NAME

Bio::Seq::SeqBuilder - Configurable object builder for sequence stream parsers

SYNOPSIS

use Bio::SeqIO;

# usually you won't instantiate this yourself - a SeqIO object -
# you will have one already
my $seqin = Bio::SeqIO->new(-fh => \*STDIN, -format => "genbank");
my $builder = $seqin->sequence_builder();

# if you need only sequence, id, and description (e.g. for 
# conversion to FASTA format):
$builder->want_none();
$builder->add_wanted_slot('display_id','desc','seq');

# if you want everything except the sequence and features
$builder->want_all(1); # this is the default if it's untouched
$builder->add_unwanted_slot('seq','features');

# if you want only human sequences shorter than 5kb and skip all
# others
$builder->add_object_condition(sub {
    my $h = shift;
    return 0 if $h->{'-length'} > 5000;
    return 0 if exists($h->{'-species'}) &&
                ($h->{'-species'}->binomial() ne "Homo sapiens");
    return 1;
});

# when you are finished with configuring the builder, just use
# the SeqIO API as you would normally
while(my $seq = $seqin->next_seq()) {
    # do something
}

DESCRIPTION

This is an implementation of Bio::Factory::ObjectBuilderI used by parsers of rich sequence streams. It provides for a relatively easy-to-use configurator of the parsing flow.

Configuring the parsing process may be for you if you need much less information, or much less sequence, than the stream actually contains. Configuration can in both cases speed up the parsing time considerably, because unwanted sections or the rest of unwanted sequences are skipped over by the parser. This configuration could also conserve memory if you're running out of available RAM.

See the methods of the class-specific implementation section for further documentation of what can be configured.

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 the Bioperl mailing list. Your participation is much appreciated.

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

Reporting Bugs

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

http://bugzilla.open-bio.org/

AUTHOR - Hilmar Lapp

Email hlapp at gmx.net

APPENDIX

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

new

Title   : new
Usage   : my $obj = new Bio::Seq::SeqBuilder();
Function: Builds a new Bio::Seq::SeqBuilder object 
Returns : an instance of Bio::Seq::SeqBuilder
Args    :

Methods for implementing Bio::Factory::ObjectBuilderI

want_slot

Title   : want_slot
Usage   :
Function: Whether or not the object builder wants to populate the
          specified slot of the object to be built.

          The slot can be specified either as the name of the
          respective method, or the initialization parameter that
          would be otherwise passed to new() of the object to be
          built.

          Note that usually only the parser will call this
          method. Use add_wanted_slots and add_unwanted_slots for
          configuration.

Example :
Returns : TRUE if the object builder wants to populate the slot, and
          FALSE otherwise.
Args    : the name of the slot (a string)

add_slot_value

Title   : add_slot_value
Usage   :
Function: Adds one or more values to the specified slot of the object
          to be built.

          Naming the slot is the same as for want_slot().

          The object builder may further filter the content to be
          set, or even completely ignore the request.

          If this method reports failure, the caller should not add
          more values to the same slot. In addition, the caller may
          find it appropriate to abandon the object being built
          altogether.

          This implementation will allow the caller to overwrite the
          return value from want_slot(), because the slot is not
          checked against want_slot().

          Note that usually only the parser will call this method,
          but you may call it from anywhere if you know what you are
          doing. A derived class may be used to further manipulate
          the value to be added.

Example :
Returns : TRUE on success, and FALSE otherwise
Args    : the name of the slot (a string)
          parameters determining the value to be set

                OR

          alternatively, a list of slotname/value pairs in the style
          of named parameters as they would be passed to new(), where
          each element at an even index is the parameter (slot) name
          starting with a dash, and each element at an odd index is
          the value of the preceding name.

want_object

Title   : want_object
Usage   :
Function: Whether or not the object builder is still interested in
          continuing with the object being built.

          If this method returns FALSE, the caller should not add any
          more values to slots, or otherwise risks that the builder
          throws an exception. In addition, make_object() is likely
          to return undef after this method returned FALSE.

          Note that usually only the parser will call this
          method. Use add_object_condition for configuration.

Example :
Returns : TRUE if the object builder wants to continue building
          the present object, and FALSE otherwise.
Args    : none

make_object

Title   : make_object
Usage   :
Function: Get the built object.

          This method is allowed to return undef if no value has ever
          been added since the last call to make_object(), or if
          want_object() returned FALSE (or would have returned FALSE)
          before calling this method.

          For an implementation that allows consecutive building of
          objects, a caller must call this method once, and only
          once, between subsequent objects to be built. I.e., a call
          to make_object implies 'end_object.'

Example :
Returns : the object that was built
Args    : none

Implementation specific methods

These methods allow to conveniently configure this sequence object builder as to which slots are desired, and under which circumstances a sequence object should be abandoned altogether. The default mode is want_all(1), which means the builder will report all slots as wanted that the object created by the sequence factory supports.

You can add specific slots you want through add_wanted_slots(). In most cases, you will want to call want_none() before in order to relax zero acceptance through a list of wanted slots.

Alternatively, you can add specific unwanted slots through add_unwanted_slots(). In this case, you will usually want to call want_all(1) before (which is the default if you never touched the builder) to restrict unrestricted acceptance.

I.e., want_all(1) means want all slots except for the unwanted, and want_none() means only those explicitly wanted.

If a slot is in both the unwanted and the wanted list, the following rules hold. In want-all mode, the unwanted list overrules. In want-none mode, the wanted list overrides the unwanted list. If this is confusing to you, just try to avoid having slots at the same time in the wanted and the unwanted lists.

get_wanted_slots

Title   : get_wanted_slots
Usage   : $obj->get_wanted_slots($newval)
Function: Get the list of wanted slots
Example : 
Returns : a list of strings
Args    : 

add_wanted_slot

Title   : add_wanted_slot
Usage   :
Function: Adds the specified slots to the list of wanted slots.
Example :
Returns : TRUE
Args    : an array of slot names (strings)

remove_wanted_slots

Title   : remove_wanted_slots
Usage   :
Function: Removes all wanted slots added previously through
          add_wanted_slots().
Example :
Returns : the previous list of wanted slot names
Args    : none

get_unwanted_slots

Title   : get_unwanted_slots
Usage   : $obj->get_unwanted_slots($newval)
Function: Get the list of unwanted slots.
Example : 
Returns : a list of strings
Args    : none

add_unwanted_slot

Title   : add_unwanted_slot
Usage   :
Function: Adds the specified slots to the list of unwanted slots.
Example :
Returns : TRUE
Args    : an array of slot names (strings)

remove_unwanted_slots

Title   : remove_unwanted_slots
Usage   :
Function: Removes the list of unwanted slots added previously through
          add_unwanted_slots().
Example :
Returns : the previous list of unwanted slot names
Args    : none

want_none

Title   : want_none
Usage   :
Function: Disables all slots. After calling this method, want_slot()
          will return FALSE regardless of slot name.

          This is different from removed_wanted_slots() in that it
          also sets want_all() to FALSE. Note that it also resets the
          list of unwanted slots in order to avoid slots being in
          both lists.

Example :
Returns : TRUE
Args    : none

want_all

Title   : want_all
Usage   : $obj->want_all($newval)
Function: Whether or not this sequence object builder wants to
          populate all slots that the object has. Whether an object
          supports a slot is generally determined by what can()
          returns. You can add additional 'virtual' slots by calling
          add_wanted_slot.

          This will be ON by default. Call $obj->want_none() to
          disable all slots.

Example : 
Returns : TRUE if this builder wants to populate all slots, and
          FALSE otherwise.
Args    : on set, new value (a scalar or undef, optional)

get_object_conditions

Title   : get_object_conditions
Usage   :
Function: Get the list of conditions an object must meet in order to
          be 'wanted.' See want_object() for where this is used.

          Conditions in this implementation are closures (anonymous
          functions) which are passed one parameter, a hash reference
          the keys of which are equal to initialization
          paramaters. The closure must return TRUE to make the object
          'wanted.'

          Conditions will be implicitly ANDed.

Example :
Returns : a list of closures
Args    : none

add_object_condition

Title   : add_object_condition
Usage   :
Function: Adds a condition an object must meet in order to be 'wanted.'
          See want_object() for where this is used.

          Conditions in this implementation must be closures
          (anonymous functions). These will be passed one parameter,
          which is a hash reference with the sequence object
          initialization paramters being the keys.

          Conditions are implicitly ANDed. If you want other
          operators, perform those tests inside of one closure
          instead of multiple.  This will also be more efficient.

Example :
Returns : TRUE
Args    : the list of conditions

remove_object_conditions

Title   : remove_object_conditions
Usage   :
Function: Removes the conditions an object must meet in order to be
          'wanted.'
Example :
Returns : The list of previously set conditions (an array of closures)
Args    : none

Methods to control what type of object is built

sequence_factory

Title   : sequence_factory
Usage   : $obj->sequence_factory($newval)
Function: Get/set the sequence factory to be used by this object
          builder.
Example : 
Returns : the Bio::Factory::SequenceFactoryI implementing object to use
Args    : on set, new value (a Bio::Factory::SequenceFactoryI
          implementing object or undef, optional)