If you’re a molecular modeler, you’ve likely faced the frustration of needing highly specific tools and workflows precisely tailored to your needs. What if you could extend the power of an already versatile molecular design platform, like SAMSON, with features designed by you? Good news: SAMSON allows you to develop your own apps! This flexibility makes it a fantastic choice for researchers and developers eager to push the boundaries of molecular modeling.
Apps within SAMSON provide a wide range of functionalities—anything from connecting to external software or web services to completely new innovations based on the SAMSON API. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the basics of how you can get started developing your personalized SAMSON Apps and extending its capabilities to fit your unique requirements.
Why Should You Develop Your Own Apps?
The ability to design and implement your own tools within SAMSON opens up substantial possibilities. Imagine automating tedious modeling workflows, integrating third-party algorithms, or experimenting with novel computational methods directly within a unified platform. Whether you want to enhance data processing workflows or embed external software pipelines, a custom app is often the answer. And since SAMSON Extensions are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing tools, all the hard work of compatibility is already handled for you!
How to Start Developing Apps in SAMSON
SAMSON provides a centralized documentation center to help you kick off your app development journey. Here’s a straightforward approach to getting started:
- Learn about the SAMSON API: The API is at the core of app development. It allows you to access and manipulate molecular data or create visualizations in SAMSON. Comprehensive documentation is available to guide you through its use.
- Use SAMSON’s Extension Generator: The Extension Generator is a step-by-step tool to quickly scaffold new apps or SAMSON Extensions (including apps, editors, wizards, etc.). This simplifies setting up the required structure, saving you valuable time.
- Combine external tools and functionalities with SAMSON: Many researchers have previously developed algorithms or tools they’d like to reuse within SAMSON. This is possible! SAMSON apps can act as wrappers for external code or link with third-party services, seamlessly integrating them into SAMSON workflows.
- Test and Debug: SAMSON provides a variety of tools for testing, visualizing results, and ensuring your app works as expected.
Documentation Resources
Creating a custom app might feel a bit daunting at first, but SAMSON’s extensive resources streamline the learning curve. You can study the platform’s robust documentation for detailed guidance on generating extensions and writing apps tailored to your needs. The following links will serve as critical starting points:
Inspiration for Your First App
To help you get started, consider these examples:
- Create visualizations for specific molecular properties important to your research.
- Build a tool to automate dataset pre-processing before simulation.
- Integrate a docking service, such as AutoDock, directly into SAMSON workflows.
The possibilities are vast, limited only by your imagination and project requirements!
Conclusion
With SAMSON’s comprehensive API, extension generation tools, and helpful documentation, developing custom apps becomes an achievable task for researchers aiming to tailor molecular modeling workflows to their specific needs.
To learn more about working with SAMSON apps or start creating your own, visit the full documentation at https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/apps/.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.