My attempts to understand why a bigwig file cannot be loaded by UCSC through galaxy's display_application ended up with tcpdump... If anybody would like to help me understanding what's wrong (and different) here I would really appreciate it.
If needed I can make the tcpdupms available for analysis with wireshark...

[ TCP Stream for a bigWig served outside galaxy]

[stream 1: after setting hgt.customText in hgTracks equal to a path with bigWig track definition]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:50:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:37:28 GMT
ETag: "7140-9f-488c13d753600"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 159
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain

track type=bigWig name="therightone.bw" bigDataUrl=http://host001.instruments.ifom-ieo-campus.it/ga-data/galaxy_dist/database/files/000/dataset_46.dat db=hg18

[stream 2 ]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:50:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:12:15 GMT
ETag: "9f-42e5586-488ae729691c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 70145414
Connection: close
Content-Type: chemical/x-mopac-input

[stream 3]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:50:36 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:12:15 GMT
ETag: "9f-42e5586-488ae729691c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 70145414
Connection: close
Content-Type: chemical/x-mopac-input

[stream 4: I believe this is after I ask for a different region on chromosome]

HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:50:37 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:12:15 GMT
ETag: "9f-42e5586-488ae729691c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 9819526
Content-Range: bytes 60325888-70145413/70145414
Connection: close
Content-Type: chemical/x-mopac-input

%.:....3...@...=>.} [cut, note that the bigWig data are not from the beginning of file]

[stream 5]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:50:40 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:12:15 GMT
ETag: "9f-42e5586-488ae729691c0"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 70145414
Connection: close
Content-Type: chemical/x-mopac-input


[ TCP Stream for the same  bigWig served within galaxy]

[stream 1: after hgt.customText is set to the path served by galaxy]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:46:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:36:56 GMT
ETag: "713f-f7-488c13b8cee00"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 247
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain

track type=bigWig name="wgEncodeYaleChIPseqRawDataRep2Helas3Pol2_fs.bw" bigDataUrl=http://host001.instruments.ifom-ieo-campus.it:8080/display_application/cac7b9b902f807f2/ucsc_bigwig/campus/090e9746a4403c88/data/galaxy_cac7b9b902f807f2.bw db=hg18

[stream 2]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:46:29 GMT
Server: PasteWSGIServer/0.5 Python/2.6.5
content-length: 70145414
content-type: chemical/x-mopac-input
Set-Cookie: galaxysession=eb142648ac45b770ddabc752e2cd511e21664b5a654cabfbe79569d4ede184379f55c5dbc9000304; expires=Thu, 09-Sep-2010 15:46:29 GMT; Max-Age=7776000; Path=/; Version=1
Connection: close

[stream 3: i get the error "http://host001.instruments.ifom-ieo-campus.it:8080/display_application/cac7b9b902f807f2/ucsc_bigwig/campus/090e9746a4403c88/data/galaxy_cac7b9b902f807f2.bw is not a chromosome id r-tree index file" from the UCSC]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:46:29 GMT
Server: PasteWSGIServer/0.5 Python/2.6.5
content-length: 70145414
content-type: chemical/x-mopac-input
Set-Cookie: galaxysession=eb142648ac45b770233699f0ab65857e995c6e1b17d8e57d15b91a28b7b680af4cf210ffa8e6cc2a; expires=Thu, 09-Sep-2010 15:46:29 GMT; Max-Age=7776000; Path=/; Version=1
Connection: close

&.......(......... [cut: note that bigWig data are served from the beginning, note that http headers are different]

[stream 4: another attept to navigate on a different region of the chromosome]

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:46:30 GMT
Server: PasteWSGIServer/0.5 Python/2.6.5
content-length: 70145414
content-type: chemical/x-mopac-input
Set-Cookie: galaxysession=eb142648ac45b7709206aaeef08ccecdd9d6070c5f8aed59d9ddd2079322251934ece94b298127df; expires=Thu, 09-Sep-2010 15:46:30 GMT; Max-Age=7776000; Path=/; Version=1
Connection: close

&.......(...............$. [cut: again, the bigWig data are sent entirely from the beginning]




/*
Davide Cittaro

Cogentech - Consortium for Genomic Technologies
via adamello, 16
20139 Milano
Italy

tel.: +39(02)574303007
e-mail: davide.cittaro@ifom-ieo-campus.it
*/