Deliver Searchable Genomic, Genetic and Related Data Online Using Tripal

Tripal is an open-source software package designed to assist research communities or individuals build online “research databases” that publish genomics, genetics and related biological data in a searchable web interface (http://tripal.info).  Additionally, Tripal is intended to decrease cost-of-ownership related to development of such sites. Biological data is housed using the GMOD Chado database schema and content is delivered and managed using the Drupal Content Management System (CMS).  Tripal is already in use by several research communities that spans both plants and animals.   By default, site developers are provided with content pages (e.g. gene pages), data loaders (e.g. GFF, FASTA, OBO, GAF and support for tab-delimited files), and simple search tools (e.g. genomic features, publications, etc.).  Because Tripal uses Drupal, all pages are customizable either through a graphical user interface, or for more advanced changes, via an Application Program Interface (API).  Each site is able to tailor data delivery for the community served.  An active community of developers from around the world uses the API to develop new tools and infrastructure which in turn are shared by others. Development of Tripal v3 is currently funded and ongoing, and once completed will allow for integration of non-Chado data stores (e.g. no-SQL options), and will make use of Semantic Web technologies to foster data exchange between Tripal sites, and other applications via linked data markup and RESTful web services.