Track changes to your ARC

How can I make sure, other researchers will understand what I did while working on my ARC?

DataPLANT Account

If you do not have an account, please register with DataPLANT to use the PLANTDataHUB.

Follow these instructions to sign up

With a DataPLANT account you can use the DataHUB and share your ARC for collaboration.

Registration

Please register here.

DataPLANT roles

During the registration you can “Choose your role in DataPLANT”:

• DataSteward
  • Member of / associated to DataPLANT
  • Teaches DataPLANT tools and services to community members
• Developer
  • Member of / associated to DataPLANT
  • Develops DataPLANT tools and services
• Member
  • Other member of DataPLANT
• User
  • User who want to use the DataPLANT tools and services

DataPLANT account settings

If you want to adjust your account settings, simply click the login icon in the navigation bar on this site.

• In the tab “Password” you can modify your password.
• In the tab “Authenticator” you can set up Two Factor Authentication (2FA).

Track changes

The ARC comes with a mechanism to track changes. This version control is based on git. Briefly, snapshots of an ARC are called Commits. Every Commit is encoded with the information on who made the change and when and it is accompanied with a note, i.e. a “Commit message” that allows the user to communicate what was changed.

Note

Commits would usually be done more frequently along the previous steps described in this guide.

Login to DataHUB

In order to retrieve your user information and associate it with your commits, you need to login to the DataHUB.

ARCitect

1. Click exit_to_app Login in the sidebar.

2. Select git.nfdi4plants.org as DataHUB from the dropdown menu.

3. Click Login.

   Note

   This automatically opens your browser at the DataHUB (https://git.nfdi4plants.org) and asks you to login. If you are not already logged in at the DataHUB, you can directly return to ARCitect. Otherwise you need to login first.

   Note

   The first time you login using ARCitect from a new computer, you are asked to authorize this computer’s ARCitect to communicate with your DataHUB account.

   

   Great, now I have some new functions activated in the sidebar. What are they for?

ARCitect-GX

1. Click Open the DataHUB Authentication menu in the top-right.

2. Select PLANTdataHUB (official) git.nfdi4plants.org as DataHUB from the dropdown menu.

   

3. Click the link Click here to generate a new GitLab Personal Access Token. This automatically opens your browser at the DataHUB (https://git.nfdi4plants.org) and guides you to create an access token.

4. Scroll down and click Generate token .

5. Copy the token on top and paste it into the ARCitect-GX field “Personal Access Token”

6. Click Sign In

   

   Great, now I should be able to work with the DataHUB.

Commit your changes

The commit menu allows you to “commit” your changes locally. This saves the changes of your local ARC together with your DataHUB credentials (Name and eMail).

ARCitect

1. Navigate to the rule Commit menu.

2. Since you are logged in, the Name and eMail of your DataHUB account are automatically added.

3. Add a commit message:

   

   “Created my first ARC and added data.”

4. Click Commit to store your changes locally.

Follow your changes

In the History menu you can inspect your ARC history with all commit messages.

1. Navigate to the history History menu.

2. Find your commit messages.

   

   Great, so even in five years I will know what I did in every step.

ARCitect-GX

1. Navigate to the Git / Source Control menu.

   

2. Add a message to describe your changes

   

   “Created my first ARC and added data.”

3. Click Save All Changes to store your changes and upload them to the DataHUB.

Try it yourself – add messages to communicate your ARC’s evolution

We recommend adding a message that shortly summarizes, what you did since you last synced your ARC, e.g.

1. Viola starts a fresh ARC for her project and fills the investigation metadata

   

   add investigation info

2. She adds a study with plant samples

   

   create study and add samples

3. She adds raw data to an assay sugar measurement

   

   add sugar dataset

4. She annotates the dataset using

   

   annotate sugar extraction and measurement

ARCitect

1. Make some small changes to your ARC like adding or editing a text file.

2. Navigate to the rule Commit menu.

3. Add a commit message:

   

   “Add a README to include some notes”

4. Click Commit to store your changes locally.

5. Check the history History

ARCitect-GX

1. Make some small changes to your ARC like adding or editing a text file.

2. Navigate to the Git / Source Control menu.

3. Add a message:

   

   “Add a README to include some notes”

4. Click Save All Changes.