Hacking PubChem - Learning to Speak PUG

A previous article introduced PubChem's Power User Gateway (PUG), an XML-based communication channel. Although NIH kindly supplies a commented schema for PUG queries and responses, there's nothing like seeing real examples when learning a new language. This article will describe one method for conveniently generating PUG XML queries.

Let PubChem Build Your Query

One of the options on the PubChem search page is "Save Query." As it turns out, PubChem saves queries in PUG XML (I'll just call it PUGML). In other words, preparing a query using the PubChem search page and saving it gives a simple method for creating PUGML queries. Let's try it.

Using the "Sketch" button, draw the structure of benzimidazole. Under "Search Type", select "Substructure." Now click "Save Query", and you'll download a substructure query for benzimidazole in PUGML:

<?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
<!DOCTYPE PCT-Data PUBLIC "-//NCBI//NCBI PCTools/EN" "http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug/pug.dtd">
<PCT-Data>
  <PCT-Data_input>
    <PCT-InputData>
      <PCT-InputData_query>
        <PCT-Query>
          <PCT-Query_type>
            <PCT-QueryType>
              <PCT-QueryType_css>
                <PCT-QueryCompoundCS>
                  <PCT-QueryCompoundCS_query>
                    <PCT-QueryCompoundCS_query_data>C1=CC=CC2=C1N=C[N]2</PCT-QueryCompoundCS_query_data>
                  </PCT-QueryCompoundCS_query>
                  <PCT-QueryCompoundCS_type>
                    <PCT-QueryCompoundCS_type_subss>
                      <PCT-CSStructure>
                        <PCT-CSStructure_bonds value="true"/>
                      </PCT-CSStructure>
                    </PCT-QueryCompoundCS_type_subss>
                  </PCT-QueryCompoundCS_type>
                  <PCT-QueryCompoundCS_results>2000000</PCT-QueryCompoundCS_results>
                </PCT-QueryCompoundCS>
              </PCT-QueryType_css>
            </PCT-QueryType>
          </PCT-Query_type>
        </PCT-Query>
      </PCT-InputData_query>
    </PCT-InputData>
  </PCT-Data_input>
</PCT-Data>

The PCT-QueryCompoundCS_type_subss element will tell PUG to look for substructures.

Using the Saved Query with PUG

Saving this file as benzimidazole_sss.xml, lets us feed it to PUG:

curl -d @benzimidazole_sss.xml "http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug/pug.cgi"

and get the following PUGML response:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE PCT-Data PUBLIC "-//NCBI//NCBI PCTools/EN" "http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug/pug.dtd">
<PCT-Data>
  <PCT-Data_output>
    <PCT-OutputData>
      <PCT-OutputData_status>
        <PCT-Status-Message>
          <PCT-Status-Message_status>
            <PCT-Status value="queued"/>
          </PCT-Status-Message_status>
        </PCT-Status-Message>
      </PCT-OutputData_status>
      <PCT-OutputData_output>
        <PCT-OutputData_output_waiting>
          <PCT-Waiting>
            <PCT-Waiting_reqid>62668946396085905</PCT-Waiting_reqid>
            <PCT-Waiting_message>Structure search job was submitted</PCT-Waiting_message>
          </PCT-Waiting>
        </PCT-OutputData_output_waiting>
      </PCT-OutputData_output>
    </PCT-OutputData>
  </PCT-Data_output>
</PCT-Data>

We can then check on the status of our query by saving the following as status.xml:

  
    
      
        
          62668946396085905
          
        
      
    
  

POSTing this to PUG:

curl -d @status.xml "http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug/pug.cgi"

gives us the following PUGML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE PCT-Data PUBLIC "-//NCBI//NCBI PCTools/EN" "http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug/pug.dtd">
<PCT-Data>
  <PCT-Data_output>
    <PCT-OutputData>
      <PCT-OutputData_status>
        <PCT-Status-Message>
          <PCT-Status-Message_status>
            <PCT-Status value="success"/>
          </PCT-Status-Message_status>
          <PCT-Status-Message_message>Your search has already been completed successfully!.</PCT-Status-Message_message>
        </PCT-Status-Message>
      </PCT-OutputData_status>
      <PCT-OutputData_output>
        <PCT-OutputData_output_entrez>
          <PCT-Entrez>
            <PCT-Entrez_db>pccompound</PCT-Entrez_db>
            <PCT-Entrez_query-key>1</PCT-Entrez_query-key>
            <PCT-Entrez_webenv>0CPrI_peUmUtWDooyjxpJ1XAXPcOl-ESZZxj8sJV9ZDR8musMjh1oBTib@1EDD43FA66AE1BE0_0001SID</PCT-Entrez_webenv>
          </PCT-Entrez>
        </PCT-OutputData_output_entrez>
      </PCT-OutputData_output>
    </PCT-OutputData>
  </PCT-Data_output>
</PCT-Data>

[Last time](/articles/2007/06/04/hacking-pubchem-power-user-gateway), we got a URL to download a gzipped SD File. This time, our query specified results to be returned as an Entrez Key through the <code>PCT-Entrez_webenv</code> element. We can construct a URL that will let us view these results:

bash http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=HistorySearch&WebEnvRq=1&db=pccompound&querykey=1&WebEnv=0CPrIpeUmUtWDooyjxpJ1XAXPcOl-ESZZxj8sJV9ZDR8musMjh1oBTib%401EDD43FA66AE1BE0_0001SID ```

Where to Next?

If we wanted to get a gzipped SD File instead, we'd need to edit our original query. But manually editing XML is a lot like mowing a lawn with scissors. What we'd really like is a simple API in a language like Ruby that will let us build sophisticated PUG queries, process the results, and pipe them into other queries with little effort. But that's a story for another time.