+Adding metadata to your tracks about cell lines, experimental protocols, or assays can be +accomplished in a number of ways, via the newly supported metadb or metatab +trackDb fields, or via the older style metadata trackDb field. The metadb and +metatab fields link external tagStorm or tabSep metadata files to the data in the hub. The +new formats are preferred over the older metadata field, although the metadata +lines will continue to be supported for track hubs, but no new features will be added as they will +for tagStorm and tabSep files.
+ + +
+Currently, in order to add metadata to your tracks, you must specify all of the metadata key-value
+pairs in each stanza of a track that includes metadata, like the last line of the following example:
+
+ track oneA-1 + bigDataUrl http://genome-test.soe.ucsc.edu/~chmalee/tagStormHubs/test2/bbi/one-a1.bb + parent oneA off + type bigBed 3 + shortLabel oneA-1 + longLabel oneA-1 + color 250,108,0 + visilibility dense + metadata differentiation=10hour treatment=X donor=A lab=UCSC data_set_id=ucscTest1 access=group assay=long-RNA-seq enriched_in=exon life_stage=postpartum species="Homo sapiens" ucsc_db=hg38 ++Each track must have a separate metadata field and its own list of key-values, which can become cumbersome when each track in a group all share a common subset of metadata. For instance, if there are 10 tracks in a composite or multiWig, where each subtrack only differs in the "differentiation" tag, it would be more convenient to have a shared set of metadata and then specify the differences for each track. This is the motivation behind the tagStorm format, described below. + + + +
+The tagStorm format is a plaintext file similar to the trackDb.txt file that describes all of
+the tracks in a track hub, in that both are files where the
+first word in a line is the tag and the rest of the line is the value, and different stanza's are
+line delimited. TagStorm's are also similar to a spreadsheet, where a tag corresponds to a column
+and a stanza to an entire row. Here is a canonical tagStorm example:
+
+lab UCSC +data_set_id ucscTest1 +access group +assay long-RNA-seq +enriched_in exon +life_stage postpartum +species Homo sapiens +ucsc_db hg38 + + treatment X + donor A + + differentiation 10 hour + meta ucsc1_1 + + differentiation 1 day + meta ucsc1_4 + + differentiation 5 days + meta ucsc1_7 + + treatment Y + + donor B + + differentiation 10 hour + meta ucsc1_2 + + differentiation 1 day + meta ucsc1_5 + + differentiation 5 days + meta ucsc1_8 + + donor C + + differentiation 10 hour + meta ucsc1_3 + + differentiation 1 day + meta ucsc1_6 + + differentiation 5 days + meta ucsc1_9 ++
+Each stanza, such as "donor B", inherits from any stanzas above it at the right indentation level, and is a parent to +stanzas beneath.
+ + ++
+ + ++GBiB is free for non-profit academic research and for personal use. Corporate use requires a +license, setup fee and annual payment. To purchase a license or download the GBiB, visit the +Genome Browser store.
+ +