You can control the access to an investigation before and after it has open access status. When you have applied access controls to an investigation or a selection of its nodes (assays or studies), only the groups to whom you have given access can see that investigation or node(s) in their Search and Browse pages of the CSSI DCC Portal.
In the process of requesting open access for an access-controlled investigation, when you click the Preview button, the following message appears. This message prompts you to view and possibly modify the access if needed before requesting open access, and then re-check the access after it has open access status:
To assign group access to investigation data
- Log in to the CSSI DCC Portal, as described in Logging In to the CSSI DCC Portal.
Create a folder and upload an ISA archive to it, as described in Uploading ISA Archives. On the Upload ISA Archives page, in the row for the folder of interest, click Open. In the Upload Single ISA Archive tab, a list of investigation versions appears. Each version has a Control Access button.
In the following example screenshot, the Open Access Status is Not Open Access because the uploader has not made this investigation open access yet. The Access column indicates Uploader Only because the uploader has not applied access controls yet. Only the person who uploaded it can access it.
In the following example screenshot, the Open Access Status is "Current version, Open Access approved on <date and timestamp>" because the uploader has made this an investigation open access. The Access column indicates Access Restricted because the uploader has applied access controls. Only specified groups can access it.
- Click the Control Access button. The Select Objects page appears. In the following example screenshot, the uploader has not made the investigation open access yet. The uploader has expanded one study to show its assays. The tag Uploader Only means that access is restricted to the person who uploaded the investigation only.
In the following example, the uploader has made the investigation open access, and therefore it is available to all users.
- Customize the access of the investigation (whether it is open access yet or not) to one or more nodes (investigation, study, or assay file) in the object tree by selecting the box next to it or them. You can customize the access to the entire investigation, selected studies, or selected assays. Note that as soon as you make a selection, the Choose Groups area appears at the bottom of the page. Information about choosing groups follows in the next step.
- When you select the entire investigation, the system adds a check mark in the box next to the investigation, each study, and each assay.
- When you select a single study, the system also selects all of its assays. Instead of a check mark, the investigation box is fully green. This indicates that restrictions are present on the study and assays associated with that investigation.
When you select assays from one or more studies, only those assays are selected for access control. However, the boxes next to the investigation and study or studies are fully green, to indicate that restrictions are present on the assays associated with them.
To expand a study to select its assays, click the arrow to the left of the box and study name.
- When you select the entire investigation, the system adds a check mark in the box next to the investigation, each study, and each assay.
In the Choose Groups area, click the group that requires access to the node you selected.
If you have a long list of groups, use the Search box to find them. Enter any character to narrow down the list.
In the Select Objects page, click Apply and then click Save. A Success message appears.
- In the Success message, click Ok. In the Select Objects page, the nodes you selected reflect the groups to which you assigned them. In the following example, Demo Group was given access to three assays. While the public can access the rest of the assays, only the users belonging to Demo Group can access assays 1, 2, and 4.
You can assign more than one group to a node. In the following example, both Demo Group and Test User Group can access assays 1 and 4, while only Demo Group can access assay 2. Note that the Uploader can always access all files in the investigation, even when groups are applied.
Once you assign any access controls to an entire investigation or part of an investigation, a lock icon appears next to the investigation title when you browse or search investigations. (For information, refer to Browsing Investigations or Searching Investigation Data.) The lock warns you that this investigation is access controlled and that you may be able to see only part of the experimental data.
