While the full power of the Beacon API can be unlocked through the use of structured queries using JSON serialization ("POST" requests), the majority of common queries can be implemented through standard query URLs with parameters (GET queries).
Beacon REST paths in general follow the format
__APIroot__/__entryType__/{id}/
or
__APIroot__/__entryType__/{id}/__requestedSchema__
A typical example would e.g. the request to retrieve all genomic variants associated with a biosample
https://example.com/beacon/api/biosamples/bios-st4582/g_variants
??? note "REST Endpoint Definitions"
The endpoind paths available for a given Beacon instance are defined in
`__APIroot__/beaconMap/` [Github](https://github.com/ga4gh-beacon/beacon-v2/blob/main/models/src/beacon-v2-default-model/beaconMap.yaml)
In POST requests queries and metadata are defined in JSON objects as specified
in the model supported by the Beacon instance. For more information see
By default the Beacon model supports a limited set of query parameters, most notably such addressing genomic variations. Examples can be found in the Genomic Queries documentation and in the requests section of the default model.
Several of the common query parameters have a multiple value option, i.e. are
assumed to be lists. A typical use case here would be the construction of Bracket Queries
which use 2 of each start and end values.
??? Attention "Use a comma , separator for list values in GET"
Due to the problem of some web frameworks with the interpretation of multiple
values for the same parameter we recommend the consistant use of a single
parameter name and comma-concatenated values.
* ~~`&start=1234000&start=5234000`~~
* `&start=1234000,5234000`