1.. _introduction:
2
3Introduction
4============
5
6How PubChemPy works
7-------------------
8
9PubChemPy relies entirely on the PubChem database and chemical toolkits provided via their PUG REST web service [#f1]_.
10This service provides an interface for programs to automatically carry out the tasks that you might otherwise perform
11manually via the `PubChem website`_.
12
13This is important to remember when using PubChemPy: Every request you make is transmitted to the PubChem servers,
14evaluated, and then a response is sent back. There are some downsides to this: It is less suitable for confidential
15work, it requires a constant internet connection, and some tasks will be slower than if they were performed locally on
16your own computer. On the other hand, this means we have the vast resources of the PubChem database and chemical
17toolkits at our disposal. As a result, it is possible to do complex similarity and substructure searching against a
18database containing tens of millions of compounds in seconds, without needing any of the storage space or computational
19power on your own local computer.
20
21The PUG REST web service
22------------------------
23
24You don't need to worry too much about how the PubChem web service works, because PubChemPy handles all of the details
25for you. But if you want to go beyond the capabilities of PubChemPy, there is some helpful documentation on the
26PubChem website.
27
28-  `PUG REST Tutorial`_: Explains how the web service works with a variety of usage examples.
29-  `PUG REST Specification`_: A more comprehensive but dense specification that details every possible way to use the
30   web service.
31
32PubChemPy license
33-----------------
34
35.. include:: ../../../LICENSE
36
37.. rubric:: Footnotes
38
39.. [#f1] That's a lot of acronyms! PUG stands for "Power User Gateway", a term used to describe a variety of  methods
40   for programmatic access to PubChem data and services. REST stands for `Representational State Transfer`_, which
41   describes the specific architectural style of the web service.
42
43
44.. _`PubChem website`: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
45.. _`PUG REST Tutorial`: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug_rest/PUG_REST_Tutorial.html
46.. _`PUG REST Specification`: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pug_rest/PUG_REST.html
47.. _`Representational State Transfer`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer
48