[Open-bio-l] Fwd: [Utilities-announce] NCBI Revised E-utility Usage Policy

[Ewan Birney]

Sorry to perk up here, but I think the right thing is to throw an  
exception
if it's called without a "tool" and "email" parameter. Of course, then  
a client
programmer can abuse this, but they are forced to put something in  
there.


On 24 Mar 2010, at 18:21, Chris Fields wrote:

> Neither the eutils notification nor the new eutils docs make this  
> very clear.  For instance, from reading the documentation, one would  
> only have to register the tool and email once an IP is blocked.   
> However, later on it is indicated that the values supplied must be  
> registered with NCBI or they will be blocked, which (to me at least)  
> reads as if they must be registered regardless.  Which is it?
>
> Also, there is the bit about the tool and email belonging to the  
> software developer or organization, not the end-user, likely for the  
> reasons Hilmar mentions.  Does this mean each tool has one assigned  
> email?  This would then mean we need to either set both and register  
> them just in case, or leave both empty and warn the user.
>
> We have a bit of time to work out the specifics, just hoping NCBI  
> responds (one never knows with them).
>
> chris
>
> On Mar 24, 2010, at 11:24 AM, Andy Jenkinson wrote:
>
>>> From my experience, if you set a default value for something and  
>>> there is very little advantage to changing it, people will rarely  
>>> bother to do so.
>>
>> The library developer's email address is not very useful for NCBI,  
>> who I assume wish to use it to contact whoever is consuming their  
>> resources. Being able to contact the Bio* developer doesn't really  
>> allow them to do this. The Bio* mailing list would be an option  
>> because there is at least some chance the app developer will get  
>> the email, but on balance I think it'd be better to incentivise  
>> people to change it themselves.
>>
>> So I would say: leave it blank and give a warning.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Andy
>>
>> On 24 Mar 2010, at 14:08, Peter wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> This is probably of interest to all the Bio* projects offering  
>>> access
>>> to the NCBI
>>> Entrez utilities. See forwarded message below.
>>>
>>> I *think* the new guidelines basically say that the email & tool  
>>> parameters are
>>> optional BUT if your IP address ever gets banned for excessive use  
>>> you then
>>> have to register an email & tool combination.
>>>
>>> Regarding the email address, the NCBI say to use the email of the  
>>> developer
>>> (not the end user). However, they do not distinguish between the  
>>> developers
>>> of a library (like us), and the developers of an application or  
>>> script using a
>>> library (who may also be the end user).
>>>
>>> Currently we (Biopython) and I think BioPerl ask developers using  
>>> our libraries
>>> to populate the email address themselves. I *think* this is still  
>>> the
>>> right action.
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From:  <utilities-announce at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>
>>> Date: Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 1:53 PM
>>> Subject: [Utilities-announce] NCBI Revised E-utility Usage Policy
>>> To: NLM/NCBI List utilities-announce <utilities-announce at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> New E-utility documentation now on the NCBI Bookshelf
>>>
>>> The Entrez Programming Utilities (E-Utilities) Help documentation  
>>> has
>>> been added to the NCBI Bookshelf, and so is now fully integrated  
>>> with
>>> the Entrez search and retrieval system as a part of the Bookshelf
>>> database. This help document has been divided into chapters for  
>>> better
>>> organization and includes several new sample Perl scripts. At  
>>> present
>>> this book covers the standard URL interface for the E-utilties;
>>> material about the SOAP interface will be added soon and is still
>>> available at the same URL:
>>> http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/eutils_help.html.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Revised E-utility usage policy
>>>
>>> In December, 2009 NCBI announced a change to the usage policy for  
>>> the
>>> E-utilities that would require all requests to contain non-null  
>>> values
>>> for both the &email and &tool parameters. After several  
>>> consultations
>>> with our users and developers, we have decided to revise this policy
>>> change, and the revised policy is described in detail at the  
>>> following
>>> link:
>>>
>>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=helpeutils&part=chapter2#chapter2.Usage_Guidelines_and_Requiremen
>>>
>>> Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this
>>> policy change.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> The E-Utilities Team
>>>
>>> NIH/NLM/NCBI
>>>
>>> eutilities at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Utilities-announce mailing list
>>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mailman/listinfo/utilities-announce
>>> <ATT00001.txt>_______________________________________________
>>> Open-Bio-l mailing list
>>> Open-Bio-l at lists.open-bio.org
>>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/open-bio-l
>>
>>
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