NCICBIIT provides biomedical informatics support and integration capabilities to the cancer research community. NCICBIIT has created caCORE Software Development Kit (caCORE SDK), a data management framework designed for researchers who need to be able to navigate through a large number of data sources. The caCORE SDK generated system is built on the principles of Model Driven Architecture (MDA), n-tier architecture & common API for data access. The use of MDA and n-tier architecture allows for easy access to data, particularly by other applications.
When the caCORE SDK generated system is combined with controlled vocabularies and registered metadata, the resulting software system, called “caCORE-like” system is “semantically integrated” – all exposed API elements have runtime accessible metadata that defines the meaning of the elements using controlled terminology.
Figure: SDK System Generation Process
The caCORE SDK is comprised of two modules: a “Code Generation Module” which accepts a UML model as input and produces java classes and other artifacts that can be used by standard client APIs to access data; and “Middleware Module” that provides the actual infrastructure and standard client APIs to access the underlying data system thru n-tier architecture.
- Consistent UML representation of the data – Users of the caCORE SDK are required to represent their data management framework in UML format. The same UML model is used further downstream by tools for semantic integration and registering metadata
- Rapid data service generation – The SDK can generate caBIG silver-level compatible system quickly from the UML model. Once the UML model and the database are ready, the data service can be generated in a matter of hours. Manually building the application from the ground up can take several months to achieve the same functionality.
- Uniform way to access data – SDK-generated systems provide uniform access to the data stores through standard client APIs that use the UML domain model. So, a single client application can be written to access multiple SDK generated systems easily.
- Query using information model – SDK-generated systems use Query by Example format which allow for easy programmatic access of systems using standard client APIs and traversal of the UML model.
- Integration with caGrid – SDK generated systems can be easily integrated with the caGrid using Introduce Toolkit without requiring any additional code.
NCICBIIT provides access to the caCORE SDK at our public GForge site. The distribution contains the major components of the SDK, Developers Guide and Release Notes as well as most of the additional software required to utilize the toolkit. Download caCORE SDK 
The other required software tools not supplied is listed in the table below. Users are required to download and install the required software prior to running the caCORE SDK
†Only one is required.
Table: Minimal software requirements
NCICBIIT maintains the following mailing lists as discussion forums with caCORE users and developers:
NCICBIIT encourages you to submit questions and bug reports via NCICB Application Support.
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