User Documentation

Synopsis

iBridges‑GUI is a graphical interface for any iRODS‑based data management platform.
It exposes core iRODS functionality through a set of focused views, each designed for a specific task.

Default views:

• Browser — explore collections, inspect data objects, edit metadata and permissions, upload/download, delete.
• Data Synchronisation — synchronise local directories with iRODS collections.
• Search — locate collections and data objects using name or metadata filters.
• Info — display user information, groups, and server resources (status, capacity).

Views and Plugins

The Views and Plugins menu (next to Configure) lets you show or hide tabs.
Checked views are restored automatically when you restart the application.

On first launch, the following tabs appear:
Welcome, Browser, Synchronise Data, Search, Info, and Logs.

Browser

After logging in, the Browser is the first view you see.
It consists of three parts:

1. Navigation
   
2. Listing
   
3. Detailed inspection

Navigation

• The path field shows your current iRODS location.
  Edit it and press <Enter> to jump anywhere in the tree.

• Buttons:

  • Refresh — reload the listing
    
  • Up — go one level up
    
  • Home — jump to your home collection

• Create Collection — create a new collection at the current path.

• Upload — select files to upload.
  Optional: include metadata files to extract and store as iRODS metadata.

• Download — choose a local destination.
  Optional: export metadata alongside the download.
  Select an item in the table to download it.
  For downloading multiple items, use the Search view.

• Delete — permanently remove the selected item from iRODS.

Listing

The table lists all collections and data objects at the current path.

Columns:

• Status — -C for collections; replica status for data objects.
  If a data object’s status is not good, the data is compromised. Contact your iRODS administrator.
• Name
  
• Size
  
• Checksum
  
• Created / Modified

Actions:

• Single click — load details below.
  
• Double click — open a collection.

Inspect collections and data objects

This section shows detailed information about the selected item.

Preview

Displays collection contents or the first lines of text/JSON/CSV files.

Metadata

Shows metadata as key–value–unit triples.

• Single click loads an entry into the editable fields.
• Add — create a new entry.
  
• Update — modify the selected entry.
  
• Delete — remove the entry matching the fields.

Permissions

Shows access rights for the selected item.

• The Access name dropdown lists available rights.
  
• Creator shows who created the item.
• Collections support inherit / noinherit.
  inherit applies collection permissions to newly added items.
• Enable Recursive to apply changes to all existing members.

Replicas

Shows the storage resources where a data object is stored.
Collections do not have replicas.

If a replica status is not good, contact your iRODS administrator.

Data Synchronisation

Synchronise Data lets you synchronise a local directory with an iRODS collection.

• Local → iRODS (right arrow)
  
• iRODS → Local (left arrow)

Before synchronising, differences are calculated and shown in the text field.
This may take some time for large directories.

Synchronisation works only for directories/collections, not individual files.

Search

The Search view allows you to filter by path, name, and metadata.

Search fields

• Path — defines where the search is performed.
  Must exist; defaults to your home collection.

• Obj/Coll name — filter by name.
  Example: demo finds all items named demo.

• Wildcards use %.
  Example: my_books/%.txt finds all .txt files in my_books.

• Metadata filters — narrow results further.
  Example: key author, value %Doyle%.

Search results

• Single click or Select all → click Download to choose a destination.
  
• Double click → open the item in the Browser for inspection.