Workbench » History » Revision 4
Revision 3 (Anonymous, 04/10/2013 02:32 PM) → Revision 4/7 (Tom Clegg, 04/10/2013 09:51 PM)
h1. Workbench Workbench is the primary provides browser-based tool tools for Arvados users. In addition to Today it is relatively thin in terms of functionality, but we envision it providing built-in generic browsing a range of visual tools for data and analysis jobs, Workbench acts as a gateway and integration that make it easier to use Arvados. It is also the jumping off point for analysis and visualization other browser-based applications running in VMs that are installed on the an Arvados cloud. The built-in browsing features in Everything Workbench are does can also available via be done with the command line tools or any other SDK; Workbench SDK, and it does not need have any special privileges[1]. The browsing features are offered application is built with Ruby on Rails using the Arvados Rails SDK. It exists for two reasons: * *Convenience* — -- Sometimes it's quicker to click than to type, and sometimes it's helpful nice to see progress bars instead of ASCII art. * *Example* — -- The source code is an example of how to use Arvados and the Rails SDK. The Arvados API and authentication system facilitate a smooth user experience and effective data sharing when working with multiple independent web-based applications. Workbench is built with Ruby on Rails using the Arvados Rails SDK. (In a sense, Workbench 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.) fn1. Exception: 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 obtain authentication tokens for give users access to API clients/environments clients that aren't well suited to the OpenID authentication process, like the CLI tools.