Browsing Spaces

The Spaces File Browser displays the file and folder contents of a Space across multiple or specific sites including additional contextual information such as file counts, size, metadata and status.

The Space File Browser provides two views of Spaces file and folder content - Global and Local.

  • Global displays the file and folder content for a Space across all Spaces on all associated Sites

  • Local displays the file and folder content for a Space on a specific Site

The default view of the Spaces File Browser is Global.

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To switch to a site-centric view, select the specific site from the Spaces drop-down menu.

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To switch to Global view, select Global from the Spaces drop-down menu.

Spaces File Browser Global View

Global view displays the file and folder content for a Space across all Spaces on all associated Sites

The example below displays the file and folder content for the Spaces across all Sites.

Spaces Filebrowser Global View

Spaces File Browser Local View

Local view displays the file and folder content for a Space on a specific Site

The example below displays the file and folder content for a Spaces across all Sites with a site-centric view.

Spaces Filebrowser Local View

The Space File Browser Screen

The Spaces File Browser screen is comprised of several areas.

Filtering the Space File Browser

To display files or folders matching keywords, enter the keywords in the filter bar.

Spaces Filtering

Space File Browser Icon Statuses

In Local View the Spaces File Browser displays additional information to designate the status of the file on the Site’s pixstor file system.

../_images/space_browser_local_unmanaged_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the default file icon if the file or folder is unmanaged. An unmanaged file has not yet been processed by Ngenea operations.

../_images/space_browser_local_migrated_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the cloud icon if the file or folder is Pre-Staged. A pre-staged file is present on the Site’s pixstor file system and has an identical copy in the ngenea target (E.G. AWS cloud bucket).

../_images/space_browser_site_migrated_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the cloud icon if the file or folder is dehydrated. A dehydrated file has only metadata present on the Site’s pixstor file system and has a fully hydrated identical copy in the ngenea target (E.G. AWS cloud bucket).

Space File Browser File Statuses

Site Chips denote the sites on which a Space file or folder is present and their status.

In Global view all sites are listed in alphabetical order.

In Local View, the selected site is identified with a dot.

All other sites are listed in alphabetical order after the local site.

../_images/space_browser_site_unmanaged_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the default file icon if the file or folder is unmanaged. An unmanaged file has not yet been processed by Ngenea operations.

../_images/space_browser_site_premigrated_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the cloud icon if the file or folder is pre-staged. A pre-staged file is present on the Site’s pixstor file system and has an identical copy in the ngenea target (E.G. AWS cloud bucket).

../_images/space_browser_site_migrated_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View displays the cloud icon if the file or folder is dehydrated. A dehydrated file has only metadata present on the Site’s pixstor file system and has a fully hydrated identical copy in the ngenea target (E.G. AWS cloud bucket).

../_images/space_browser_site_notpresent_file_status.png

Spaces File Browser Local View the file or folder displays a greyed out site with a circled dash where the file is not present on the associated site.

Space File Browser File Attributes

The Space File Browser displays information regarding the files and folders within the Space, globally on all Sites or local to a Site.

Option

Description

Name

The file or directory name

Date Modified

The date and time of last modification

Size

The size of the file on the pixstor file system

File Status

The file status per-site

Number of Files

If the item is a directory, displays the total file count within the directory tree thereunder

Viewing File or Folder Metadata

Metadata Panel

Click a file or directory name to view the associated metadata:

File Browser Metadata Panel

The metadata panel provides extended metadata, including a summary of the file status on each site participating within a Space.

Where an asset has been ingested via Search thumbnails are displayed for supported file types.

Using the Job Creator Panel

Explain panel areas, buttons and operations

Job Creator Panel

Selecting files and directories

Selecting an individual file or directory populates the selection list with the item. Selecting a directory populates all items within the chosen directory tree.

Selections of the entire Space or a directory are each counted as 1 item.

Select the 'select all' checkbox next to the Name field in order to select the entire Space.

File Browser Select All

As selections are added or removed, the selected item count is updated:

File Browser Selected Item Count
../_images/job_creator_panel_show_selections.png

Click the View Selection List button to show the files and directories selected to be processed by the chosen workflow

../_images/job_creator_panel_clear_selections.png

Click the Clear selections to remove all files and directories currently selected from the selection list

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Click the Next button to enact the Job

Sites and queues

../_images/job_creator_panel_sites.png

Select the site where the job will run.

../_images/job_creator_panel_queues.png

Select the queue the job will be assigned to.

If the workflow runs across multiple sites, such as "Send to Site", select a source site and queue, and a destination site and queue.

Select source and destination sites and queues to assign workflow to.

Workflow fields

Jobs with Workflows which require additional user decisions prior to enacting the Job raise the Configure workflow fields dialog:

Configure workflow fields dialog

After entering the field information [if required], select the button at the bottom of the dialog to submit the Job.

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Click the button at the bottom of the dialog to submit the Job. The button label is changed dependent on the workflow chosen.

Job Types (Workflows)

Job Creator Panel

Default Workflows

Dehydrate

The Dehydrate workflow transfers the file metadata and data to an Ngenea target (E.G. an AWS cloud bucket). After dehydration the file appears to be normally present alike any other file on the pixstor file system, but consumes no space. Reading the file automatically hydrates the file with data content allowing the user to read the file as normal.

Pre-Stage

The Pre-Stage workflow transfers the file metadata and data to an Ngenea target (E.G. an AWS cloud bucket). After migration the file on Ngenea target is an identical instance of the file on the pixstor file system. The file on the pixstor file system is not dehydrated. Reading the file allows the user to read the file as normal. Pre-Staging can reduce the total time to Dehydrate the same data in future.

Hydrate

The Hydrate workflow retrieves the file data from an Ngenea target (E.G. an AWS cloud bucket). After successful transfer the metadata and data content of the file is present on the destination site. Reading the file allows the user to read the file as normal.

Sync Space to Site

The Sync Space to Site uses file system snapshots to disover changes between the last file system snapshot and when the workflow was run. Changes are applied by sending newly created or recently modified files and directories, including deleting or moving files or directories in place on the target site as necessary to match the source site.

Send to Site (hydrated)

The Send to Site (hydrated) workflow transfers data from a source site to a destination site. After successful transfer the metadata and data content of the file is present on the destination site. Reading the file allows the user to read the file as normal.

Send to Site (dehydrated)

The Send to Site (dehydrated) workflow transfers data from a source site to a destination site. After successful transfer the metadata of the file is present on the destination site. To a user the file appears to be normally present alike any other file on the pixstor file system. Reading the file automatically hydrates the file with data content allowing the user to read the file as normal.

Additional Custom Workflows

Hub can support additional Custom Workflows providing custom operations to data through multiple task steps. Custom workflows are configured and provisioned by a Hub Administrator using the Hub CLI. When provisioned Hub Custom Workflows will appear in the list of workflows available for users to use with their data.