title: The Ensembl Web site: mechanics of a genome browser.
abstract: The Ensembl Web site (http://www.ensembl.org/) is the principal user interface to the data of the Ensembl project, and currently serves >500,000 pages (approximately 2.5 million hits) per week, providing access to >80 GB (gigabyte) of data to users in more than 80 countries. Built atop an open-source platform comprising Apache/mod_perl and the MySQL relational database management system, it is modular, extensible, and freely available. It is being actively reused and extended in several different projects, and has been downloaded and installed in companies and academic institutions worldwide. Here, we describe some of the technical features of the site, with particular reference to its dynamic configuration that enables it to handle disparate data from multiple species.
authors.affiliation: The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK. JWS@sanger.ac.uk
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stalker
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gibbins
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meidl
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Spooner
authors.forename: Hans-Rudolf
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Hotz
authors.forename: Antony V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D030541:Databases, Genetic / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D051379:Mice; D012984:Software / Q000639:trends*