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Proxy download service

Anyone can use the Tranche download proxy to perform downloads. This process can be done by an individual, though it is intended to be used by an application.

Before introducing the complete process, note the process may involve two or three steps. If the resource is cached and immediately available, you (or your application) will skip step two below. (Our proxy server will cache commonly requested projects.) The entire process is just a simple communication between you (or your application) and the server.

Process details

Note that some_long represents a signed 8 byte (64-bit) value. Note, only positive values are used. (0 through 2^63-1)

Here's the exact process for using the download proxy:

1. Tell the server which hash you want, receive a reponse id
• To offer the server the hash, simply provide the Base 16 or 64 hash as an HTTP request: http://www.proteomecommons.org/data/download/?hash=[HASH]
• For example, try out http://www.proteomecommons.org/data/download/?hash=M8IIphZ10aSKil1kd9CRZLHcCzPpsCXKd2npxGboyibBfCZFhnr617CpFSSXMjSVmUkxQUEC8A9PVDiDlT+vuHGOZnAAAAAAAAAFrw==.
• You may receive a response with a request id, all on one line: (Parse and store the number and move to step 2.):
• REQUEST = some_long
• If the project is available, the response will contain two lines (After parsing and storing the URL, skip to step 3.):
• STATUS = COMPLETE
• URL = http://path/to/resource
• It is highly unlikely, but you should be prepared for an exception message. If you don't get a request ID or status message, your application could present the user with the exception.
2. Use your request id to check up on the progress
• Since this is a proxy service, the server will need to download the project before it is available. However, the server may have the project already cached!
• To check on the progress, simply provide the id as an HTTP request: http://www.proteomecommons.org/data/download/update.jsp?request=some_long
• The response depends on the status of the download:
• If complete, the respones will have two lines. (Once you have a complete status, parse and store the URL and move to step 3.)
• STATUS = COMPLETE
• URL = http://path/to/resource
• If still obtaining project, the response will have three lines (Your application will need to repeat this step until it receives a COMPLETE messgae; the information below can be used to display a progress bar):
• STATUS = INCOMPLETE
• DATA TO DOWNLOAD = some_long
• DATA DOWNLOADED = some_long
• If there is a problem, the response will have three lines:
• STATUS = FAILED
• EXCEPTION: some_exception message
• HASH: the_hash_for_the_request
3. Download the project at the provided URL from step 1 or 2.

Any interested developer (the service is open to the public, so anyone can write code to use this!) would find it useful to try this activity a few times in a browser. The code required to use this service should be fairly simple.

Simple use case

Say you offer visualization software written in a language of your choice, such as C++, Java, Python, Ruby, etc. You want to offer users the opportunity to share their data seemlessly, as well as offer visualizations from submitted data.

You could use our proxy upload service to upload projects to the Tranche network, and your system could record appropriate projects. The system could then use recorded modules to construct URLs to download the data, and create a fairly simple pipeline without bothering with obtaining storage space or dealing with complex protocols!

Note that if you with to collaborate with us, please contact us at proteomecommons-tranche-users@googlegroups.com. We will do our best to help you, as we are always interested in collaborations.