Workbench » History » Version 3
Anonymous, 04/10/2013 02:32 PM
| 1 | 1 | Tom Clegg | h1. Workbench |
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| 3 | 3 | Anonymous | Workbench provides browser-based tools for Arvados users. Today it is relatively thin in terms of functionality, but we envision it providing a range of visual tools that make it easier to use Arvados. It is also the jumping off point for other browser-based applications that are installed on an Arvados cloud. |
| 4 | 1 | Tom Clegg | |
| 5 | 3 | Anonymous | Everything Workbench does can also be done with the command line tools or any other SDK, and it does not have any special privileges[1]. The application is built with Ruby on Rails using the Arvados Rails SDK. It exists for two reasons: |
| 6 | 1 | Tom Clegg | |
| 7 | 3 | Anonymous | * *Convenience* -- Sometimes it's quicker to click than to type, and sometimes it's nice to see progress bars instead of ASCII art. |
| 8 | 2 | Tom Clegg | |
| 9 | 3 | Anonymous | * *Example* -- The source code is an example of how to use Arvados and the Rails SDK. |
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| 11 | (In a sense, it is the web browser SDK -- but we don't call it that because we don't expect anyone to write an application by scripting a web browser.) |
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| 12 | 2 | Tom Clegg | |
| 13 | fn1. There is one exception: Each site has an official Workbench installation with the privileges required to retrieve a user's API authentication tokens. This is necessary to give users access to API clients that aren't well suited to the OpenID authentication process, like the CLI tools. |