管强大的SPARQL协议和RDF查询语言（SPARQL）为利用RDF数据库提供了基础，但编写SPARQL代码对包括生物信息学家在内的用户来说是一项繁重的任务。因此，需要一个易于使用的接口。
我们开发了SPANG，这是一个SPARQL客户端，具有用于查询RDF数据集的独特功能。SPANG根据指定的参数动态生成典型的SPARQL查询。它还可以调用在本地系统中构建或在Web上发布的SPARQL模板库。此外，它支持对多个查询进行组合执行，每个查询都有一个不同的目标数据库。这些功能有助于轻松有效地访问RDF数据集并对分布式数据进行综合分析。
SPANG通过一个简单的接口，通过生成和重用SPARQL查询来帮助用户利用RDF数据集。该客户端将增强对分布在Web上的生物RDF数据集的综合利用。这个软件包可在http://purl.org/net/spang上免费获得。
