NAME

       Bio::DB::NCBIHelper - A collection of routines useful for queries to NCBI databases.

SYNOPSIS

        # Do not use this module directly.

        # get a Bio::DB::NCBIHelper object somehow
        my $seqio = $db->get_Stream_by_acc(['J00522']);
        foreach my $seq ( $seqio->next_seq ) {
            # process seq
        }

DESCRIPTION

       Provides a single place to setup some common methods for querying NCBI web databases.
       This module just centralizes the methods for constructing a URL for querying NCBI GenBank
       and NCBI GenPept and the common HTML stripping done in postprocess_data().

       The base NCBI query URL used is: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi

FEEDBACK

   Mailing Lists
       User feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send
       your comments and suggestions preferably to one of the Bioperl mailing lists. Your
       participation is much appreciated.

         bioperl-l@bioperl.org                  - General discussion
         http://bioperl.org/wiki/Mailing_lists  - About the mailing lists

   Support
       Please direct usage questions or support issues to the mailing list:

       bioperl-l@bioperl.org

       rather than to the module maintainer directly. Many experienced and reponsive experts will
       be able look at the problem and quickly address it. Please include a thorough description
       of the problem with code and data examples if at all possible.

   Reporting Bugs
       Report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track the bugs and their
       resolution.  Bug reports can be submitted via the web.

         https://github.com/bioperl/bioperl-live/issues

AUTHOR - Jason Stajich

       Email jason@bioperl.org

APPENDIX

       The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal methods are
       usually preceded with a _

   new
        Title   : new
        Usage   :
        Function: the new way to make modules a little more lightweight
        Returns :
        Args    :

   get_params
        Title   : get_params
        Usage   : my %params = $self->get_params($mode)
        Function: returns key,value pairs to be passed to NCBI database
                  for either 'batch' or 'single' sequence retrieval method
        Returns : a key,value pair hash
        Args    : 'single' or 'batch' mode for retrieval

   default_format
        Title   : default_format
        Usage   : my $format = $self->default_format
        Function: returns default sequence format for this module
        Returns : string
        Args    : none

   get_request
        Title   : get_request
        Usage   : my $url = $self->get_request
        Function: HTTP::Request
        Returns :
        Args    : %qualifiers = a hash of qualifiers (ids, format, etc)

   get_Stream_by_batch
         Title   : get_Stream_by_batch
         Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_batch($ref);
         Function: Retrieves Seq objects from Entrez 'en masse', rather than one
                   at a time.  For large numbers of sequences, this is far superior
                   than get_Stream_by_id or get_Stream_by_acc.
         Example :
         Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
         Args    : $ref : either an array reference, a filename, or a filehandle
                   from which to get the list of unique ids/accession numbers.

                   NOTE: deprecated API.  Use get_Stream_by_id() instead.

   get_Stream_by_query
         Title   : get_Stream_by_query
         Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_query($query);
         Function: Retrieves Seq objects from Entrez 'en masse', rather than one
                   at a time.  For large numbers of sequences, this is far superior
                   to get_Stream_by_id and get_Stream_by_acc.
         Example :
         Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
         Args    : An Entrez query string or a Bio::DB::Query::GenBank object.
                   It is suggested that you create a Bio::DB::Query::GenBank object and get
                   the entry count before you fetch a potentially large stream.

   postprocess_data
        Title   : postprocess_data
        Usage   : $self->postprocess_data ( 'type' => 'string',
                                                                    'location' => \$datastr );
        Function: Process downloaded data before loading into a Bio::SeqIO. This
                  works for Genbank and Genpept, other classes should override
                  it with their own method.
        Returns : void
        Args    : hash with two keys:

                  'type' can be 'string' or 'file'
                  'location' either file location or string reference containing data

   request_format
        Title   : request_format
        Usage   : my ($req_format, $ioformat) = $self->request_format;
                  $self->request_format("genbank");
                  $self->request_format("fasta");
        Function: Get/Set sequence format retrieval. The get-form will normally not
                  be used outside of this and derived modules.
        Returns : Array of two strings, the first representing the format for
                  retrieval, and the second specifying the corresponding SeqIO format.
        Args    : $format = sequence format

   redirect_refseq
        Title   : redirect_refseq
        Usage   : $db->redirect_refseq(1)
        Function: simple getter/setter which redirects RefSeqs to use Bio::DB::RefSeq
        Returns : Boolean value
        Args    : Boolean value (optional)
        Throws  : 'unparseable output exception'
        Note    : This replaces 'no_redirect' as a more straightforward flag to
                  redirect possible RefSeqs to use Bio::DB::RefSeq (EBI interface)
                  instead of retrieving the NCBI records

   complexity
        Title   : complexity
        Usage   : $db->complexity(3)
        Function: get/set complexity value
        Returns : value from 0-4 indicating level of complexity
        Args    : value from 0-4 (optional); if unset server assumes 1
        Throws  : if arg is not an integer or falls outside of noted range above
        Note    : From efetch docs, the complexity regulates the display:

                  0 - get the whole blob
                  1 - get the bioseq for gi of interest (default in Entrez)
                  2 - get the minimal bioseq-set containing the gi of interest
                  3 - get the minimal nuc-prot containing the gi of interest
                  4 - get the minimal pub-set containing the gi of interest

   strand
        Title   : strand
        Usage   : $db->strand(1)
        Function: get/set strand value
        Returns : strand value if set
        Args    : value of 1 (plus) or 2 (minus); if unset server assumes 1
        Throws  : if arg is not an integer or is not 1 or 2
        Note    : This differs from BioPerl's use of strand: 1 = plus, -1 = minus 0 = not relevant.
                  We should probably add in some functionality to convert over in the future.

   seq_start
        Title   : seq_start
        Usage   : $db->seq_start(123)
        Function: get/set sequence start location
        Returns : sequence start value if set
        Args    : integer; if unset server assumes 1
        Throws  : if arg is not an integer

   seq_stop
        Title   : seq_stop
        Usage   : $db->seq_stop(456)
        Function: get/set sequence stop (end) location
        Returns : sequence stop (end) value if set
        Args    : integer; if unset server assumes 1
        Throws  : if arg is not an integer

   Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI methods
       Overriding WebDBSeqI method to help newbies to retrieve sequences

   get_Stream_by_acc
         Title   : get_Stream_by_acc
         Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Stream_by_acc([$acc1, $acc2]);
         Function: gets a series of Seq objects by accession numbers
         Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
         Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of accession numbers for
                          the desired sequence entries
         Note    : For GenBank, this just calls the same code for get_Stream_by_id()

   _check_id
         Title   : _check_id
         Usage   :
         Function:
         Returns : a Bio::DB::RefSeq reference or throws
         Args    : $id(s), $string

   delay_policy
         Title   : delay_policy
         Usage   : $secs = $self->delay_policy
         Function: NCBI requests a delay of 3 seconds between requests. This method
                   implements that policy.
         Returns : number of seconds to delay
         Args    : none

   cookie
        Title   : cookie
        Usage   : ($cookie,$querynum) = $db->cookie
        Function: return the NCBI query cookie, this information is used by
                  Bio::DB::GenBank in conjunction with efetch, ripped from
                  Bio::DB::Query::GenBank
        Returns : list of (cookie,querynum)
        Args    : none

   _parse_response
        Title   : _parse_response
        Usage   : $db->_parse_response($content)
        Function: parse out response for cookie, this is a trimmed-down version
                  of _parse_response from Bio::DB::Query::GenBank
        Returns : empty
        Args    : none
        Throws  : 'unparseable output exception'

   no_redirect
        Title   : no_redirect
        Usage   : $db->no_redirect($content)
        Function: DEPRECATED - Used to indicate that Bio::DB::GenBank instance retrieves
                  possible RefSeqs from EBI instead; default behavior is now to
                  retrieve directly from NCBI
        Returns : None
        Args    : None
        Throws  : Method is deprecated in favor of positive flag method 'redirect_refseq'