Bioinformatics applications discovery and composition with the mobyle suite and mobylenet

Given the sheer number of existing analysis tools and data sources, defining and running bioinformatics analyses is often challenging. We present here the Mobyle framework, a web-based environment to access such resources. It enables the use of local and remote bioinformatics services, seamlessly integrated within a homogeneous and web-accessible environment that focuses on usability. This framework offers the possibility of integrating a wide range of services that span from the traditional server-side command-line based programs to workflows and client-based visualization tools. By abstracting whenever possible the user from the details of syntactic compatibility and providing multiple classification tools, Mobyle provides an efficient web-based solution to run and chain bioinformatics analyses. The MobyleNet project promotes an organization that federates a network of small resources that shares its expertise within a community that spans various complementary domains of bioinformatics. Its most tangible expected result is the integration of the bioinformatics tools of the different nodes, providing interoperability, user assistance and quality management between its members.