use Bio::DB::SwissProt;

    $sp = new Bio::DB::SwissProt;

    $seq = $sp->get_Seq_by_id('KPY1_ECOLI'); # SwissProt ID
    # <4-letter-identifier>_
    # or ...
    $seq = $sp->get_Seq_by_acc('P43780'); # SwissProt AC      
    # [OPQ]xxxxx

    # In fact in this implementation 
    # these methods call the same webscript so you can use 
    # then interchangeably

    # choose a different server to query
    $sp = new Bio::DB::SwissProt('-servertype' => 'expasy',
				 '-hostlocation' => 'us');

    $seq = $sp->get_Seq_by_id('BOLA_HAEIN'); # SwissProtID

    return $DEFAULTFORMAT;

    my ($self, $ids) = @_;
    return $self->get_Stream_by_id( $ids);

    my ($self, @qualifiers) = @_;
    my ($uids, $format) = $self->_rearrange([qw(UIDS FORMAT)],
					    @qualifiers);

    if( !defined $uids ) {
	$self->throw("Must specify a value for uids to query");
    }
    my ($f,undef) = $self->request_format($format);
    
    my %vars = ( 
		 @{$HOSTS{$self->servertype}->{'basevars'}}, 
		 ( 'format' => $f )
		 );
    
    my $url = $self->location_url;
    
    my $uid;
    my $jointype = $HOSTS{$self->servertype}->{'jointype'} || ' ';
    my $idvar = $HOSTS{$self->servertype}->{'idvar'} || 'id';
    
    if( ref($uids) =~ /ARRAY/i ) {	
	# HTTP::Request automagically converts the ' ' to %20
	$uid = join($jointype, @$uids);	
    } else {
	$uid = $uids;
    }
    $vars{$idvar} = $uid;

    return POST $url,\% vars;

    my ($self, $location ) = @_;
    $location = lc $location;
    my $servertype = $self->servertype;
    $self->throw("Must have a valid servertype defined not $servertype")
	unless defined $servertype; 
    my %hosts = %{$HOSTS{$servertype}->{'hosts'}};
    if( defined $location && $location ne '' ) {
	if( ! $hosts{$location} ) {
	    $self->throw("Must specify a known host, not $location,".
			 " possible values (".
			 join(",", sort keys %hosts ). ")"); 
	}
	$self->{'_hostlocation'} = $location;
    }
    return $self->{'_hostlocation'};

    my ($self) = @_;    
    my $servertype = $self->servertype();
    my $location = $self->hostlocation();

    if( ! defined $location || !defined $servertype )  {	
	$self->throw("must have a valid hostlocation and servertype set before calling location_url");
    }
    return sprintf($HOSTS{$servertype}->{'baseurl'}, 
		   $HOSTS{$servertype}->{'hosts'}->{$location});

    my ($class, @args) = @_;
    my $self = $class->SUPER::new(@args);

    my ($format, $hostlocation,$servertype) = 
	$self->_rearrange([qw(FORMAT HOSTLOCATION SERVERTYPE)],
			  @args);    

    if( $format && $format !~ /(swiss)|(fasta)/i ) {
	$self->warn("Requested Format $format is ignored because only SwissProt and Fasta formats are currently supported");
	$format = $self->default_format;
    } 
    $servertype = $DEFAULTSERVERTYPE unless $servertype;
    $servertype = lc $servertype;
    $self->servertype($servertype);
    if (  $hostlocation ) {
	$self->hostlocation(lc $hostlocation);
    }

    $self->request_format($format); # let's always override the format, as it must be swiss or fasta
    return $self;

    my ($self, %args) = @_;    
    return;

    my ($self, $value) = @_;
    if( defined $value ) {
	if( $self->servertype =~ /expasy/ ) {
	    if( $value =~ /sprot/ || $value =~ /swiss/ ) {
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'sprot', 'swiss'];	    
	    } elsif( $value =~ /^fa/ ) {
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'fasta', 'fasta'];
	    } else {
		$self->warn("Unrecognized format $value requested");
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'fasta', 'fasta'];
	    }
	} elsif( $self->servertype =~ /ebi/ ) {
	    if( $value =~ /sprot/ || $value =~ /swiss/ ) {		
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'swissprot', 'swiss' ];
	    } elsif( $value =~ /^fa/ ) {
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'fasta', 'fasta'];
	    } else { 
		$self->warn("Unrecognized format $value requested");
		$self->{'_format'} = [ 'swissprot', 'swiss'];
	    }
	}
    }
    return @{$self->{'_format'}};
}

1;
__END__

    my ($self, $servertype) = @_;
    if( defined $servertype && $servertype ne '') {		
	$self->throw("You gave an invalid server type ($servertype)".
			 " - available types are ".  
			 keys %HOSTS) unless( $HOSTS{$servertype} );
	$self->{'_servertype'} = $servertype;
	$self->{'_hostlocation'} = $HOSTS{$servertype}->{'default'};
	
	# make sure format is reset properly in that different
	# servers have different syntaxes
	my ($existingformat,$seqioformat) = $self->request_format;
	$self->request_format($existingformat);		
    }
    return $self->{'_servertype'} || $DEFAULTSERVERTYPE;

  bioperl-l@bioperl.org                         - General discussion
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  bioperl-bugs@bio.perl.org
  http://bugzilla.bioperl.org/

 Title   : get_Seq_by_id
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_id('ROA1_HUMAN')
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by its name
 Returns : a Bio::Seq object
 Args    : the id (as a string) of a sequence
 Throws  : "id does not exist" exception

 Title   : get_Seq_by_acc
 Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_acc('X77802');
 Function: Gets a Bio::Seq object by accession number
 Returns : A Bio::Seq object
 Args    : accession number (as a string)
 Throws  : "acc does not exist" exception

  Title   : get_Stream_by_id
  Usage   : $stream = $db->get_Stream_by_id( [$uid1, $uid2] );
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by unique identifiers
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of unique identifiers for
                   the desired sequence entries

  Title   : get_Stream_by_acc
  Usage   : $seq = $db->get_Seq_by_acc([$acc1, $acc2]);
  Function: Gets a series of Seq objects by accession numbers
  Returns : a Bio::SeqIO stream object
  Args    : $ref : a reference to an array of accession numbers for
                   the desired sequence entries
  Note    : For GenBank, this just calls the same code for get_Stream_by_id()