[kepler-dev] [kepler-users] question about kepler

[Paul Allen]

Yes, we are working on two things that might be of general interest to 
the Kepler community:

1) a web-based front-end to a myexperiment.org like into which you can 
upload and execute workflows
2) a scalable back-end workflow execution framework to run workflows at 
the request of web site users

We are half-way through a development cycle at the end of which I expect 
to have a stable demo site.

-Paul

Matthew Jones wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The actor repository allows you to upload an actor along with its MoML 
> document and documentation.  The actor is stored in a Metacat server 
> (http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/metacat) and the documentation 
> is indexed to enable searching the repository through a web-based 
> interface.  The repository can also be searched from within the Kepler 
> application to locate remote actors of interest.  Metacat uses LDAP as 
> its directory server to authenticate users.  Metacat supports fine 
> grained, role-based access control of the objects it stores, but we 
> currently are only supporting public/private access levels to simplify 
> the process of uploading actors.  This could be reconsidered if there 
> is a use case for more access levels.
>
> Kepler communicates with Metacat using the EarthGrid web services 
> interface. Any server that supports the appropriate web services 
> interface could technically be used as an actor repository within 
> Kepler. Metacat is one such server, and there may be others that would 
> be candidates.
>
> You can indeed deploy a version of metacat at your institution and use 
> it for your actor repository by configuring the Kepler client to point 
> at the new repository.
>
> Kepler automatically prompts a person to login when they attempt to 
> perform an operation requiring authentication, such as uploading an 
> actor to the repository.  There is also a Login menu that allows 
> someone to login at any time.
>
> In terms of web-based UIs, there are several efforts.  Hydrant is 
> indeed an excellent example, but others are also developing systems.  
> The GEON project has  been running Kepler in the GEON portal 
> successfully for several years, and Paul Allen at the Cornell 
> Laboratory of Ornithology is developing an interface for biodiversity 
> research.  The interest in this topic is significant, and so we will 
> probably be forming a working group to improve Kepler's ability to be 
> run in a portal environment.
>
> Regards,
>
> Matt
>
> P.S. Please do not cross-post to kepler-dev and kepler-users -- pick 
> the appropriate list for your question -- most developers are on both 
> lists.
>
> dejw wrote:
>> Hi Jianwu again,
>>
>> I want to ask more about this below:
>>>>
>>>> 3. Actor repository - I understand that it is possible to have one 
>>>> common actor repository for some organization? Kepler uses LDAP for 
>>>> it? Are there some access rights for actors or something like this? 
>>>> Is it possible to grant some roles to users when LDAP 
>>>> authentication is used? Is it possible to require login while 
>>>> starting Kepler?
>>>      You can find the current actor repository at 
>>> http://library.kepler-project.org/kepler/. Yet it is not widely used 
>>> currently. We are trying implement more comprehensive actor 
>>> repository mechanism.
>>>>
>> 1. So you use LDAP server to store actors? or something else?
>>
>> 2. How about access rights and user roles as regard access to actors 
>> in such repository?
>>
>> 3. I understand I can deploy such repository inside some organization 
>> and configure kepler to use it?
>>
>> 4. Can I set kepler to require login before start editor? to 
>> recognize user somehow?
>>
>> Dawid
>>
>>
>>
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>