This page last changed on Jul 29, 2010 by bbranan.
Introduction to DurAdmin
The DuraCloud Administrator (DurAdmin) is a web interface designed to provide simple interaction with DuraCloud. DurAdmin sits on top of two DuraCloud applications, DuraStore and DuraService, which handle the content storage and the service deployment portions of DuraCloud respectively. In this first alpha release DurAdmin will only be interacting with DuraStore, allowing you to view, update, and delete Spaces and Content.
Definitions
- Space - A top-level container in which content files are stored. Spaces are DuraCloud's single level of file organization. Spaces in DuraCloud are similar in nature to Buckets in Amazon S3 and Containers in the Rackspace Cloud.
- Content - A file stored in DuraCloud. Each content item in DuraCloud is stored in a space. The name of a content item can indicate a hierarchical structure (e.g. folder1/folder2/myfile.txt) but DuraCloud treats it simply as a file within a space.
Using the DurAdmin interface
To use DurAdmin, start by opening a web browser and entering the address provided for your pilot organization. (This should be similar to http://organization.duracloud.org:8080/duradmin/) You will see a welcome page with a small amount of information.
Clicking on the Spaces tab near the top left will bring you to the Spaces page. This page lists the spaces that have been created in your account. Hovering over each space will query for the metadata of the space and populate that information on the page. From this page you can:
- Create a new space
- To create a space use the Add Space link in the upper left corner of the Spaces page. This will give you the opportunity to enter the space ID and to select the space access. A space can be either OPEN or CLOSED; an OPEN space allows for direct anonymous access to the content in a space through the underlying storage provider; a CLOSED space allows only the space owner to access the content.
- View an existing space
- View a space by clicking on the space name in the list.
- Add content to an existing space
- Adding content can be accomplished either on the spaces page or in the space details page. To add content from the spaces page, click on the "Add Content Item" link in the space hover menu.
- Delete a space
- Delete a space by clicking on the "Remove" link in the hover menu. Be warned, this is a recursive delete, all of the content items contained in the space will be removed as part of this activity. Deleting a space CANNOT be undone.
From the spaces page you can navigate to any one space by clicking on the space name in the list. This will provide you with a listing of all of the content items stored in the space. As on the spaces page, hovering over each content item will retrieve its metadata. From this page you can:
- Change the space access property
- Change the access property of a space by selecting either the "Open Space" link (available if the space is currently closed) or the "Close Space" link (available if the space is currently open) in the upper left corner.
- Add a content item to the space
- Add a content item by selecting the "Add Content Item" link in the upper left corner. This allows you to select a file and upload it into your space. By default the name of the file will be used as the file's ID, but you can override that value by filling in the Content ID field. By default the system will attempt to discover the correct MIME type for your file, but you can ensure the correct value by entering it in the MIME Type field.
- View a content item
- View more details about a content item by selecting the name of the item.
- Download a content item
- Download a file by selecting the "Download" link in the hover menu.
- Delete a content item
- Delete a content item by selecting the "Remove" link in the hover menu. Deleting a content item CANNOT be undone.
Selecting the name of a content item provides a detailed view of that item. All of the item's metadata is listed, some of which can be updated. DurAdmin does not currently have the ability to add or edit arbitrary metadata, though this is possible through the DuraStore REST API and through the StoreClient Java library.
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