Bioconductor / caBIG
For general information, please visit the Bioconductor web site. This wiki is for those using or developing R packages as web or caBIG / caGrid services.
RWebServices
RWebServices exposes R packages as web or grid services. The package creates a representation of R data types and methods in Java. The Java representations can then be exposed as standard web services, or incorporated into caGrid introduce projects. Service requests are forwarded to R 'workers' capable of handling requests.
RWebServices depends on the R packages TypeInfo (to annotate function argument and return values with strong type information) and SJava (to translate data and service requests between R and Java), and on Apache activeMQ for distributing service requests to workers.
RWebServices requires R version 2.5 or greater. It currently runs on linux platforms with Java 1.5; these limitations are not meant to be permanent. Further information is available in the RWebServices vignettes.
Exemplars
Three Bioconductor packages have been exposed as caGrid services. These exemplars are outlined on the ExposedFunctionality page.
The ebi-biocep project uses RWebServices to create R / Java mappings, implementing service requests using JRI in rJava and additional Java layers.
The Tobacco Behavioral Informatics Grid is using RWebServices in exploratory development of caGrid statistical analytic services.
Hints
See the Hints page to help address problems you might encounter
Further developer details are available.