This page describes the main properties within portal.properties.

• ​Database Settings​

• ​cBioPortal Customization​

• ​Segment File URL​

• ​Bitly API Username and Key​

• ​Google Analytics​

• ​Password Authentication​

• ​CIViC integration​

• ​OncoPrint​

• ​Custom annotation of driver and passenger mutations​

  • ​Enabling custom annotations in the OncoPrint​

  • ​Automatic selection of custom annotations​

  • ​Automatic selection of OncoKB annotations​

  • ​Automatic hiding of putative passenger mutations​

• ​Gene sets used for gene querying​

Database Settings

db.user=
db.password=
db.host=[e.g. localhost to connect via socket, or e.g. 127.0.0.1:3307 to connect to a different port like 3307. Used by Java data import layer]
db.portal_db_name=[the database name in mysql, e.g. cbiodb]
db.driver=[this is the name of your JDBC driver, e.g., com.mysql.jdbc.Driver]

Include db_connection_string with the format specified below, and replace localhost by the value of db.host:

db.connection_string=jdbc:mysql://localhost/

db.tomcat_resource_name is required in order to work with the tomcat database connection pool and should have the default value jdbc/cbioportal in order to work correctly with the your WAR file.

db.tomcat_resource_name=jdbc/cbioportal

cBioPortal Customization

Hide tabs (pages)

Settings controlling which tabs (pages) to hide. Set them to false if you want to hide those tabs, otherwise set the properties to true.

skin.show_data_tab=
skin.show_web_api_tab=
skin.show_r_matlab_tab=
skin.show_tutorials_tab=
skin.show_faqs_tab=
skin.show_news_tab=
skin.show_tools_tab=
skin.show_about_tab=

Note: skin.show_tools_tab refers to the Visualize Your Data tab, while skin.show_data_tab refers to the Data Sets tab.

Cross Cancer Study Query Default

The cross cancer study query default is a list of studies used when querying one or more genes and not specifying a specific study or list of studies. There are two ways in which the default cross cancer study list is used:

1. When using the linkout links without a study e.g. /ln?q=TP53:MUT. Those

   links are used mostly used to allow for easy linking to particular queries.

   One can't get those links using the cBioPortal user interface itself, they

   are only mentioned in the documentation of the Web API

   (https://www.cbioportal.org/webAPI).

2. In the quick search when querying for a gene. Quick search is

   disabled by default. It is a beta feature. See the

   ​quick search documentation.

The configuration is set with the following if you have session service enabled:

default_cross_cancer_study_session_id=

The title will be pulled from the virtual study. Make sure to create a virtual_study with studies that everybody has access to and don't use a main_session id.

If session service is disabled one can use the following instead:

# query this comma separated list of studies
default_cross_cancer_study_list=
default_cross_cancer_study_list_name=

Quick Search (BETA)

Enable or disable the quick search with the following:

# Enable/Disable quick search (default is false)
quick_search.enabled=true

The default studies queried when searching for a single gene is defined with the default_cross_cancer_study_session_id or default_cross_cancer_study_list properties as described in the cross cancer study query default section.

Hide sections in the right navigation bar

Settings controlling what to show in the right navigation bar. Set them to false if you want to hide those sections, otherwise set the properties to true.

#Cancer Studies section:
skin.right_nav.show_data_sets=
​
#Example Queries section:
skin.right_nav.show_examples=
​
#Testimonials section:
skin.right_nav.show_testimonials=
​
#What's New section
skin.right_nav.show_whats_new=

Control the content of specific sections

Setting controlling the blurb: you can add any HTML code here that you want to visualize. This will be shown between the cBioPortal menu and the Query selector in the main page.

skin.blurb=

Setting controlling the footer: you can add any HTML code here that you want to visualize. If the field is left empty, the default footer (from www.cbioportal.org) will be shown.

skin.footer=

Settings controlling the "What's New" blurb in the right navigation bar: you can add any HTML code here that you want to visualize. If the field is left empty, the Twitter timeline will be shown (as long as skin.right_nav.show_whats_new is true, otherwise this section will not be displayed).

skin.right_nav.whats_new_blurb=

Add a custom logo in the right side of the menu. Place here the full name of the logo file (e.g. logo.png). This file should be saved in $PORTAL_HOME/portal/images/.

skin.right_logo=

Segment File URL

This is a root URL to where segment files can be found. This is used when you want to provide segment file viewing via external tools such as IGV.

segfile.url=

Bitly API Username and Key

The following properties are used to provide shortened bookmarks to the cBioPortal:

bitly.user=
bitly.api_key=

To obtain a bitly username and key, first register at: https://bitly.com/​

Then, go to: https://bitly.com/a/your_api_key​

Note: If you are developing on a local machine, and using localhost, the bitly URL shortening service will not work. This is because bitly will not shorten URLs for localhost. Once you deploy to your final server, the issue should go away.

Google Analytics

If you so desire, the following property is used to track your site's usage via google analytics.

google_analytics_profile_id

Password Authentication

The portal supports password authentication via Google+. Before you start you need to setup a google account that will own the authentication API. Follow https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/web/devconsole-project to get clientID and secret. Fill it in portal.properties:

googleplus.consumer.key=195047654890-499gl89hj65j8d2eorqe0jvjnfaxcln0.apps.googleusercontent.com 
googleplus.consumer.secret=2jCfg4SPWdGfXF44WC588dK

(note: these are just examples, you need to get your own) You will also need to go to "Google+ API" and click Enable button. In case of problems make sure to enable DEBUG logging for org.springframework.social and org.springframework.security.web.authentication.

To activate password authentication follow the Deployment with authentication steps and set authenticate=googleplus.

In addition, set this property in portal.properties:

app.name=cbioportal

app.name should be set to the name of the portal instance referenced in the "AUTHORITY" column of the "AUTHORITIES" table. See the User Authorization for more information.

CIViC integration

CIViC integration can be turned on or off with the following property (default: true):

show.civic=true|false

The CIViC API url is set to https://civic.genome.wustl.edu/api/ by default. It can be overridden using the following property:

civic.url=

OncoPrint

The default view in OncoPrint ("patient" or "sample") can be set with the following option. The default is "patient".

oncoprint.defaultview=sample

Custom annotation of driver and passenger mutations

cBioPortal supports 2 formats to add custom annotations for driver and passenger mutations. 1. cbp_driver: This will define whether a mutation is a driver or not. 2. cbp_driver_tiers: This can be used to define multiple classes of driver mutations.

These data formats are described in the cBioPortal MAF specifications.

Enabling custom annotations in the OncoPrint

To enable functionality for one or both types of custom annotations, enter values for the following properties. These labels will appear in the OncoPrint's "Mutation color" menu.

oncoprint.custom_driver_annotation.binary.menu_label=Custom driver annotation
oncoprint.custom_driver_annotation.tiers.menu_label=Custom driver tiers

Automatic selection of OncoKB, hotspots and custom annotations

OncoKB and Hotspots are by default automatically selected as annotation source, if show.oncokb and show.hotspots are set to true. To add automatic selection of custom driver or custom driver tiers annotations, set the respective property to true. Default is false.

oncoprint.custom_driver_annotation.binary.default=true|false
oncoprint.custom_driver_annotation.tiers.default=true|false

If you want to disable the automatic selection of OncoKB and hotspots as annotation source, set these properties to false:

oncoprint.oncokb.default=true|false
oncoprint.hotspots.default=true|false

Automatic hiding of variants of unknown significance (VUS)

By default, the selection box to hide VUS mutations is unchecked. If you want to automatically hide VUS, set this property to true. Default is false.

oncoprint.hide_vus.default=true|false

Gene sets used for gene querying

To change the gene sets used for gene querying, create a JSON file and add gene sets, following the format specified in the examples below. Set the path to this file (e.g. file:/cbioportal/custom_gene_sets.json) in the following property and restart Tomcat to apply the update. The default gene sets will be replaced by the ones in custom_gene_sets.json.

querypage.setsofgenes.location=file:/<path>

Example with gene names

In this example, two gene sets will appear in the query page, under the names "Prostate Cancer: AR Signaling" and "Prostate Cancer: AR and steroid synthesis enzymes".

[{
    "id": "Prostate Cancer: AR Signaling",
    "genes": ["SOX9", "RAN", "TNK2", "EP300", "PXN", "NCOA2", "AR", "NRIP1", "NCOR1", "NCOR2"]
}, {
    "id": "Prostate Cancer: AR and steroid synthesis enzymes",
    "genes": ["AKR1C3", "AR", "CYB5A", "CYP11A1", "CYP11B1", "CYP11B2", "CYP17A1", "CYP19A1", "CYP21A2", "HSD17B1", "HSD17B10", "HSD17B11", "HSD17B12", "HSD17B13", "HSD17B14", "HSD17B2", "HSD17B3", "HSD17B4", "HSD17B6", "HSD17B7", "HSD17B8", "HSD3B1", "HSD3B2", "HSD3B7", "RDH5", "SHBG", "SRD5A1", "SRD5A2", "SRD5A3", "STAR"]
}]

Example with specific alterations

In this example, only one gene set will appear in the query page, under the name "Genes with alterations", which will add the different genetic alterations stated below in the query box.

[{
    "id": "Genes with alterations",
    "genes": ["TP53: MUT=R273C;", "KRAS: HOMDEL MUT=NONSENSE MUT=NONSTART MUT=NONSTOP MUT=FRAMESHIFT MUT=SPLICE MUT=TRUNC;"]
}]

Example with merged gene tracks

In this example, only one gene set will appear in the query page, under the name "BRCA genes test", containing the merged gene track called "BRCA genes".

[{
    "id": "BRCA genes test",
    "genes": ["[\\\"BRCA genes\\\" BRCA1: MUT=E1258D;", "BRCA2: HOMDEL MUT=NONSENSE MUT=NONSTART MUT=NONSTOP MUT=FRAMESHIFT MUT=SPLICE MUT=TRUNC;]"]
}]

This gene set will add the following in the query box:

"BRCA genes" BRCA1: MUT=E1258D; BRCA2: HOMDEL MUT=NONSENSE MUT=NONSTART MUT=NONSTOP MUT=FRAMESHIFT MUT=SPLICE MUT=TRUNC;