Uploading investigation data to the CSSI DCC Portal allows you to curate, manage, and reuse datasets in a standards-compliant way. The ISA-TAB specification describes this standard and how to structure your investigation data to create an Investigation-Study-Assay tab-delimited (ISA-TAB) archive file. This may involve configuring it using open-source software made for this purpose.

An ISA-TAB archive file is a compressed (.ZIP) file containing multiple text files and data files. Each tab-delimited text file in an ISA-TAB file describes the structure, meaning the column headers and row values when considered in spreadsheet format, of the investigation, study, and assay components of the archive. The data files correspond to each assay and are included in the archive in their native format, for example, Microsoft Excel. An ISA-TAB file may also contain images.

Only users who have registered and logged in to the CSSI DCC Portal can upload ISA-TAB data. 

Registering to Use the CSSI DCC Portal

Before you can log in for the first time, you must register.

To register on the CSSI DCC Portal

1. Navigate to the CSSI DCC Portal.
   The home page appears.
   
2. Click Login.
   The Please Sign In page appears.
   
3. Click Register.
   The Registration page appears.
   
4. Provide information in all of the following required fields:
   • First name
   • Last name
   • Institution
   • Email address
   • Password
   • Confirm password
5. If you want to upload investigation data to the CSSI DCC portal in the future, select the I would like to upload investigation data box. Doing so ensures that your future submissions are correctly tracked.
6. Select the I'm not a robot box.
7. Click Register.
   A message box appears.
   
8. Check your inbox for an email with the subject line "CSSI DCC Account Activation." Click the link in the email to complete account activation.
9. Get started using the CSSI DCC Portal.

Logging In to the CSSI DCC Portal

Before you can upload investigation data, you must register and then log in.

You do not need to log in to browse, search, and download investigation data.

To log in to the CSSI DCC Portal

1. Navigate to the CSSI DCC Portal.
   The home page appears.
   
2. Click Login.
   The Please Sign In page appears.
   
3. Enter your email address and password you specified when you registered.
4. Click Sign In.
   The CSSI DCC Portal home page appears.

Uploading an ISA-TAB File

To upload an ISA-TAB archive file

1. Access the CSSI DCC Portal.
2. Select Options > Upload File.
   The upload file page appears.
   
   
3. From the Standard list, select the standard applicable to the template you want to upload. At this time, only the ISA-TAB standard is supported.
4. From the Template list, select the CSSI DCC Portal template that the archive file you are about to upload is associated with. The options here reflect the templates you or your system administrator have previously uploaded.  

5. Select the file you want to upload by either

   • dragging and dropping the ISA-TAB archive file from your computer to the File box, or

   • clicking Add files to navigate to where the file is stored.
     Template files must be in one of the following archive formats: .zip,.rar,.tar,.gz. The file can be no larger than 500 MB.

6. Specify the status of this file:
   • Upload as new: A new file that has not been uploaded before.
   • Replace existing file: This file replaces an existing one associated with this template.
     Next version: This file becomes the active version of the file associated with the selected template. All previous versions of the template are accessible from the Template List and you can make any of them active or inactive as needed.
7. Select the appropriate access to this file.
   • Private restricts access only to you, when you are logged in
   • Public makes the file available to both registered and unregistered users.
   • Custom 
8. Click Save.
   CSSI DCC Portal unzips, processes, and parses the data in the archive file.