====== EDirect ======
EDirect is a software package, developed by NCBI, which allows you to use the E-utilities API in a Unix environment. It helps you quickly and easily use the E-utilities API, and has built-in tools to extract specific data from XML files and create tables of data that can be more easily analyzed or visualized.

===== Information =====

  * Latest Version: 7.80
  * Added: January, 2018
  * Link: https://dataguide.nlm.nih.gov/edirect/overview.html
  
===== Usage =====

See which versions of edirect are available:
<code>$ module avail edirect</code>

Load one version of edirect into your environment:
<code>$ module load edirect/7.80</code>

===== Installation ======
Notes from the sysadmin during installation:

<code>$ cd /tmp
$ sudo mkdir -p /export/apps/edirect/7.80
$ sudo chown aorth /export/apps/edirect/7.80
$ wget ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/entrezdirect/edirect.tar.gz
$ tar xf edirect.tar.gz -C /export/apps/edirect/7.80 --strip-components=1
$ cd /export/apps/edirect/7.80
$ export PATH=$PATH:/export/apps/edirect/7.80                                                                                                                                                              
$ sudo yum install perl-LWP-Protocol-https.noarch perl-Net-SSLeay.x86_64
$ ./setup.sh
$ sudo chown -R root:root /export/apps/edirect/7.80</code>

EDirect has a really old fashioned installation process and doesn't even version their releases very obviously. Don't just blindly copy/paste the shell commands from the installation document, and make sure to check the [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK179288/#chapter6.Release_Notes|release notes]] for information about versions.