GIVE: toward portable genome browsers for personal websites

Growing popularity and diversity of genomic data demands portable and versatile genome browsers. Here, we present an open source programming library, called GIVE that facilitates creation of personalized genome browsers without requiring a system administrator. By inserting HTML tags, one can add to a personal webpage interactive visualization of multiple types of genomics data, including genome annotation, \"linear\" quantitative data (wiggle), and genome interaction data. GIVE includes a graphical interface called HUG (HTML Universal Generator) that automatically generates HTML code for displaying user chosen data, which can be copy-pasted into users personal website or saved and shared with collaborators. The simplicity of use was enabled by encapsulation of novel data communication and visualization technologies, including new data structures, a memory management method, and a double layer display method. GIVE is available at: http://www.givengine.org/.