Christine Staiger 
Raoul Schram
Welcome
Welcome to this full day course on iRODS and iBridges. This training is designed for researchers who are already or are starting to begin to work with research data management tools.
The morning session is for beginners and does not require any knowledge of scripting or programming. You will explore iRODS concepts through the iBridges graphical interface and the command line interface. During this session you will practice uploading and downloading files, working with metadata and searching for data.
The afternoon session is for participants who already know the basics of Python syntax. You will learn how to create workflows that interact with iRODS using the iBridges API. Together we will design a small compute workflow that finds input data by metadata, analyses this data and writes results back to iRODS with metadata linking input, workflow and output. All processing happens directly on iRODS as the storage system.
Before you start please take a look at the prerequisites.
We hope you enjoy the day and feel confident exploring iRODS and iBridges.
Course objectives
This course introduces researchers to the iBridges ecosystem and teaches iRODS concepts through practical use of iBridges tools. You will learn how iRODS organises data through data objects, collections and metadata, and how these concepts support structured and searchable research data.
After completing the course you will be able to
- work confidently with the iBridges GUI and CLI
- understand data objects, collections and metadata
- search for data using metadata
- use the iBridges API to automate common tasks
- design small workflows that operate entirely within iRODS
Timetable
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 9.00am to 9.30am | Coffee and trouble shooting |
| 9.30am to 9.15am | Introduction: What are iRODS and iBridges |
| 9.45am to 10.45am | The iBridges GUI |
| 10.45am to 11.00am | Coffee break |
| 11.00am to 12.00pm | The iBridges CLI |
| 12.00pm to 1pm | Lunch break |
| 1pm to 2.45pm | The iBridges API: Basics (upload, download, metadata, search, permissions) |
| 2.45pm to 4.00pm | Coffee break |
| 4.00pm to 4.45pm | Putting it all together: the Workflow |
| 4.45pm to 5.00pm | Questions and Discussion |