Workshops

Using the v2.Sherpa Object Retrieval API

Adam Field and Azhar Hussain

As part of our v2.Sherpa project, we have been rebuilding all our services from the ground up. This includes a more rational data model and standardized APIs across all services. The first of these APIs to be completed is the Object Retrieval API, currently active on v2.Juliet and v2.OpenDOAR, allows full records to be downloaded from our services in JSON. This workshop will start with short introduction to the new services, and an overview of the release roadmap. A detailed look at the new data model and API will be presented, and then attendees will be invited to create their own API keys and work through a number of exercises intended to demonstrate the full range of API functionality. Additionally, future API endpoints will follow the general principals of the Object Retrieval API, so attendance to this workshop will give attendees a thorough introduction to our more general API design philosophy.

Getting Started with the DSpace 7 Angular UI

Art Lowel and Tim Donohue

As of late 2016, a DSpace 7 UI Working Group has begun developing an Angular User Interface which will replace the existing UIs in DSpace 7. While the DSpace 7 Angular UI is still in active development, this workshop will allow developers to familiarize themselves with the new Angular codebase and learn how to customize and enhance the new UI.

Attendees will be expected to install the DSpace 7 UI codebase or use a provided virtual machine. There will be exercises to allow attendees to get some hands on experience with the codebase and development tools.

Attendees will come away with the following:
An introduction to the Angular framework
An overview of various Angular tools/modules in use by DSpace, along with recommended development and debugging tools.
An overview of the DSpace 7 UI codebase, its current status and next steps
How to make their own customizations to the new UI
How to join the effort and contribute to the new UI

The workshop will be accessible for people that attended last year’s workshop as well as newcomers.

Getting Started with the DSpace 7 REST API

Andrea Bollini, Tim Donohue, and Terry Brady

As of late 2016, a DSpace 7 UI Working Group has begun developing an Angular User Interface which will replace the existing UIs in DSpace 7. This effort also includes the development of a new REST API for DSpace, designed to follow the principles of a RESTful webservice and adopt emerging standards and formats. The goals of the REST API are twofold: (1) to fully support the new Angular UI, and (2) to provide a rich, RESTful integration point for third-party services and tools.

This workshop will allow developers to become more familiar with the new REST API framework before DSpace 7 is released.

This hands-on developers workshop will provide attendees with an overview of the DSpace 7 REST framework:

standards / best practices that the API is based on (HAL, JSON+PATCH, JWT)
DSpace 7 REST Contract (documentation of all endpoints)
interacting with the REST API (via HAL browser, curl and/or postman)
how to build new endpoints into the REST API
where to look when issues arise
how to document and test existing/new endpoints

Attendees will be expected to setup a virtual machine (or install the DSpace 7 codebase locally) to get more familiar with the codebase/development tools

Using and Extending Fedora

David Wilcox, Andrew Woods, Daniel Bernstein

Fedora is a flexible, extensible, open source repository platform for managing, preserving, and providing access to digital content. The latest version of Fedora introduces native linked data capabilities and a modular architecture based on well-documented APIs and ease of integration with existing applications. Both new and existing Fedora users will be interested in learning about and experiencing Fedora features and functionality first-hand.

Using pre-configured virtual machines, participants will learn how to create and manage content in Fedora in accordance with linked data best practices and the Portland Common Data Model, how to search and run SPARQL queries against content in Fedora using the included Solr index and triplestore, and how to import resources into Fedora and export resources from Fedora to external systems and services as part of a digital curation workflow.

PolarisOS: the next generation of open source repository

Corentin Ribeyre, Luc Boruta, Yann Mahe, Sarah Amran, Tristan Davaille, and Virginie Simon

Institutions around the world face major challenges regarding the management of their data. It is often striking to see the discrepancies that exist between solutions to store data into complex databases, solutions to harvest and ingest new documents and solutions to visualize them in a user-friendly way. However, few platforms have the ability to merge those three aspects into a comprehensive and easy-to-use ecosystem.

The workshop will provide an interactive demo of the open source repository PolarisOS. We will present how we have built upon state-of-the-art technologies to deliver a robust and scalable solution that combines an open data repository powered by Elasticsearch, a powerful tool for harvesting, normalizing and ingesting data and a modern user interface based on the latest web technologies.

PolarisOS is a fully-configurable platform that allows all stakeholders to:

Build an institutional open repository (IOR) without IT skills
Retrieve all kinds of data (structured, unstructured) and structure, clean and visualize it
Integrate the IOR with existing internal/external systems, open/proprietary databases
Encourage/help researchers to deposit articles into an IOR

SWORDv3 Technical and Community Workshop

Richard David Jones, Neil Jefferies

SWORD has a long history in the Open Repositories space, and has quietly provided the backbone for a lot of integrations and interoperability efforts over the past 10 years. This new version (SWORDv3) aims to modernise the standard, using a more pure RESTful approach, JSON instead of XML, and a focus on supporting Research Data Management, very large files, and Linked Data use cases. Meanwhile a significant effort to find SWORD a sustainable home and opportunity for ongoing support and development in the community is also taking place. Combined, these factors place SWORDv3 very much in the core conference theme of making “open” sustainable.

Introducing RedBox 2

Peter Sefton and Gavin Kennedy

This workshop focuses on RedBox 2, a data management / repository application widely used in Australian universities.

PART 1 an introduction to and demonstration of ReDBox:

Overview of ReDBox
Data Management Planning Tools
Workspaces and Provisioning
Metadata Management including Harvesting and Curation
The Mint Namespace Authority
Publication Workflows

PART 2: Anexploration of RedBOX for institutions (developers and administrators):

How to install the product
How to configure forms and workflows
How to integrate to write new workflows
Details of the technology stack (nodeJS, Sails, MongoDB)

Samvera, exploring the community and its sustainable hosted and custom digital repository solutions

Karen Cariani, Mark Bussey, Robin Ruggaber, Linda Newman

Samvera is a community, a set of tools, and increasingly a collection of ready-to run and hosted applications to help build a digital repository for your institution. It is an open source and sustainable community. This 3-hour workshop will provide an on-boarding and general entrée to the Samvera community and solutions for non-coders. The first hour will give an overview of Samvera products, hosting options and the community – what is it, why is it different. It will showcase applications solving a diverse set of needs and organizations, and discuss the how the community at large works. The second hour will give a general technical overview designed for non-coders. The resources needed to maintain and contribute to a hosted or custom Samvera solution will be discussed, resources that exist to get started, and how to contribute expertise or code to the community. And the final hour will discuss how to pitch Samvera and get institutional support. It will discuss the advantages of being part of the community and how that strengthens the sustainability of the tools, the applications, and the community overall.

Engaging Liaison Librarians in the Data Deposit Workflow: Starting the Conversation

Lisa Zilinski, Emma Slayton, Eric Kaltman

Library staff and faculty are facing new challenges in the size and complexity of data and in organizing effective workflows to manage and structure data submissions in conjunction with data producers. One key component for dealing with the deluge of institutionally produced data is to articulate appropriate policies for communication and handling of data deposits. Often this responsibility falls to overburdened research data management staff and liaison librarians. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) we have worked to address this issue by instituting data deposit guides and submission checklists to be used as a first line of interaction with data-producing researchers.

CMU Libraries developed a Data Questionnaire and Checklist for liaisons to use when discussing a data deposit. This workshop will walk participants through the process of developing a Data Questionnaire and Checklist for their institution, leveraging the work of CMU. We will explain the rationale behind decisions to include or not include certain questions, engage participants in a discussion around needs in their institutions, and lead a hands-on activity that will customize the template to meet the needs of their institutions. Participants will take away the bones of a guide they can adapt and use at their own institution.

Valkyrie Code Read

Anna Headley

Valkyrie is a new Samvera gem which seeks to replace ActiveFedora in the Samvera stack. It uses the data mapper pattern to allow Samvera metadata and resources to be persisted in a variety of back ends, enabling more architectural choice in Samvera repositories while keeping the community aligned on common code.

In this workshop we will read the Valkyrie codebase together. We’ll look at its implementation of the data mapper pattern as well as the rest of its features, including data types, change sets, and query adapters.

Wikimedia Workshop(morning)

Asaf Bartov

What are the largest cities in the world with a woman mayor? Who won national book awards in more than one country? What famous people were born in Bozeman? What is the leading cause of death among chemists? Who are some contemporaries of Michelangelo in Rome and in Florence?

Ask Wikidata!

The workshop will present Wikidata, Wikimedia’s open and free linked-data repository, and walk attendees from absolute beginner level through contributing to Wikidata and querying Wikidata using SPARQL as well as external tools and Google Spreadsheets. No prior knowledge of Wikidata or SPARQL necessary! Basic browser and computer skills (copying and pasting) assumed.

Wiki Editing (afternoon)

Asaf Bartov

Participants will be introduced to the basics of Wikipedia and how to edit it. This half-day workshop will acquaint new editors with the overall scope of Wikipedia, its policies and practices. You’ll explore handy links to its most useful features and resources, as well as do exercises to give you a taste of actual editing. Attendees will leave the workshop more comfortable when you start editing on your own. Participants should come with a laptop, or tablets, pens, and notepaper.

Building a National Data Service

Dom Fripp, Alan MacKenzie, Tom Demeranville, John Paul Kaye, Finlay McCourt, Paul Mollahan

This all day workshop will introduce attendees to a number of tools and techniques based on the approaches used for the delivery of the Jisc Research Data Shared Service (RDSS) project. RDSS delivered a new Software as a Service (SaaS) product to solve institutional research data management challenges at an national scale.

We will explore the product management and software engineering challenges faced during delivery of the new service and briefly introduce attendees to the challenges of research data management (RDM).

Using the story of RDSS we will take attendees through a number of techniques and tools, explaining the challenges and advantages of their use as well as providing hands on tutorials and guidance. Topics covered will include:

Modelling the requirements of the system with UML.
Message based integration and how to integrate repository, preservation, scholarly communications and external research and administrative systems with RDSS
Infrastructure as code tooling used to manage hundreds of cloud resources an application instances across multiple cloud providers.
Techniques for security assurance.
Complex research object modeling with Hyrax/Samvera