The XNAT Ecosystem

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The XNAT Ecosystem Daniel Marcus1*, Rick Herrick1, Timothy Olsen2, William Horton1 and Alan Sheu3 1 Washington University in St. Louis, United States 2 Deck5 Consulting, United States 3 Integrity, United States The XNAT imaging informatics platform is widely used to manage a variety of neuroimaging research, from internal research programs to large-scale data sharing initiatives. While XNAT has been open source since its inception and developers from around the world have contributed to its features, the number of contributions has been limited due to the scale and complexity of the XNAT code base. However, with the inclusion in recent releases of XNAT of an open application programming interface (API) based on the REST web services model, many more developers are developing tools that interact with XNAT through the API without needing to learn XNAT's internal code. Examples include pyXNAT, a python library for exchanging data with XNAT; Connectome Workbench, a visualization and analysis platform for structural and functional MRI data; and 3D Slicer, an advanced medical image visualization suite; and LONI Pipeline, a GUI-based application for executing and managing automated processing streams. A variety of additional tools are currently in development. The most recent version of XNAT includes a plugin architecture that enables developers to build new capabilities directly in XNAT with minimal interfacing in the core code. Modules can include visual components as well java code and extensions to the XNAT REST API. As an example, our lab has produced a module that enables users to pull XNAT metadata into iCal calendar feeds. These feeds can be used to assist study monitoring by integrating views of data in scheduling systems (e.g. Google calendar) by the date and time of acquisition in an integrated view with scheduling. To assist in dissemination of XNAT related software, we have developed a sharing resource called XNAT Marketplace (https://marketplace.xnat.org) where developers can contribute and share modules, scripts, and other tools along with documentation. XNAT Marketplace interface and features were designed following patterns established by similar software dissemination sites such as Firefox Add-ons (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/). Marketplace includes categories, featured plug-ins, a search interface, a tool upload interface, and tool versioning. Together, the API, XNAT plugins, external tools that interact with XNAT, and the XNAT marketplace make up an ecosystem of informatics tools and applications that enable new capabilities in neuroimaging research. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) (U24 GM104203), the National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NAMIC) (U54 EB005149), and XNAT (R01 EB009352). Keywords: XNAT, data sharing, open source, plugins, database Conference: Neuroinformatics 2013, Stockholm, Sweden, 27 Aug - 29 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Neuroimaging Citation: Marcus D, Herrick R, Olsen T, Horton W and Sheu A (2013). The XNAT Ecosystem. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2013. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2013.09.00102 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Apr 2013; Published Online: 11 Jul 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Daniel Marcus, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States, dmarcus@wustl.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Daniel Marcus Rick Herrick Timothy Olsen William Horton Alan Sheu Google Daniel Marcus Rick Herrick Timothy Olsen William Horton Alan Sheu Google Scholar Daniel Marcus Rick Herrick Timothy Olsen William Horton Alan Sheu PubMed Daniel Marcus Rick Herrick Timothy Olsen William Horton Alan Sheu Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.