Developer Resources

LabKey Server is broadly API-enabled, giving developers rich tools for building custom applications on the Labkey Server platform. Client libraries make it easy to read/write data to the server using familiar languages such as Java, JavaScript, SAS, Python, Perl, or R. Developers can use other languages (such as PHP) to interact with a LabKey Server through HTTP requests; however, usage of client libraries is recommended.

Stack diagram for the LabKey Server Platform:

Client API Applications

Create applications by adding API-enhanced content (such as JavaScript) to wiki or HTML pages in the file system. Application features can include custom reports, SQL query views, HTML views, R views, charts, folder types, assay definitions, and more.

• LabKey Client APIs - Write simple customization scripts or sophisticated integrated applications for LabKey Server.
• Tutorial: JavaScript/HTML Application - Create an application to manage reagent requests, including web-based request form, confirmation page, and summary report for managers. Reads and write to the database.
• Tutorial: JavaScript Chart APIs - Select data from the database and render as a chart using the JavaScript API.

Scripting and Reporting

LabKey Server also includes 'hooks' for using scripts to validate and manipulate data during import, and allows developers to build reports that show data within the web user interface

• Assay transformation scripts (which operate on the full file) can be written in virtually any language.
• Trigger scripts which operate at the row-level, are written in JavaScript and supported for most data types.
• Using R scripts, you can produce visualizations and other analysis on the fly, showing the result to the user in the web interface.
• Pipeline support for script sequences: Script Pipeline: Running Scripts in Sequence.

Module Applications

Developers can create larger features by encapsulating them in modules

• Modules: Query, Views, Reports - Create a module with multiple resources: SQL queries, R reports, HTML views, etc.
• Module-based Assay - Create custom assay types and interfaces.
• Develop Modules - Package your custom code as a portable module.

LabKey Server Open Source Project

• Set Up a Dev Machine - Set up a machine to build LabKey Server from source.
• Common Dev Tasks - Often performed development tasks and application building blocks.
• LabKey Open Source Project - An overview of the improvement process for LabKey Server and how you can contribute.