This documentation is derived from https://www.uu.nl/en/research/yoda and adjusted to Yoda hosted at SURF.
All data in Yoda is stored in data compartments. Each data compartment has a top-level folder for research data. The name of such a research folder, also known as a research group, always starts with “research-”. Files in a research group are only visible and accessible to users who have been granted access to that group.
Users can have three different roles in a group:
- Member with read-only access: is able to view or download files in the group.
- Regular member: can view, download, upload, modify or delete files and folders in the group.
- Group manager: is able to grant and revoke access rights for the group. Can also view, download, upload, modify or delete files and folders in the group.
Creating a new Yoda group
In some cases, it can be useful to have multiple data compartments for one project. For example, you might want to have one data compartment with nonsensitive data that is shared with collaborators, as well as a second data compartment with sensitive data that is only accessible to the principal investigator.
There are two prerequisites for creating a new group:
- You need to have a group manager role in an existing group in the same community.
- You need to have been granted a system-wide right to create groups
If you are authorized to create a new group, you can do so in the following way:
- Navigate to the Yoda portal.
- Log in
- Select "Group Manager" in the top menu.
- In the left pane of the Group Manager, select any existing group in the community.
- Press the "Add group" button at the bottom of the screen.
- A dialog will open. Enter the name of the group in the "Group name" field. The "research-" prefix is selected by default and should not be changed. Only lowercase letters and numbers can be used in group names.
- Click on "Add group" to finish the process.
Once created, a group cannot be renamed.
If you are not authorized to create a group yourself, you can ask your data manager to create one.
Granting access to a group
If you are the group manager of a group, you will be able to add users to the group in the following way:
- Navigate to the Yoda portal.
- Log in
- Select "Group Manager" in the top menu.
- In the left pane of the Group Manager, select the group.
- Click on the link "Click here to add a new user to the group".
- Enter the email address of the user. The address must be entered entirely in lower case.
If the user belongs to an institute that opted to enable log in with institute credentials, then no email invitation will be sent. Users with an external (not belonging to the institute's domain) email address will receive an invitation link that can be used to create an account. In this case, you (the host) will receive two email notifications: one to confirm the invitation and one to confirm that the user has registered their account.
By default, a new user will be a regular member of the group. If you want the user to be a member with read-only access or a group manager, see below for how to change user roles.
Changing the role of a user in a group
If you are the group manager of a group, you will be able to alter the roles of other members.
Users can have three different roles in a group:
- Member with read-only access: is able to view or download files in the group.
- Regular member: can view, download, upload, modify or delete files and folders in the group.
- Group manager: is able to grant and revoke access rights for the group. Can also view, download, upload, modify or delete files and folders in the group.
In order to change the role of a group member:
- Navigate to the Yoda portal.
- Log in
- Select "Group Manager" in the top menu.
- In the left pane of the Group Manager, select the group.
- In the right pane of the Group Manager, select the user.
- Press one of the buttons next to the "Change role" label to change the user’s role. The button with the upward pointing arrow will grant a role with more rights, whereas the button with the downward pointing arrow will grant a role with fewer rights. The meaning of the icons is:
: group manager
: regular member
: member with read-only access
Revoking access to a group
If you are the group manager of a group, you will be able to revoke access to a group in the following way:
- Navigate to the Yoda portal.
- Log in
- Select "Group Manager" in the top menu.
- In the left pane of the Group Manager, select the group.
- In the right pane of the Group Manager, select the user.
- Click on the red "Remove user" button.
Removing a user
When you revoke the user access to a group, the user is still known by Yoda.
If you re-add the user to another group, the user does not receive a new invite.
In order to remove completely a user from Yoda:
- revoke the access of the user from any group
- remove the user from iRODS
Only after removing the user, if you re-invite the user to Yoda, the user receives again an email (unless the user logs in via SURFconext).
Removing a group
Ensure that the directory of the group is empty, otherwise the user will receive an error message when they try to delete it.
- Navigate to the Yoda portal.
- Log in
- Select "Group Manager" in the top menu.
- In the left pane of the Group Manager, select the group.
- Click on the red "Remove group" button.