BCBB Mobyle Interface Designer (BMID)

Browser-based application for creating Web interfaces for command-line applications

Benefits and Features

  • No manual creation of Mobyle XML files
    • WYSIWYG editor aids in the visualization and design of Web interfaces for your command-line applications without the need to manually edit the XML file
    • Drag-and-drop features allow you to create and organize your XML components
    • Create any number of groups for input parameters without worrying about the size and complexity of the XML file generated
  • Expedite the development of Mobyle-based applications and workflows
    • Reduces time required to create and validate the Mobyle XML file
    • Provides a means of generating new ideas about the command-line options for scripts that are in development
  • Works in all popular browsers
    • Compatible in Internet Expolorer 6+, Firefox 1.5+, and Safari 2.0+
    • Uses Google Web Toolkit to create dynamic and interactive Web features

Access the software.

Overview

Software developers have many command-line applications at their disposal for solving today's bioinformatics problems. However, many bench top researchers are turned away by command-line applications and need an easier interface. To cross this divide and reach a broader number of users, software developers use the Mobyle framework to create Web interfaces. The Mobyle framework allows developers to create Web interfaces for applications developed in the Perl, Python, Shell, C/C++, and Java environments. The popularity of the Mobyle framework has resulted in Web interfaces for more than 150 command-line applications.

In the Mobyle framework, the command-line arguments of applications are mapped to various XML elements. The creation of XML files for a specific application is done manually and becomes tedious if applications have several arguments. Mobyle Interface Designer (BMID) eases this step by providing a Web-based interface to interactively create Mobyle XML files. Bioinformatics developers at NIAID are using BMID to generate Web interfaces for custom scripts and workflows in use by our research scientists.

Access

NIAID provides this software free of charge.

Background

BMID was developed by the NIAID Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Branch.

Content last reviewed on March 20, 2012