Provide a more standard format for user map archiving

Issue #88 new
Richard Bruskiewich created an issue

At present, saving a map from the Knowledge base stores a text file which is a fusion of a CSV of relations and Cytoscape.js JSON output, separated by comment lines.

There are existing cytoscape/graph map specifications such as SIF, XGMML and XBEL, which should be investigated and perhaps, used. XBEL probably stores literature relations well, while XGMML is a native Cytoscape format (probably close to the JSON format).

Instead of an esoteric CSV / JSON fusion text file, perhaps one (XGMML?) or some combination of the above formats could (should?) be used.

Adoption of such standards should facilitate linkage of Knowledge.Bio with the NDex biological graph repository.

The caveat to this last statement is as documented in NDex:

"...the graphical and layout attributes for XGMML networks and for networks exchanged directly with Cytoscape via the CyNDEx app are not preserved. In these cases, these presentation aspects of the network are not stored in NDEx and are therefore not available when the network is subsequently retrieved or exported..."

At present, the JSON stored by the current Knowledge.Bio dump can be used to reconstitute the Cytoscape.js map layout, which is a plus. Storing and retrieving a user map to Ndex may not conserve this.

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