One of the biggest challenges in most corporate environments is providing a way for users to access all the data they need, usually stored in multiple disparate locations, from one interface that they are comfortable with. As web applications have become more popular, RESTful APIs have emerged as the preffered web service format in recent years. Many Accelrys applications now provide RESTful APIs that allow developers to build mashup applications. This session will explore some of these APIs and how to use them to build a simple application.

1. (ATS6-DEV04) Building Web Mashup
Applications Using Accelrys REST
Services Andrei Caracoti
Senior Manager
Technical Marketing
andrei.caracoti@accelrys.com

2. The information on the roadmap and future software development efforts are
intended to outline general product direction and should not be relied on in making
a purchasing decision.

3. Content
• Discuss available Accelrys APIs:
– Query Service
– Contur
– AEP
– HEOS (SOAP)
• Demo an example mashup application
• Demo a Chrome extension use of a REST API

4. Why REST
• Emerged as standard for web services
• Easy to use
• Standard methods
• Libraries available to make use of it
• Works well with AJAX

5. Accelrys Web Services
• REST:
– AEP
– Contur
– Accelrys LIMS WebCore
– Query Service
• SOAP:
– HEOS

6. AEP REST API
• Protocol execution
• Can create application-specific endpoints that map to
individual protocols
• Flexible query strings for passing parameters in
• Gives access to full power of AEP
More info: (ATS6-DEV03) Building an Enterprise Web Solution
with AEP

7. Contur REST API
• Read/Write access to Contur content
• Possible uses:
– Retrieve experiments
– Retrieve experiment sections
– Create new experiments
– Add sections to experiments
More info: (ATS6-DEV08) Integrating Contur ELN with other
systems using a RESTful API

8. Accelrys Query Service REST API
• Powerful access to data via Integrated Data Sources (IDS)
• Possible uses:
– Retrieve available data sources
– Retrieve data source metadata
– Run complex queries
– Retrieve hits/results
– Retrieve result metadata
More info: (ATS6-PLAT04) Query service

9. HEOS SOAP Service
• Not REST
• Can be accessed with a SOAP client libray
• Possible uses:
– Get compounds for a project
– Get assay results for a compound
– Register chemistry
– Register biology

10. Building a Mashup Web Application
• jQuery and ExtJS are two JavaScript libraries that can be
used to build web applications
• JSON/XML is best format for transferring data
• Making REST calls is the same regardless of the service
accessed
• AJAX makes pages speedier as individual sections of the
app can be refreshed independently of the others

11. Cross-Site Scripting Considerations
• Browsers impose cross-site scripting restrictions
• Ways of dealing with them:
– Use a local proxy (more work)
– JSONP is a solution of avoiding restrictions but comes with
security concerns
– New CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) paradigm makes this
possible (requires server configuration and latest browser
version)

12. DemoWeb Mashup
• Show mashup example
• Discuss the use of jQuery for AJAX calls
• Discuss ExtJS as a UI-building choice
• Show Chrome extension example

13. • Accelrys applications expose several web APIs
• Standard REST calls can be used to retrieve and update
data
• API documentation is available in the Help section for
each application
Summary

14. Screenshot DemoMashup Application

15. Latest compounds
from Corporate DB
via Query Service
REST call
Latest experiments
from Contur ELN via
Contur API REST call
Molcule image
generated on-
demand by AEP via
AEP protocol REST
call
Assay results on-
demand from HEOS
via AEP protocol

16. Activate screen
capture tool by
clicking extension
button next to
address bar

17. Select area to
capture

18. Make
annotations,
highlight data,
redact
sensitive
information
Click save to
upload to
Contur
experiment

19. Select an existing experiment Create a new experiment

20. Contur experiment with the saved image.