Brapi Implementation
The Breeding Application Programming Interface (BrAPI) defines standard data objects and methods for exchanging breeding data. This specification lends itself for a wide range of use cases including the transfer of phenotypic information from mobile data collection applications into Breedbase and the transfer of genotypic data from Breedbase into visualization software such as Flapjack. BrAPI enables a streamlined experience for a researcher by cutting out any manual data transfer steps and increases efficiency and integrity of analyses.
The aforementioned Android applications of Fieldbook, Intercross, and Inventory should all interface directly with Breedbase via BrAPI, allowing for example, a researcher to query field layout and observation variables from Breedbase into Fieldbook, collect phenotypic measurements using FIeldbook, and then upload the phenotypic measurements into Breedbase.
Desktop applications for analysis such as Flapjack or Helium should be able to query genotypic and pedigree information from Breedbase via BrAPI. Web-applications are the most obvious application for interfacing with Breedbase via BrAPI; for example, Breedbase could interface with other database systems to compare and enrich the data within Breedbase. To accelerate adoption of BrAPI, several BrAPI applications (BrAPPs) have been written; these BrAPPs are standalone JavaScript applications that can be embedded in any web service and they provide a user interface for accessing, analyzing, and displaying information from BrAPI enabled databases such as Breedbase.
