Load your own data

ProtVista isn’t limited to UniProt. A features track can read your own annotations from a CSV, TSV, JSON, or BED file, from a URL, or written straight into the config. This page shows the shape your data needs and how to point a track at it.

The feature record

A features track draws a list of feature records. Each record has:

Field	Required	Meaning
type	yes	A label/category for the feature (e.g. DOMAIN, BINDING). Also what filter: matches on.
start	yes	1-based start position (inclusive).
end	yes	1-based end position (inclusive).
description	no	Free text shown on hover/click.
score	no	A number, typically 0–1, for quality or confidence.

A machine-readable version is published as feature-record.schema.json. The Adapter reference documents the shape for every built-in kind and adapter.

Pick a format — the extension chooses the parser

Point data: at a file and the file extension selects the parser for you. No adapter: needed.

CSV

A header row plus one row per feature. This example is a single standalone track (one rows: entry with data: and no group):

accession: P05067
rows:
  - id: hotspots
    label: Hotspots
    kind: features
    data: ./hotspots.csv
    description: Hotspot regions identified by our lab's pipeline

type,start,end,description,score
DOMAIN,18,289,Extracellular domain (custom re-annotation),0.95
BINDING,132,140,Predicted heparin-binding site,0.87
REGION,290,340,Acidic-rich linker region,0.6

TSV

Same columns, tab-separated. Use a .tsv extension:

rows:
  - id: MY_LAB
    label: My lab
    tracks:
      - id: hotspots
        kind: features
        data: ./hotspots.tsv

JSON

An array of feature-record objects. Use a .json extension:

rows:
  - id: MY_LAB
    label: My lab
    tracks:
      - id: hotspots
        kind: features
        data: ./hotspots.json

[
  { "type": "DOMAIN", "start": 18, "end": 289, "description": "Extracellular domain" },
  { "type": "BINDING", "start": 132, "end": 140, "score": 0.87 }
]

BED

Standard tab-delimited BED — a common genomics format for interval/region data. Use a .bed extension:

rows:
  - id: MY_LAB
    label: My lab
    tracks:
      - id: hotspots
        kind: features
        data: ./regions.bed

Your data next to public data

Files and URLs mix freely. Here a live UniProt track sits above your own file:

accession: P05067
sources:
  features: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/proteins/api/features/{accession}
rows:
  - id: UNIPROT_DOMAINS
    label: UniProt domains
    tracks:
      - id: domain
        kind: features
        filter: DOMAIN
        data: features
  - id: MY_LAB
    label: My lab
    tracks:
      - id: hotspots
        kind: features
        data: ./hotspots.json

Inline data — no file at all

For small or generated data, write records directly in the config with from: inline:

rows:
  - id: MY_ANNOTATIONS
    label: My custom annotations
    tracks:
      - id: binding_sites
        label: Predicted binding sites
        kind: features
        data:
          from: inline
          inlineData:
            - { type: BINDING, start: 45, end: 52, description: ATP binding }
            - { type: BINDING, start: 120, end: 128, description: Mg2+ binding }
        rendering:
          color: '#e74c3c'
          shape: diamond

Add to the default UniProt viewer

To layer your track on top of the full canonical viewer instead of building from scratch, extends the default — see the extends section in Author a config. (Note the caveat there: the built-in /src/default-config.yaml path only resolves during local development — host your own copy for a deployed site.)

A path gotcha to know

A track’s data: ./hotspots.csv is fetched relative to the hosting page, not relative to the config file. If a file-backed track renders empty, this is the usual cause: the browser looked for the file next to your HTML page. Serve the page from the same directory as the data (or use an absolute URL). The runnable examples/ each carry their data file beside the config for exactly this reason — see examples/README.md.

Custom columns or formats

If your file doesn’t match the feature-record columns — different headings, a bespoke format — you can register your own parser with registerAdapter and name it on the track. See Escape hatches.

Where to go next

• Configuration vs data — the boundary this page sits on.
• Adapter reference — exact payload shapes.
• Troubleshoot errors — when a track won’t load.

Licensed under CC BY 4.0.