Can´t acces Biomart via R anymore

Question

[Beginner]

Hi,

my R code previously accessed Biomart via:

library("biomaRt")
mart=useMart(biomart="ENSEMBL_MART_ENSEMBL", dataset="mmusculus_gene_ensembl", host="www.ensembl.org")
resMArt=getBM(attributes=c("ensembl_gene_id","description","mgi_symbol"),mart=mart)
resMArt2=getBM(attributes=c("ensembl_gene_id","gene_biotype"),mart=mart)

however,

mart=useMart(biomart="ENSEMBL_MART_ENSEMBL", dataset="mmusculus_gene_ensembl", host="www.ensembl.org")

now gives the error:

Error in listMarts(host = host, path = path, port = port, includeHosts = TRUE,  : 
  Unexpected format to the list of available marts.
Please check the following URL manually, and try ?listMarts for advice.
http://www.ensembl.org:80/biomart/martservice?type=registry&requestid=biomaRt

When I try to access the URL manaully I get:

Error: 500

There was a technical error.

Something has gone wrong with our web server when attempting to make this page.

Unfortunately, the service you are trying to access is currently unavailable.
Please try again later.

Anyone knows the reason for this?

Thank you

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

BioMart service is down at this time. Try after some time.

There is a button to send in a ticket to the tech team on the page you link above. Please do that.

[swbarnes2]

It's always worth checking to see if you can get into bioMart through a browser. If the browser and your R code fail, then you can be pretty sure it's the database at fault.