Run from Python

To run applications from Python, install the latest pybiolib Python package:

pip3 install --upgrade pybiolib

Login

To log in with your BioLib account in a Python notebook run the code below and follow the instructions shown:

import biolib
biolib.login()

Alternatively, you can use an API token and set it as the BIOLIB_TOKEN environment variable. To create an API token click here.

Run using .cli()

To load an application into your Python script, add the following:

import biolib
app = biolib.load('author/application')

To run an application call the function .cli() on the application you loaded above. For instance, to run samtools with the --help command:

import biolib

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
job = samtools.cli(args='--help')
print(job.get_stdout().decode())

Running an application returns a job object, which allows you to monitor progress and save results. Read more about jobs here.

Non blocking

By default, calling the function .cli() blocks until the application is finished. You can pass the keyword argument blocking=False to return immediately. For example the code below will print "in_progress".

import biolib

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
job = samtools.cli(args='--help', blocking=False)
print(job.get_status())

Result prefix

You can annotate the result with a custom name when calling .cli() using the keyword argument result_prefix as:

import biolib

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
job = samtools.cli(args='--help', result_prefix='my_help_test')

Setting the result prefix makes it easy to distinguish results from one another on the result page here.

Run using .run()

The .run() function is a more Pythonic way to run applications where all keyword arguments are passed to the application as command line arguments. This function blocks and waits until the application is finished.

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
job = samtools.run()

Run using .start()

The .start() function is a more Pythonic way to run applications where all keyword arguments are passed to the application as command line arguments. This function returns immediately when the job is created.

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
job = samtools.start()

Search

To search for applications on BioLib use the function biolib.search() which takes a search query as the first argument:

app_list = biolib.search('samtools')
print(app_list)

Should print something like below:

['samtools/samtools',
 'samtools/samtools-fixmate',
 'samtools/samtools-stats',
 'samtools/samtools-collate',
 'samtools/samtools-fastq',
...

To run a specific application you can pass a value from the list above to biolib.load() and the call app.cli():

app = biolib.load(app_list[0])
job = app.cli('--help')

Results

When a job has completed, its outputs can be accessed by the following functions:

job.wait()          # Wait until done
job.get_stdout()    # Returns stdout as bytes
job.get_stderr()    # Returns stderr as bytes
job.get_exit_code() # Returns exit code of the application as an integer

Save files to disk

To save the output files to a local directory like "result_files" run:

job.save_files(output_dir='result_files')

The .save_files() function also takes an optional path_filter argument as a glob pattern. For example to save all .pdb files from a result you can run:

job.save_files(output_dir='result_files', path_filter='*.pdb')

In memory files

Work with result files without saving them to disk. To list the output files from a job:

job.list_output_files()

To load a single file into memory, without saving it to disk, run:

my_csv_file = job.get_output_file('/my_file.csv')

To pass an output file to a library like Pandas or BioPython, run .get_file_handle() on the object:

import pandas as pd
my_dataframe = pd.read_csv(my_csv_file.get_file_handle())

Jobs

A job object refers to a specific run of an application. It holds progress information of the application run and the result when the job has completed.

List jobs

When signed in, you can print a table of your jobs by running:

biolib.show_jobs(count=25)

where count refers to the number of jobs you want to show.

Retrieve a job

To retrieve a Job in python call biolib.get_job() with the Job's ID. You can find its ID on the job overview page here.

job = biolib.get_job(job_id)

The biolib.get_job() function returns a job object on which you can call get_status() like below to print the status:

print(job.get_status())

You can use this to determine if a job has completed or is still in progress.

Open in browser

You can open the job in your web browser to view the graphical and interactive output files.

job.open_browser()

Stream output

If your Job is still running you can attach to its stdout and stderr by running:

job.stream_logs()

This will print current output and keep streaming stdout and stderr until the job has finished.

Download output files

You can download job output files using the job ID. The job ID can be found under "Details" on the Results page, or in the share link

job_id = '1a234567-b89...'
job = biolib.get_job(job_id)
job.save_files('job_output/')

Download input files

To download the input files of a job:

job_id = '1a234567-b89...'
job = biolib.get_job(job_id)
job.save_input_files(output_dir='input_files')

Start jobs in parallel

Use the blocking=False argument to cli() on an application to get the job immediately without having to wait for the application to finish.

This feature allows for parallelized workflows as the one below:

samtools = biolib.load('samtools/samtools')
my_fasta_files = ['seq1.fasta', 'seq2.fasta']

my_jobs = []
for file in my_fasta_files:
    job = samtools.cli(file, blocking=False)
    my_jobs.append(job)

Experiments

An Experiment is a collection of jobs that you can retrieve together. To group the jobs in an Experiment use the following syntax:

with biolib.Experiment('my-experiment-name'):
    my_application.cli(input_1) # these two jobs will be
    my_application.cli(input_2) # grouped in the same Experiment

All jobs started under the with statement will be grouped under the Experiment's ID (in this case my-experiment-name).

List experiments

When logged in, you can print a table of your experiments by running:

biolib.show_experiments(count=10)

where count refers to the number of experiments you want to show.

Retrieve an experiment

To load an Experiment in Python, run the following:

my_experiment = biolib.get_experiment('my-experiment-name')
print(my_experiment)

Wait for all jobs

To block and wait until all jobs of an experiments has finished, use the .wait() function:

my_experiment.wait()

Retrieve jobs

To get a list of the Job objects contained in an Experiment, run:

my_jobs = my_experiment.get_jobs()

You can interact with the list of Job objects in the following way:

for job in my_jobs:
    # Print output
    if job.get_status() == 'completed':
        print(job.get_stdout())
    else:
        job.stream_logs()

    # Save output files
    job.save_files('my_results')

List jobs

To show an overview of the jobs in your experiment run:

my_experiment.show_jobs()

This prints a table of the jobs contained in your experiment.

Mount files

Using .mount_files() you can mount all jobs of the experiment and their output files to a local directory. This allows you to explore all the files in the experiment using the file browser of your system.

my_experiment.mount_files(mount_path='my_local_directory')