The easiest way to save and share tracks from the URL is by logging in to your Genome Browser account and creating a saved session. Saved sessions are a versatile way to share data that may include native data, Custom Tracks, and Track Hubs.
You will be able to save and share Genome Browser sessions with the following format:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/s/userName/sessionName
Or if you prefer the a modifiable, longer URL; use this format:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?hgS_doOtherUser=submit&hgS_otherUserName=[UserName]&hgS_otherUserSessionName=[SessionName]
For instructions on creating a saved session, go to the Saved Session Help page.
If you want to specify track settings in a URL directly, please read the section on changing track visibility via URL for a complete description. Note that these URL parameters do not work with the shorter session URLs.
You can link to a specific genome assembly and position in the Genome Browser using a URL with
the db= and position= parameters:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=[db]&position=[position]
Where:
db - designates a specific genome assembly. For example, db=hg19
refers to the Feb. 2009 human genome release. For a list of db parameter values that
correspond to UCSC assemblies, see the list of UCSC
releases.position - can be any seach term for the genome specified, including
a position range or a gene identifier. This often takes the form of
position=chr1:35000-40000.The following link is an example of a URL that declares assembly and position:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg19&position=chr1:35000-40000
The hgsid is a temporary user ID that stores setting and custom track information in the URL. Including it in any shared URLs is a privacy concern, and it should be removed when constructing any links to the Genome Browser. Creating Saved Sessions is the recommended way to share Genome Browser information.
You can control the visibility of tracks from the URL with the following parameters, each linked by the "&" sign, similar to position commands. For the full list, please see the optional URL parameters section of the Custom Tracks User's Guide. Note that italic text indicates a user choice, not a working example.
For example, you can use the following command to hide every track and set the knownGene track to the pack visibiblity:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg38&hideTracks=1&knownGene=pack
Composite tracks have additional URL parameters that encode options to hide, select, and display subtracks.
For example, the following URL hides all tracks (&hideTracks=1), hides a specific composite track's default subtracks (&refSeqComposite_hideKids=1), turns on one specific subtrack (&ncbiRefSeqCurated=full), and checks a box to display that subtrack (&ncbiRefSeqCurated_sel=1).
https://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg38&hideTracks=1&refSeqComposite_hideKids=1&ncbiRefSeqCurated=full&ncbiRefSeqCurated_sel=1
+
To jump directly to a gene's position on the Genome Browser, set the position parameter in the
URL to a gene symbol (e.g., TP53, MTOR, KRAS) and add the parameter
&singleSearch=knownCanonical. For example, the following link will open the
Genome Browser for the hg19 human assembly at the position of TP53 on the knownCanonical dataset
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg19&singleSearch=knownCanonical&position=TP53
You can also link directly to gene description pages from the URL. Instead of a position search,
gene descriptions use the &hgg_gene= URL parameter. The following URL connecting
to 'hgGene' will open up the Genome Browser description page containing protein function,
expression profile, and links to additional information for the gene TP53.
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGene?db=hg19&hgg_gene=TP53
You can combine the URL visibility settings with the &hgct_customText= parameter using
a track line you would otherwise put in the custom track
input box. The following is an example of the hgct_customText URL variable, where
"%20" is the URL encoding for spaces:
Try the following example of the hgct_customText URL variable.
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg38&hgct_customText=track%20type=bigBed%20bigDataUrl=https://genome.ucsc.edu/goldenPath/help/examples/bigBedExample.bb
Similar to custom tracks, track hubs can be loaded into the URL using the
&hubUrl= parameter. This parameter takes input similar to the
track hub interface. Try the following example
for reference:
http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?hubUrl=https://genome.ucsc.edu/goldenPath/help/examples/hubDirectory/hub.txt&db=hg19
Hubs track visibility can also be changed from the URL parameters. The following link loads a specific track from a supertrack with multiple composite subtracks.
https://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=hg19&hubUrl=http://hgdownload.soe.ucsc.edu/hubs/gtex/hub.txt&hideTracks=1>exRnaSignalMaleYoung_hideKids=1>exRnaSignalMaleYoung=full>exRnaSignalSRR1311243=full&ignoreCookie=1