Data analysis by traditional methods is done by a researcher using several tools often available through the Internet. However, the user faces data conversion, copy-paste, or interactive waiting time issues when accessing diverse web sites. Additionally, the sequence of events or analysis tools might require repetitive tasks. This leads to the idea of automated "workflows" that could be reused by other researchers. This requires adaptation both for the service provider and the end-user.

A current trend on the side of service providers is to use Web Services technologies to achieve the aim of easy data exchange. In particular, this technology provides standardization and programmatic access to databases and tools allowing for automated design of analysis pipelines.

This course emphasizes the use of Web Services in order to build biological analysis pipelines (i.e., Bioinformatics workflows).

Requirements:
No UNIX or programming skills required.
Basic bioinformatics tools and database knowledge is useful.