Browsing a share¶

Opening a share from the home page or the sidebar brings you to its main interface. This is where you view, search, transfer and organise files.

At the top is the share's name, and — when you are inside a subfolder — the path you have navigated into. Every part of that path is a link, so you can jump back to any level.

The panel beneath it summarises the share:

Field	Meaning
Owner	Who created the share and is ultimately responsible for it
Sharing	How many users and groups have access. Click Sharing to see them
Description	Free text set by the owner
Tags	Labels used to categorise and find the share
Share size	Total size, with the time it was calculated. It is not recomputed on every visit — see Storage used

The file list¶

The Files tab lists everything in the current folder. Alongside each name are its type, tags, extension, size and modification time.

Click a folder name to move into it.
Click a file name to download it.
Sort by clicking any column header; filter using the box above the list.
Tick the checkbox beside one or more entries to act on them in bulk.

Rendered README¶

If a share contains a file called README.md at the level you are viewing, its contents are rendered directly beneath the file list. This is a good place for a share owner to explain how the data is organised, what the samples are, or how the files were produced — the reader sees it without downloading anything.

When no such file exists, BioShare shows a short hint saying you can add one.

Actions on the whole folder¶

The buttons above the file list act on the current folder, or on whatever you have ticked:

Button	What it does
Download	Retrieve several files or folders at once — see Downloading and uploading
Upload	Add files, by browser, SFTP or rsync
New folder	Create a folder in the current location
Move	Move the selected entries elsewhere within the same share
Delete	Permanently delete the selected entries
Email	Email the people who have access to this share
Share	Share the current folder onward — see read-only sharing

Naming restrictions

File and folder names may contain only letters, numbers, periods, underscores and dashes. Names with spaces or other characters are rejected.

Actions on a single file¶

The Actions column at the right of each row offers a few icons, and which ones appear depends on whether the row is a file or a folder:

Action	Files	Folders
Add or edit metadata — attach notes and comma-separated tags to that entry. Tags appear in the Tags column and are searchable	✓	✓
Rename — change the name, subject to the naming restrictions above	✓	✓
Preview — view the contents in the browser without downloading. Useful for a small text, CSV or report file	✓
Create subshare (share owner only) — turn the folder into a share in its own right. See Subshares		✓

Checksums¶

BioShare can calculate an md5sum for a file. Compare it against the checksum of your downloaded copy to confirm the transfer was not corrupted — worth doing after a large or interrupted download.

The Search tab searches the files inside this share, rather than the list of shares.

Enter part of a filename to see matching files anywhere in the share, including inside subfolders. The rules are listed above the box, and are worth knowing:

Any part of the name matches — searching fastq finds S01_L001_R1.fastq.gz. There is no need to add wildcards around your term.
* skips characters within the term, so sample*.fastq matches sample01_R1.fastq but not other_sample.fastq.
At least two characters are required. Shorter queries would match most of a share and are rejected rather than served slowly.
Case is ignored unless you tick Match case.

Results are capped (50 by default), and you are told when there are more. If what you want is not listed, make the term more specific rather than scrolling.

Folders and files are both returned; clicking a folder opens it, clicking a file downloads it.

Activity log¶

The Logs tab shows what has happened to the share: files added, folders created, entries renamed, moved or deleted, rsync transfers, and permission changes.

This is useful for answering "has the data finished uploading?" or "who deleted that folder?". Shares with no recorded activity show a short message instead.

Symlinks¶

If a share contains symbolic links, the owner can review them through View Links. Only the share's owner may see this — it shows where each link points, so that links escaping the share can be spotted and removed.

The Share button offers a way to pass a folder on to someone else with read-only access, without granting them any ability to change the data. This corresponds to the Share column on the permissions matrix.