Hi everbody,
as a normal user of openbis, how can I find the elm-lims-dropbox folder on my local machine(or get access to it), if I want to upload documents via dropbox?
On the documentation there wasn’t much information provided, instructions are given assuming the system admin had set up the dropbox, but imagine when a new lab member only gets the link to the openbis and after loggin, how can he/she find the folder on his/her computer?
Looking forward to replies.
Kind regards,
Li
Hi Li,
There is no dropbox “out of the box”. A standard user would upload the data via the “Upload” button in each object/experiment.
On the server side, the admin can set up dropboxes and tell the system in which folder (aka the dropbox) data is expected and how the server should handle it. In any case, the admin must make these available.
Regards,
Volker
Hi Volker,
Thanks for your reply, I do have the instance adimin right, does that mean I could set up the dropbox? if so, how can this be done? I couln’t find any related information either.
The situation for me is, our IT guys have built the server and given me the instance admin right, from my understanding, in order to use the dropbox, I need to somehow get connect to the server, so I can see the dropbox folder on my machine throgh the server, but how is the connection done?
kind regards,
Li
Check out the following documentation:
https://openbis.readthedocs.io/en/latest/software-developer-documentation/server-side-extensions/dss-dropboxes.html
Basically, it’s a three-step procedure for which you need to SSH to your openBIS server:
First, you need a folder on your machine that is available from the outside - the Dropbox. You might need your IT to realize that.
Then, make the Dropbox known to openBIS. Go to ‘servers/core-plugins’ and add a folder for your Dropbox. Choose any name for the folder and add the same name to the existing ‘core-plugins.properties’-file.
The last thing is the configuration of the dropbox. You need to have a certain subfolder structure:
‘…servers/core-plugins/NAME-OF-YOUR-DROPBOX-FOLDER/1/dss/drop-boxes/NAME-OF-DROPBOX1’.
You can manage several dropboxes via the same plugin: Just add a new folder besides NAME-OF-DROPBOX1. But each dropbox has to have a different data folder on your machine.
This folder needs a *** .py file that handles the incoming data and a ‘plugin.properties’ file that defines the dropbox: Definition of the Python file, the incoming directory… The link has some examples. You can change the py-script without restarting the machine. Once it runs, you can alter the script as much as you like.
Be aware that debugging the scripts will be a pain in the ***.
Lastly, restart openBIS to enable the plugin. Check the dropbox monitor in the application to see whether it is running.
Good luck!
To add to the good explanation of @ervolk : you can also write your plugin using java. debugging might be a bit easier but you need to restart the server after deployment