Skip to content

Lessons learned from troubleshooting ROBOT

Prerequisites

Learning objectives

Learn common mistakes when using ROBOT and how to troubleshoot and fix them.

Lessons learned

Copying-pasting (especially in google docs) can introduce unexpected format changes in row 2 of the template:

  • Note that these format changes are not always visible.
  • The most common typos are:
  • introduction of space in cells
  • single quotes are changed into apostrophes
  • These errors are most commonly reported as "MANCHESTER PARSE ERROR"

Restrictions for the first 2 rows of a ROBOT template:

  • In the same column, it is OK to have a header string (row #1) with no template string (row #2).
  • the information in the column is useful to curators (e.g. term labels) but will be ignored by ROBOT.

  • In the same column, if there is a template string (row #2), there MUST be a header string (row #1)
  • if the row #1 is missing, the error will be reported as: COLUMN MISMATCH ERROR the template string in column 1 must have a corresponding header in table "tmp/merge_template.tsv”

The content of the template break some OBO or Protege rules

  • for example, Protege only allows one comment on a class. If you are adding new comments to terms via ROBOT, you will get an error if a comment already exists on a term.
  • error will be reported as: OBO STRUCTURE ERROR Ontology does not conform to OBO structure rules: multiple comment tags not allowed.
  • Note: If you run ROBOT and get an error, it may create a blank file. You need to discard the changes and/or open a new branch. The error with the optional “null” is when the mondo-edit file is empty.
    Optional.get() cannot be called on an absent value
    Use the -vvv option to show the stack trace.
    Use the --help option to see usage information
    make: *** [mondo.Makefile:454: merge_template] Error 1

New ID prefix:

  • ROBOT template can be used to add axioms containing terms (and IDs) from other ontologies which were recently imported
  • The ID prefix is not recognized by ROBOT, and the error is reported as MANCHESTER PARSE ERROR
  • Resolution: the ontology Makefile should be updated to include the prefix in the merge_template.
  • Note: If you run ROBOT and get an error, it may create a blank file. You need to discard the changes and/or open a new branch.

Example templates

  • Example templates from Mondo are available here
  • Example templates from OBI are available here

Contributors