ENCODE Hi-C catalog URL returns 404 (s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/hic/hic.txt)

[turner]

Summary

The ENCODE Hi-C contact-map modal fails to populate because its hardcoded catalog URL returns a 404 from S3.

Repro

Open the ENCODE Hi-C modal from any consuming app (reproduced from Spacewalk). The modal opens but the table stays empty and the console shows:

```
GET https://s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/hic/hic.txt net::ERR_FAILED 404 (Not Found)
at stringLoader.js:11
at tableData (genericDataSource.js:41)
at buildTable (modalTable.js:67)
```

Verification

```
$ curl -sI 'https://s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/hic/hic.txt' | head -1
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
```

The S3 object itself is missing — not a network/CORS issue. The sibling ENCODE track picker uses the same root (https://s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/) and likely needs the same attention.

Reference

Spacewalk side: hardcoded in js/widgets/contactMapLoad.js:12. Happy to mirror the fix downstream once the canonical URL (or a new catalog source) is decided.

[turner]

Possibly one instance of a broader pattern — see aidenlab/juicebox.js#429.

Every data URL in examples/ and the README quick-start is now unreachable from a browser, and 20 of 33 fixtures across dev/ are too. Two distinct host behaviours:

• www.encodeproject.org returns 405 to a browser User-Agent while allowing IGV, straw and even plain curl — a browser-UA blocklist.
• hicfiles.s3.amazonaws.com returns 403 to everything except a case-sensitive IGV/straw allowlist.

This issue's URL is a different failure (s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/hic/hic.txt, a 404 rather than a 403/405), so it is probably genuinely a moved object rather than a policy change. Cross-referencing because if the catalog is being rehosted anyway, the examples need the same treatment.

[turner]

Status update, 2026-08-05: the URL now returns 403, not 404 — and so does the prefix https://s3.amazonaws.com/igv.org.app/encode/. That is a bucket-level policy change rather than a single moved object, so the sibling ENCODE track picker on the same root is affected identically.

Transferring to Spacewalk: the URL is hardcoded in js/widgets/contactMapLoad.js:12 here and appears nowhere in juicebox.js, so there is nothing to fix on the library side.

Withdrawing my earlier cross-reference to aidenlab/juicebox.js#429 — the two no longer share a cause or a fix. aidenlab/juicebox.js#429's hosts were gated on User-Agent and are now handled by a dev-time proxy; this one is a bucket that stopped serving. A replacement catalog source has to be found or hosted.