GA4GH SchemaBlocks {S}[B] Community¶

The website of the GA4GH SchemaBlocks Community ({S}[B]) represents information about data schema components with consensus support from GA4GH members. The documents should not be considered "authoritative GA4GH recommendations" but rather represent community-provide documentation and implementation examples. For more information on GA4GH, please visit the GA4GH Website.

Non-authorative documentation

At this time the documents should not be considered "authoritative GA4GH recommendations" and are not managed through the GA4GH TASC team. They rather represent prototype documentation and implementation examples contributed by GA4GH members. For more information on GA4GH, please visit the GA4GH Website.

Mission Statement¶

SchemaBlocks aims to translate the work of the workstreams into data models that:

Are usable by other internal GA4GH deliverables, such as the Beacon API.
Are usable by Driver Projects as an exchange format.
Aid in aligning the work streams across GA4GH.
Do not create a hindrance in development work by other work streams.

{S}[B] Status Levels¶

SchemaBlocks schemas ("blocks") provide blueprints for consensus schemas which help with the development of code based "products" throughout the GA4GH ecosystem. We use a labeling system for those schemas, to provide transparency about the level of support those schemas have from {S}[B] participants and observers[^1].

core
- a schema block with recommended use
- stable through minor version changes
- has to be used in at least 2 standards/products approved by the GA4GH Steering Committee
community
- reserved for schemas from GA4GH community contributors which are used in production (i.e. not individual ideas or concepts)
- can serve as use-case based demonstrators and inspire GA44GH project modifications
- the code may undergo considerable maturation
- contributions and discussions are encouraged
playground
- early development or import stage, of any quality
- no recommendation; existence does not mean any current or future {S}[B] support

News and Announcements¶

Site Streamlining

Removal of standards documentation part

Due to the split-off of the GA4GH "best practices" site (now accessible under ga4gh-community-standards.github.io¹) the remnants of the standards & practices documentation have been removed from this {S}[B] site.

The site is also available through genomestandards.org ↩

GA4GH Community Standards Prototype Launch

A New Hope

Based on the widespread interest of more general documentation of best practices at GA4GH Connect April 2023 we're looking into a restart and reframing of previous SchemaBlocks efforts into wider "genomic standards and use practices at GA4GH" concept.

Accordingly, the site has been split into 2 repositories where the direct schema parts are accessible through this ga4gh-schemablocks.github.io site¹ while the documentation of GA4GH "best practices" is now accessible under the ga4gh-community-standards.github.io domain². While only a few recommendations are available there at this time we encourage contributions from GA4GH members.

{S}[B] Site Relaunch

New {S}[B] site goes live

The new {S}[B] today went live under the main schemablocks.org domain. Only a few schemas are available so far but additionally the legacy source links are maintained.

{S}[B] Site Beta Launch

Re-design & Re-focus

After some low-level activity, the SchemaBlocks site has been relaunched with a new design and content concept (still as beta.schemablocks.org as of this date).

New blocks repository: SB-DUO

DUO Data Use Ontology in {S}[B]

Isuru Liyanage and Melanie Courtot have created a first version of an {S}[B] SchemaBlocks representation for the DUO Data Use Ontology standard.

Notes about SchemaBlocks for HCA

At the January 28 call of the Human Cell Atlas, Michael Baudis gave a brief introduction about the SchemaBlocks project and its role in GA4GH.

Links¶

slides (PDF)

SchemaBlocks at GA4GH Boston

Presentations in the Discovery Work Stream Session

At the Discovery work stream session of the 7th GA4GH plenary, several presentations were centered around SchemaBlocks or the use of it as a resource to drive project development.