[ensembl-dev] relationship between api and database release

[Andreas Kahari]

hi Andrea,

Here's the very short answers to your questions.  See other's replies
for longer answers.

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 06:45:39PM +0000, Andrea Edwards wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I don't fully understand how the perl api is related to different
> releases of the ensembl database.

The API is release at the same time as the databases and web site are
released.

> Is it correct that if I want to use, for example, release 59 of the
> database then I need to use release 59 of the perl API?

Yes.  If you don't, you may still be lucky (see below).

> If so, how can I find past versions of the api. I looked on the ftp
> site and could only find the database releases and not the api
> releases. I need to use release 58 of the database but I currently
> have release 59 of the perl API and a local copy of the version 59
> database.

Check out the correct CVS branch, e.g., "branch-ensembl-58" for Ensembl
release 58.

> If i was using version 59 of the perl api to make remote database
> calls, would the api automatically query version 59 of the database?

Yes.

> What would happen if i was using version 59 of the perl api against
> a local database installation of say version 57?

Depending on what parts of the API you were using, it may work.  Between
release 57 and 58 we had no schema patches.  Between release 58 and 59
we changed a field in the splicing_event table and the API changed to
reflect this.  So if you're looking at splicing events, the code will
break.

> 
> Is there a Java version of the Perl API? Does it have equivalent
> functionality?

No, not that we release or maintain.

> 
> Thanks for your help


Cheers,
Andreas


-- 
Andreas Kähäri, Ensembl Software Developer
European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus
Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom