developerWorks: Build an LSID Resolution Service Using the Java Language

“The amount of biological data being created today is
mind-boggling. As a biologist or bioinformaticist, you probably
know of places around the network that provide very useful
resources for your task at hand — but remembering the different
ways to access this information is often a productivity drain.
Maybe you write a few Perl scripts or know someone who will provide
you with some code for this or a procedure for that. At this point,
you may be thinking that coming up with a common way of naming and
finding this data is the only way you will be able to remain a
biologist and not a programmer. Of course, the value of having a
common way to identify data extends beyond bioinformatics, but for
this article we will stay within the life sciences.

“The Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) is an I3C Uniform Resource
Name (URN) specification in progress. You can read more about the
specification at the I3C. Conceptually, LSID is a straightforward
approach to naming and identifying data resources stored in
multiple, distributed data stores in a manner that overcomes the
limitations of the naming schemes that are in use today.

“An LSID resolver is a software system that implements an
agreed-upon LSID resolution protocol to allow higher-level software
to locate and access the data uniquely named by any LSID URN. The
‘server’ side of this resolver solution is called an LSID
authority. The client stacks and an example client, the LSID
LaunchPad, are provided by the LSID Resolution Protocol
Project.

“In this article, you’ll see how to create your own LSID
Authority using the LSID resolver stack for the Java
language…”

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