We are currently reviewing our internal release process for ChEMBL, and have a question. When we do a release, there are sometimes changes to the schema (we generally detail these in the release notes of previous releases) and also changes to deprecated items (targets or compounds that have changed or disappeared). We now also have a series of sites that use the ChEMBL data to provide new services, and these will invariably break (often both in and outbound links) as loading and processing of the ChEMBL data happens in these other systems.
One of the ideas we are considering is to have a 'pre-release' of the forthcoming release to interested parties during our normal one or two week long testing period. This could allow a smoother release schedule, and also help us with support issues after releases, but I'm sure have some further problems for us. So, if you run a resource, using ChEMBL and would like to discuss this with us, or if you have other views, we'd be happy to hear (
mail link).
