Beacon testing

[SergiAguilo]

Hi,

I'm currently testing the Fiab and I would like to have guidance on how to verify that the Beacon is working correctly. Specifically, I'd to know which API calls are required to confirm that Beacon is functioning as expected, and how to do queries. Also, the location of its configuration file, so I can change its metadata.

I assume that Beacon retrieves data from the CDE dataset in GraphDB, so I believe the first step is to populate the CDE database with my CARE-SM data. Is that right?

Thank you,

Sergi

[markwilkinson]

The full documentation for the FiaB beacon is here: https://github.com/CARE-SM/beaconAPI4CARESM

The only configuration file, per se, is the docker compose itself, which works "out of the box" with the default parameters set during installation. During FiaB installation you were asked to select a port for Beacon, and that is automatically added to the docker-compose file that is created for you at the end of installation. Activating Beacon requires you to set the URL_SERVER parameter to wherever you plan to serve Beacon from. That URL is the only thing I cannot predict at install-time, with any certainty, because you will likely be SSH proxying calls to that endpoint, and every set-up will be unique, so I don't try to predict it (and also, it is probably safer to not activate Beacon automatically without the user knowing about it)

In principle, if you call GET on the beacon endpoint, and you get a response (i.e. any JSON, but probably a generic {"detail":"Method Not Allowed"} that means it is working. If you call: http://111.222.333.444:PORT (http, not https, the IP address of your server, and the port that you selected at install time) you should see that message. Beyond that, all API calls are defined by the Beacon API, so I would refer you to the GA4GH documentation (though there are examples of calls in the github link above).

I hope that helps!