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BrAPI & Integration of Peripheral Apps 1.2

3 min read

About BrAPI #

DeltaBreed is fully BrAPI (Breeding Application Programming Interface) enabled, which allows peripheral BrAPI applications to connect directly, like Field Book and R packages like ‘QBMS”.

seedling Navigate to BrAPI from the left hand menu to access the information you need to connect peripheral BrAPI applications, including QR codes.

BrAPI QR code for DeltaBreed connection

Field Book #

Field Book is an application for collecting experimental observations on an Android handheld device. Detailed Field Book instructions are maintained by the developers: https://docs.fieldbook.phenoapps.org/en/latest/field-book.html. Field Book is not a Breeding Insight application, but can be used to pull environments and observation variables from DeltaBreed v1.1 The ability to push observations back to DeltaBreed will be implemented at a later date.

Field Book v6.0 #

In this most recent Field Book release, the steps for BrAPI connection and field upload are slightly different from earlier versions. These screenshots are from the experimental BrAPI UI. Unselecting this experimental UI screen will render slightly different views.

Field Book and DeltaBreed use different terminology to describe equivalent data.

  • FB “Field” = DB “Environment”
  • FB “Trial” = DB “Experiment”
  • FB “Trait” = DB “Observation variable”

Field Book settings screen with BrAPI as a selection option



seedling In the “Settings” screen, select “BrAPI”.


Import new settings or share current settings selection options

seedling Select the box for “enable BrAPI”

seedling Select “import new settings”.

seedling Scan.

The DeltaBreed QR code only works with the QR scan feature located in the upper right hand corner, and will not work with the Base URL scan feature.


DeltaBreed log in screen

seedling Scan the QR code located in the “BrAPI” section of DeltaBreed.

seedling Log in to DeltaBreed.


Authorize Field Book screen and selection

seedling Authorize Field Book access.


Make this BrAPI server the default message with import source or export source as options

seedling Select “Import Source” and then save.

You can choose Export Source, but keep in mind that DeltaBreed v1.1 will not accept observations pushed from FieldBook via BrAPI. More development is needed.

Pull DeltaBreed Environments into Field Book #

Field Book allows you to filter by fields program or trial. The DeltaBreed BrAPI settings are configured in such a way the fields are already filtered by program.

DeltaBreed v1.1 only supports a single observation level. This level is called “plot”. If you are not using plots as your observations, please ignore. Expect to see more informative options when connected to future versions of DeltaBreed.

Fields screen with green plus button to pull in new field options.

seedling Navigate to the “Fields” screen and click on the green + button to add fields.


Fields that are eligible for BrAPI pull in

seedling Select the field you wish to load. Then select “import”.


Study import screen with sorting options and import selection

seedling Select various levels an sorting options from this screen and then click “save”.


Field options such as data, sorting, export, collect and sync.

seedling Select the field to see related options.


Field Details with Field list, sorting options, collect, export, sync and data as selection options.

seedling The field of interest is now loaded to Field Book. Select “collect” to enable data collection.

Note that BrAPI loading of an environment from DeltaBreed simultaneously loads the observation variables associated with that environment.


Pull DeltaBreed Ontology (Traits) Not Associated with a Specific Experiment #

Users can also pull ontology or trait terms from DeltaBreed that are not associated with a specific experiment. Note that Field Book and DeltaBreed still need to be connected via BrAPI.

Field Book main menu with traits as a selection option.

seedling In the Field Book menu, click on “Traits”.


Traits screen with green plus button to add new traits.

seedling Click on the green + sign at the bottom right of the screen.


Import options that include create new trait, import from file and DeltaBreed

seedling Click on the DeltaBreed text at the bottom of the list.


List of available traits

seedling Select the traits you want to pull by clicking the checkbox. Then click on “Import”.


Selected traits with import option

seedling Click “import”.

Note that traits that are already in Field Book will not be duplicated.

Ontology terms (traits) are now ready for data collection.


BrAPI Base URL & Access Token #

DeltaBreed allows users to generate and regenerate temporary access tokens. These tokens along with the BrAPI Base URL can be used to connect any BrAPI enabled application to DeltaBreed v0.9 for the purposes of pulling data from the system.

BrAPI base url and access token

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