[BioC] getBM (biomaRt) sometimes returns NULL

[Wolfgang Huber]

Hi Giovanni,

 > sorry Wolfgang, here it is.
 > BTW, I just tried and it works today.

library(biomaRt)
mart=useMart("ensembl")
mart=useDataset(dataset = "celegans_gene_ensembl", mart = mart)
wormids=c("ZK666.6","Y41C4A.11","T02G5.7.1","K08F4.7","A_12_P11025","ZC410.5b","C32H11.2","F54D11.1")
gbm=getBM(attributes=c("wormbase_gene","go_description"),filter="wormbase_gene",values=wormids,mart=mart)

thanks. I also just tried this just now and it worked fine, but I 
understand there may have been errors previously. It appears that there 
are sporadic problems in the interaction between the biomaRt R package 
and the biomart webservices at Ensembl and/or Wormbase, it is not clear 
at this point whether the error is on the side of the biomaRt package or 
of the webservice provider, or whether it is a miscommunication between 
them. Any hints from users that experience such a problem (including 
enough info to reproduce it) is welcome!

  Cheers
  Wolfgang