Bio::Tools::SeqAnal(3)

NAME
Bio::Tools::SeqAnal - Bioperl sequence analysis base class.

SYNOPSIS

  Object Creation
This module is an abstract base class. Perl will let you instantiate it, but it provides little functionality on its own. This module should be used via a specialized subclass. See _initialize() for a description of constructor parameters.

    require Bio::Tools::SeqAnal;

To run and parse a new report:

    $hit = new Bio::Tools::SeqAnal ( -run   => \%runParams,
                                     -parse => 1);

To parse an existing report:

    $hit = new Bio::Tools::SeqAnal ( -file  => 'filename.data',
                                     -parse => 1);

To run a report without parsing:

    $hit = new Bio::Tools::SeqAnal ( -run   => \%runParams
                                     );

To read an existing report without parsing:

    $hit = new Bio::Tools::SeqAnal ( -file  => 'filename.data',
                                     -read  => 1);

INSTALLATION
This module is included with the central Bioperl distribution:

   http://bio.perl.org/Core/Latest
   ftp://bio.perl.org/pub/DIST

Follow the installation instructions included in the README file.

DESCRIPTION
Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm is a base class for specialized sequence analysis modules such as Bio::Tools::Blast and Bio::Tools::Fasta. It provides some basic data and functionalities that are not unique to a specialized module such as:

* reading raw data into memory.
* storing name and version of the program.
* storing name of the query sequence.
* storing name and version of the database.
* storing & determining the date on which the analysis was performed.
* basic file manipulations (compress, uncompress, delete).

Some of these functionalities (reading, file maipulation) are inherited from Bio::Root::Object, from which Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm derives.

RUN, PARSE, and READ
A SeqAnal.pm object can be created using one of three modes: run, parse, or read.

  MODE      DESCRIPTION
  -----     -----------
  run       Run a new sequence analysis report. New results can then
            be parsed or saved for analysis later.

  parse     Parse the data from a sequence analysis report loading it
            into the SeqAnal.pm object.

  read      Read in data from an existing raw analysis report without
            parsing it. In the future, this may also permit persistent
            SeqAnal.pm objects. This mode is considered experimental.

The mode is set by supplying switches to the constructor, see _initialize().

A key feature of SeqAnal.pm is the ability to access raw data in a generic fashion. Regardless of what sequence analysis method is used, the raw data always need to be read into memory. The SeqAnal.pm class utilizes the Bio::Root::Object::read() method inherited from Bio::Root::Object to permit the following:

* read from a file or STDIN.
* read a single record or a stream containing multiple records.
* specify a record separator.
* store all input data in memory or process the data stream as it is being read.

By permitting the parsing of data as it is being read, each record can be analyzed as it is being read and saved or discarded as necessary. This can be useful when cruching through thousands of reports. For examples of this, see the parse() methods defined in Bio::Tools::Blast and Bio::Tools::Fasta.

  Parsing & Running
Parsing and running of sequence analysis reports must be implemented for each specific subclass of SeqAnal.pm. No-op stubs ("virtual methods") are provided here for the parse() and run() methods. See Bio::Tools::Blast and Bio::Tools::Fasta for examples.

DEPENDENCIES
Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm is a concrete class that inherits from Bio::Root::Object. This module also makes use of a number of functionalities inherited from Bio::Root::Object (file manipulations such as reading, compressing, decompressing, deleting, and obtaining date.

FEEDBACK

  Mailing Lists
User feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to one of the Bioperl mailing lists. Your participation is much appreciated.

    bioperl-l@bioperl.org             - General discussion
    http://bio.perl.org/MailList.html - About the mailing lists

  Reporting Bugs
Report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track the bugs and their resolution. Bug reports can be submitted or the web:

    http://bugzilla.bioperl.org/

AUTHOR
Steve Chervitz, sac-at-bioperl.org

See the FEEDBACK section for where to send bug reports and comments.

VERSION
Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm, 0.011

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1998 Steve Chervitz. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
 http://bio.perl.org/Projects/modules.html  - Online module documentation
 http://bio.perl.org/Projects/Blast/        - Bioperl Blast Project
 http://bio.perl.org/                       - Bioperl Project Homepage

APPENDIX
Methods beginning with a leading underscore are considered private and are intended for internal use by this module. They are not considered part of the public interface and are described here for documentation purposes only.

  _initialize
 Usage     : n/a; automatically called by Bio::Root::Object::new()
 Purpose   : Calls private methods to extract the raw report data,
           : Calls superclass constructor first (Bio::Root::Object.pm).
 Returns   : string containing the make parameter value.
 Argument  : Named parameters (TAGS CAN BE ALL UPPER OR ALL LOWER CASE).
           : The SeqAnal.pm constructor only processes the following
           : parameters passed from new()
           :     -RUN     => hash reference for named parameters to be used
           :                 for running a sequence analysis program.
           :                 These are dereferenced and passed to the run() method.
           :     -PARSE   => boolean,
           :     -READ    => boolean,
           :
           : If -RUN is HASH ref, the run() method will be called with the
           :   dereferenced hash.
           : If -PARSE is true, all parameters passed from new() are passed
           :   to the parse() method. This occurs after the run method call
           :   to enable combined running + parsing.
           : If -READ is true, all parameters passed from new() are passed
           :   to the read() method.
           : Either -PARSE or -READ should be true, not both.
 Comments  : Does not calls _rearrange() to handle parameters since only
           : a few are required and there may be potentially many.

See Also : Bio::Root::Object::new(), Bio::Root::Object::_rearrange()

  best
 Usage     : $object->best();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the indicator for processing only the best match.
 Returns   : Boolean (1 | 0)
 Argument  : n/a

  _set_db_stats
 Usage     : $object->_set_db_stats(<named parameters>);
 Purpose   : Set stats about the database searched.
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : named parameters:
           :   -LETTERS => <int>  (number of letters in db)
           :   -SEQS    => <int>  (number of sequences in db)

  database
 Usage     : $object->database();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the name of the database searched.
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a

  database_release
 Usage     : $object->database_release();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the release date of the queried database.
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a

  database_letters
 Usage     : $object->database_letters();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the number of letters in the queried database.
 Returns   : Integer
 Argument  : n/a

  database_seqs
 Usage     : $object->database_seqs();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the number of sequences in the queried database.
 Returns   : Integer
 Argument  : n/a

  set_date
 Usage     : $object->set_date([<string>]);
 Purpose   : Set the name of the date on which the analysis was performed.
 Argument  : The optional string argument ca be the date or the
           : string 'file' in which case the date will be obtained from
           : the report file
 Returns   : String
 Throws    : Exception if no date is supplied and no file exists.
 Comments  : This method attempts to set the date in either of two ways:
           :   1) using data passed in as an argument,
           :   2) using the Bio::Root::Utilities.pm file_date() method
           :      on the output file.
           : Another way is to extract the date from the contents of the
           : raw output data. Such parsing will have to be specialized
           : for different seq analysis reports. Override this method
           : to create such custom parsing code if desired.

See Also : date(), Bio::Root::Object::file_date()

  date
 Usage     : $object->date();
 Purpose   : Get the name of the date on which the analysis was performed.
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : This method is not a combination set/get, it only gets.

See Also : set_date()

  length
 Usage     : $object->length();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the length of the query sequence (number of monomers).
 Returns   : Integer
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : Developer note: when using the built-in length function within
           : this module, call it as CORE::length().

  program
 Usage     : $object->program();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the name of the sequence analysis (BLASTP, FASTA, etc.)
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a

  program_version
 Usage     : $object->program_version();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the version number of the sequence analysis program.
           : (e.g., 1.4.9MP, 2.0a19MP-WashU).
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a

  query
 Usage     : $name = $object->query();
 Purpose   : Get the name of the query sequence used to generate the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : String
 Comments  : Equivalent to $object->name().

  query_desc
 Usage     : $object->desc();
 Purpose   : Set/Get the description of the query sequence for the analysis.
 Returns   : String
 Argument  : n/a

  display
 Usage     : $object->display(<named parameters>);
 Purpose   : Display information about Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm data members.
           : Overrides Bio::Root::Object::display().
 Example   : $object->display(-SHOW=>'stats');
 Argument  : Named parameters: -SHOW  => 'file' | 'stats'
           :                   -WHERE => filehandle (default = STDOUT)
 Returns   : n/a
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : _display_stats(), _display_file(), Bio::Root::Object::display()

  _display_file
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by display()
 Purpose   : Print the contents of the raw report file.
 Example   : n/a
 Argument  : one argument = filehandle object.
 Returns   : true (1)
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : display()

  _display_stats
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by display()
 Purpose   : Display information about Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm data members.
           : Prints the file name, program, program version, database name,
           : database version, query name, query length,
 Example   : n/a
 Argument  : one argument = filehandle object.
 Returns   : printf call.
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : Bio::Root::Object::display()

VIRTUAL METHODS

  parse
 Usage     : $object->parse( %named_parameters )
 Purpose   : Parse a raw sequence analysis report.
 Returns   : Integer (number of sequence analysis reports parsed).
 Argument  : Named parameters.
 Throws    : Exception: virtual method not defined.
           : Propagates any exception thrown by read()
 Status    : Virtual
 Comments  : This is virtual method that should be overridden to
           : parse a specific type of data.

See Also : Bio::Root::Object::read()

  run
 Usage     : $object->run( %named_parameters )
 Purpose   : Run a sequence analysis program on one or more sequences.
 Returns   : n/a
           : Run mode should be configurable to return a parsed object or
           : the raw results data.
 Argument  : Named parameters:
 Throws    : Exception: virtual method not defined.
 Status    : Virtual

FOR DEVELOPERS ONLY

  Data Members
Information about the various data members of this module is provided for those wishing to modify or understand the code. Two things to bear in mind:

1 Do NOT rely on these in any code outside of this module.
    All data members are prefixed with an underscore to signify that they are private. Always use accessor methods. If the accessor doesn't exist or is inadequate, create or modify an accessor (and let me know, too!).

2 This documentation may be incomplete and out of date.
    It is easy for these data member descriptions to become obsolete as this module is still evolving. Always double check this info and search for members not described here.

An instance of Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm is a blessed reference to a hash containing all or some of the following fields:

 FIELD           VALUE
 --------------------------------------------------------------
  _file            Full path to file containing raw sequence analysis report.

  _mode            Affects how much detail to extract from the raw report.
                   Future mode will also distinguish 'running' from 'parsing'

 THE FOLLOWING MAY BE EXTRACTABLE FROM THE RAW REPORT FILE:

  _prog            Name of the sequence analysis program.

  _progVersion     Version number of the program.

  _db              Database searched.

  _dbRelease       Version or date of the database searched.

  _dbLetters       Total number of letters in the database.

  _dbSequences     Total number of sequences in the database.

  _query           Name of query sequence.

  _length          Length of the query sequence.

  _date            Date on which the analysis was performed.

  INHERITED DATA MEMBERS

  _name            From Bio::Root::Object.pm. String representing the name of the query sequence.
                   Typically obtained from the report file.

  _parent          From Bio::Root::Object.pm. This member contains a reference to the
                   object to which this seq anal report belongs. Optional & experimenta.
                   (E.g., a protein object could create and own a Blast object.)