WebGBrowse - A Web Server for GBrowse Configuration Made Easy

The Generic Genome Browser (GBrowse) is one of the most widely used visualization tools for sequence display characterized by a rich set of utilities helpful in presenting a variety of genome features pertaining to a reference sequence. Despite the tool being meant for easy use by the biologists, the administration of GBrowse can become tedious particularly for those without adequate computational resources. Moreover, there is no exhaustive, accurate, "GBrowse user's perspective" based reference available for the various glyphs useful in building the feature tracks on GBrowse, thus adding to the complexities involved in configuration.

WebGBrowse guides the users through the process of configuring the GFF3 datasets for GBrowse display. It presents the user with a "Glyph Library" comprising of around 40 different glyphs to choose from. It generates the configuration data by collecting the user's input through an organized, step-by-step process guided by the configurable parameter information available in the glyph library. A summary information on all the available glyphs can be viewed at the glyph library page. A pre-installed GBrowse instance allows the users to preview/load their datasets with desired configuration in GBrowse without requiring them to prepare any computer hardware, install any software or learn sophisticated GBrowse configuration rules for feature display. In other words, WebGBrowse addresses most of the intricacies involved in GBrowse administration, so that even a computer non-savvy biologist can configure his GFF dataset without worrying about GBrowse software installation or GBrowse configuration semantics.

If you are new to GBrowse, the best place to start would be the WebGBrowse tutorial. It provides a sample dataset (derived from the GBrowse administration tutorial from the GMOD website) along with a set of easy to follow instructions to generate a GBrowse display. The GBrowse display gives you a provision to make any additional modifications to the configuration settings you think necessary. You can optionally provide your email address at the time of the GFF data submission. When the email address is available, WebGBrowse allows you to save your progress so that you can return to continue further configuration at a later time. It also keeps track of all the previously submitted datasets associated with a given email address.

WebGBrowse can be accessed from our server at http://webgbrowse.cgb.indiana.edu or it can be installed locally. For the installation instructions, please refer to the software page. Answers to most of the frequently asked questions are available at the FAQ page. You may also contact biohelp@cgb.indiana.edu for any help or suggestions.