CIDER

The cloud file up- and downloader.

Due to access restrictions of the object storage, submitting data is a cumbersome procedure for external collaboration partners (subsequently denoted as data sender, DS). Moreover, the bioinformatician (subsequently denoted as data receiver, DR), is often involved in multiple projects at the same time and hence would like to keep track of who has submitted which data to which destination. To achieve the latter, CIDER has been developed as a user friendly wrapper to access the cloud object storage and to enable easy to use up- and download capabilities for DRs and DSs.

Via a web interface, the DR can invite an arbitrary number of DS to upload their data. In addition, the DR is able to track the data submission process for all DS. To this purpose, CIDER creates a new spot within the cloud and grants temporary upload access to this destination for invited DS. The subsequent sections explain the usage of CIDER from the DR point of view.

The initial access point is the login page. Here, one can sign in with the cloud credentials (the same you would use to login here). But before you can sign in, you have to sign up. Click on the 'Sign Up' button to switch to the sign up view.

In the sign up view, enter your cloud credentials, that is your

• first name
• last name
• cloud user name
• (valid) email address
• default project
• project domain (e.g., de.NBI or cb) and
• cloud password

The cloud user name and the cloud password is the same you would use to login here. Your name and the email address are used for communication purposes with the DS. All fields are mandatory and at least the cloud related credentials are validated before CIDER continues with signing up.

As soon as all fields are filled, click on the 'Submit & Login' button to submit the form and login.

This page is the main view of the application. It allows you to create new up- and download containers via the '+' button or to switch to another project via the drop down menu on the side bar. The latter is very important, because all up- and download containers are created within the current project. So make sure to switch to a private project before you are going to create an upload container for confidential data. To leave CIDER, click on the logout button in the upper left corner.

All containers are listed in the table below the above mentioned buttons. In addition CIDER allows to visually track the upload progress. To get additional information about the meaning of the colors, click on the 'i' button above the table. One can use the refresh button in order to update current status.

To delete one or more containers, select them by clicking on the radio button in the first column. To select all containers, mark the radio button in the first row. If only one container is selected, you can navigate to the up- or download pages via hitting the 'View' button. These pages are the respective access points for the DS.

As mentioned above, the '+' button in the upper right corner opens the container creation wizard. Here, you can either create an upload container or download container.

To create an upload container and to furthermore invite your designated DS, click on the 'Upload Container' in the container creation wizard. This will open a form on the left side of the wizard. Enter the name and the email address of the DS. As soon as the upload container is created, the DS will be notified via email that the upload capabilities are now enabled. In addition, this email contains the URL, where the upload page is hosted. If you want to pass additional information to the email which will be sent to the DS, use the 'Info' text field. Finally, click on the 'Submit' button to trigger the upload container creation.

As soon as the container creation is finished, you can click on the refresh button to track the upload progress. Note that an individual DS must have only one running upload at the same time.

To create a download container click on the 'Download Container' button in the container creation wizard. The corresponding form will be opened on the right side of the wizard. Be aware, that the download feature is still a proof of concept and needs further development time to be as user friendly as the rest of CIDER. Nevertheless, it works and can be used for containers which has been created by through CIDER. First, choose the container which is hosting the files to download. Second, select the DS for whom download capabilities should be enabled. Finally, click on the 'Submit' button to trigger the creation process.

The DS is notified via email, that a download container has been set up.

This upload page is the access point for the data sender (DS). The link to this page will be transmitted to the DS via email as part of the upload container creation process. To select files, click on the 'Add files' button and choose the files you would like to upload. Please make sure, that the file names only contain hyphen (-), underscore (_), point (.), numbers (0-9) and/or letters (a-z, A-Z). This is due to restrictions of the object storage, regarding certain characters.

To start the upload, click on the 'Start upload' button. It is also possible to start the upload only for individual files by clicking on the 'Start' button in the same row as the corresponding file. You could also remove files before starting the upload. This could be achieved by clicking on the respective 'Remove' button.

Depending on your network connection and the size of the files, the upload may take same time to finish. Please do not close your browser during the upload, because this will cancel the upload and may lead to corrupt files on the server.

It is also possible to cancel running uploads via clicking the respective 'Cancel' button.

As soon as you have uploaded all files, click on the 'My upload is complete. Notify XYZ and close upload portal.' button. After clicking this button, you have no further opportunities to submit more data to this destination, thus ensure that really all necessary files have been uploaded.