Connecting to the Yoda web portal
The Yoda web portal is useful for browsing your files, arranging access to your research group and performing one-off actions related to archiving and publishing. You can easily up- and download files and folders, but if you work with larger datasets, we recommend using the other ways to access Yoda.
In the Yoda web portal, you can:
- Upload, download, move, copy, delete, rename, and, in some cases, preview your data;
- Add metadata to your data package;
- Submit data packages for archiving and, afterwards, for publication;
- Manage access to your research group;
- Create a Data Access Password to be able to work with your data via the network disk, iBridges, or iCommands.
All but the first point can solely be done in the Yoda web portal. Working actively with your data can also be done using the network disk, iBridges or iCommands.
The Yoda web portal consists of two environments: the Research Area and the Vault. The Research Area is where you actively work on your files, whereas the Vault is the archive where read-only copies of your data package are preserved for the long-term. Read more about when and how you can archive your data in the Vault.
View your files
Once you log into the web portal, click on the “Research” tab and select your Yoda research group. This is the place where you can work with your data. When any files have been uploaded, you will see them here. Some text files and images can be previewed in Yoda by clicking on the filename.
Note that you can only see the research group (folders) that you have access to and can work in.
Upload files
To upload files and/or folders to the web portal, you can drag and drop one or more files or a folder directly from your computer into the screen in the area under the grey bar. Alternatively, you can click on the ‘Upload’ button and select ‘Upload files’ or ’Upload folders’.
A file explorer pops up that allows you to select your files or folders. Use the Shift key on your keyboard to select multiple files or folders that are grouped together or use the 'Control '-key to select multiple files or folders that are not grouped together. Press ‘Open’ to start the upload.
A transfer screen will show the progress of the upload. When the transfer is complete, the text ‘Upload completed’ will appear on the transfer screen.
Finally, you can also create new folders manually by clicking the “Create Folder” button and providing the name of the folder.
Download, rename, copy, move, and delete
If you click the three dots on the right of a file or folder, you can choose to rename, copy, move or delete that file or folder. For individual files (but not for folders), it is also possible to select Download. If you accidentally deleted a file, you may be able to recover it.
Other web portal functionalities
- Metadata: if you click the “Metadata” button, you can fill out a metadata form, as part of Documenting your data. This is possible to do in every subfolder, but often it is done only in the main folder that will be archived and possibly published.
- Lock: all files in the folder will become read-only. No one will be able to edit those files.
- Submit: submit the current folder for archiving in the Vault. When you do this, and the data manager accepts the data package into the Vault, you can click “Go to vault” to see the relevant folder in the Vault. You can read more about when and how to archive a data package in the Archiving your data guide.
There are also options to clean up temporary files (such as thumb.db or _DS.Store), check whether file formats are preferred formats, and retrieve checksum reports.
Finally, when you click on your email address on the top-right, you can access options to see notifications, notification settings, a page to set a Data Access Password, go to the Group manager (to give others access to the Yoda research group), and Statistics to see the size (over time) of research groups that you are a member of. There is also a search bar where you can search for files stored in Yoda.
