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# MIPE - Minimal Information for PCR Experiments #
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The MIPE format enables (or forces) genomics/genetics researchers to store information about PCR experiments in a structured way. This format (defined in the mipe.xsd file) is intended to be used freely by anyone. However, please reference the manuscript mentioned below.

A MIPE compliant file is a XML file that complies to the rules set out in the 'mipe.xsd' file. On unix/linux, this can be checked with the command 'xsdvalid my_file.mipe'.
Make sure to change the path in the 'DOCTYPE' line of the template file and your own MIPE files.

Several scripts are provided to extract data from a MIPE. For documentation, type 'perldoc one_of_the_scripts.pl'.

REFERENCING
Please reference this manuscript:
 Aerts J & Veenendaal T. MIPE - a XML-format to facilitate the storage and exchange of PCR-related data. Online Journal of Bioinformatics 6(2): 114-120 (2005).

INSTALLATION
Thanks to Steffen Moeller, a debian package is available for mipe. You'd probably want to search Google for 'mipe debian'.

Basically, nothing has to be installed. If you want, you can print out the mipe.xsd file and write flat-text files that comply to the criteria in the xsd file, maybe using the template.mipe file. For more information on how the rules in the xsd file should be read, search Google for 'XML XSD'.

Several scripts are provided that make it easy to insert/extract data from a MIPE file. These have only been tested on a linux system. Make sure the MIPE file is really MIPE compliant (e.g. no spelling errors in tags or unknown/missing elements) before running them. To check this on a linux system, type "xsdvalid your_file.mipe".

Feel free to let me know when you use this format (aerts at users.sourceforge.net).
Jan Aerts
