plugin-gtex-expression

A reference RNA Browser plugin that renders a GTEx tissue-expression heatmap for the currently active transcript.

Built with @rbrowser/plugin-sdk — useful both as a working panel and as a worked example of how to author plugins against the SDK.

• X axis — Exon id (Exon mode) or Junction id (Junction mode)
• Y axis — GTEx tissue
• Cell value — expression (read count)

The header reads the active transcript from host state (selectedRNA) and the chart auto-fits its container, thinning axis labels based on the available width / height.

What this example demonstrates

• Reading reactive host state with useSelectedRNA() / useSpecies()
• Declaring state:read as the only requested permission
• Bundling a third-party charting library (ECharts) into the plugin
• A self-contained ESM build the host loads as a remote plugin
• Packaging via rbrowser-plugin pack into a single distributable .rbp

Data sources

• https://api.rbrowser.org/api/v1/exon_expression/<build>/<transcriptId>/auto/
• https://api.rbrowser.org/api/v1/junction_expression/<build>/<transcriptId>/auto/

GTEx data is human-only — the plugin always queries hg38.

Install

Three ways. All three produce the same result: the panel appears in the right sidebar and starts tracking selectedRNA.

A prebuilt .rbp is hosted on the official plugin hub:

https://data.rbrowser.org/plugin-hub/plugin-gtex-expression-0.1.0.rbp

1. Drag-install (recommended)

1. Open RNA Browser → click the Plugin Store (puzzle icon) on the left sidebar.
2. Drag plugin-gtex-expression-<version>.rbp onto the panel.
3. The plugin is verified, stored in IndexedDB, and enabled automatically.

2. Remote-file install (from URL)

1. Open RNA Browser → Plugin Store → click the gear icon → Install from URL….
2. Paste the hub URL above (or click the Example button to prefill it):

   https://data.rbrowser.org/plugin-hub/plugin-gtex-expression-0.1.0.rbp
   

3. Local-file install

1. Download / build a .rbp (see Build below).
2. Open RNA Browser → Plugin Store → click the gear icon → Install from local file… and pick the .rbp.

Build

This plugin is built with @rbrowser/plugin-sdk (npm) and its companion CLI.

# 1. install deps (React, ECharts, @rbrowser/plugin-sdk)
npm install

# 2. build the ESM bundle  →  dist/index.js
npm run build

# 3. pack into a single .rbp  →  dist/plugin-gtex-expression-<version>.rbp
npm run pack

npm run pack runs vite build then invokes the SDK CLI (installed at node_modules/.bin/rbrowser-plugin):

rbrowser-plugin pack

which reads manifest.json + dist/index.js and writes dist/plugin-gtex-expression-<version>.rbp. Drag that file into the Plugin Store and you're done.

Manual CLI invocation

npx rbrowser-plugin pack \
  --manifest manifest.json \
  --bundle   dist/index.js \
  --out      dist/plugin-gtex-expression-0.1.0.rbp

See the SDK README on npm for the full CLI reference and the host API your plugin can call.