BLAST search requests, submited by end users through the BLAST URLAPI by way of browser or script, interact with splitd system through Blast.cgi. Each individual search request consists of two distinctive steps.
The first step is a 'Put', which pushes a search request with appropriate option settings into the system. A successful 'Put' step receives a Request ID (RID) in return, which uniquely identifies that search.
The second step is 'Get', which retrieves the result for a completed search with its assigned RID. For a given search, its result can be presented in one of the available formats as specified by the options settings.
Using the RID, a user can retrieve the result for a search in different formats, to highlight different features of the alignment. Sections below provide details and example URLs on submitting BLAST searches using the BLAST URLAPI .