sharing-data.html

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title: Sharing Data in OMERO
menu-id: l1-workflow
pdfs:
    - sharing-data.pdf
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<h2><a name="top" id="top">Contents</a></h2>

<p>
<a href="#roles">User Roles</a><br />
<a href="#groups">Group Types</a><br />
<a href="#permissions">Tables Summarising the Roles and Permissions in Groups</a><br />
<a href="#viewing">Viewing Data by Groups</a><br />
<a href="#moving">Moving Data Between Groups</a><br />
<a href="#admin">Admin Tasks</a></p>

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<h2>Introduction</h2>

<p>Groups are used in OMERO to enable sharing of data between users. Groups are created by the OMERO administrator and usually have one or more group owners. Group owners and admins can add or remove users.</p>

<p>There are three levels of group permissions allowing members different degrees of interaction with the data owned by other users in the group. In all groups, you retain ownership of your own data, and there are no limitations on the operations and actions you can perform on your own data.</p>

<p>As group permissions are set at a server level, they apply to OMERO.insight, OMERO.web or any other application or script being used to access the data.</p>

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<p class="top_link"><a href="#top"><img src="images/back_to_top.jpg" alt="back_to_top.jpg" style="float: right;"/></a></p>

<h2><a name="roles" id="roles"></a>User Roles</h2>

<p>There are three levels of role in any group:</p>

<p><span class="bold">Member</span> - the level most users will be at:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>can always see and interact fully their own data in any type of group</li>
<li>how much they can see and interact with data belonging to other group members depends on the type of the group</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p><span class="bold">Owner</span> - typically used by laboratory or research group leaders:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>can add members to, or remove them from, a group</li>
<li>permissions level on a group can be increased by an owner</li>
<li>can view and annotate data belonging to other members in the group</li>
<li>other interactions with data belonging to other group members depends on group type</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p><span class="bold">Administrator</span> - this role is typically reserved for the OMERO server administrator:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>practically speaking, Admins can do anything they like to any user's data, anywheree</li>
</ul>
</p>

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<p class="top_link"><a href="#top"><img src="images/back_to_top.jpg" alt="back_to_top.jpg" style="float: right;"/></a></p>

<h2><a name="groups" id="groups"></a>Group Types</h2>

<p>There are three types of group in OMERO:</p>

<p><span class="bold">Private</span> - only you and group owners can see or interact with your data:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>a group owner can view your data, change rendering settings and draw their own ROIs, but these will not be saved</li>
<li>they can also edit the names of your images and remove any ROIs or annotations you have added to your data</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p><span class="bold">Read-Only</span> - all other members of can see and interact with your data on a read-only basis:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>all other members can see and interact with your data in a way which doesn't change anything you've saved</li>
<li>a group owner can do anything they like with your data except delete it or move it out the group</li>
<li>the group owner's rendering settings will be saved under their name and will not affect any rendering settings you have saved</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p><span class="bold">Read-Annotate</span> - all other members of the group can see and interact with your data:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>other members' rendering settings are saved under their names and don't affect your settings, although you can view them if you wish</li>
<li>they can draw ROIs and add annotations such as tags, attachments and comments</li>
<li>they cannot edit the names of your images or change or delete ROIs and annotations added by you or users other than themselves</li>
<li>other members of the group cannot delete your data or move it out of the group</li>
<li>an owner of a Read-Annotate group can do anything to any member's data except delete it or move it out of the grouppo</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p>The main points can be summarised as:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>you always retain ownership of your data</li>
<li>your rendering settings cannot be over-written by any other user</li>
<li>changes to rendering settings made by another user will be saved under their name and you can view them</li>
<li>you can remove any tags, attachments, comments or ROIs added by other users</li>
<li>no other user can move your data between groups or delete it, except an Admin user</li>
</ul>
</p>

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<p class="top_link"><a href="#top"><img src="images/back_to_top.jpg" alt="back_to_top.jpg" style="float: right;"/></a></p>

<h2><a name="permissions" id="permissions"></a>Tables Summarising the Roles and Permissions in Groups</h2>

<span class="bold">Private Group</span>

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<span class="bold">Read-Only Group</span>

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<span class="bold">Read-Annotate Group</span>

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<div class="note">
<p class="note-title">Note</p>
<p class="note-text">Permission levels on groups can be changed by group Owner or Admin users. There is a danger however, that some annotations such as tags and attachments associated with data in the group might be lost if the permission levels are changed. This is particularly pertinent to changing a group from Private to a higher level of access.</p>
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<p class="top_link"><a href="#top"><img src="images/back_to_top.jpg" alt="back_to_top.jpg" style="float: right;"/></a></p>

<h2><a name="viewing" id="viewing"></a>Viewing Data by Groups</h2>

<p>If you are a member of more than one group, your default group shows in the data tree on start-up (left hand panel).</p>

<p>Click on the <span class="bold">Display Groups</span> menu to select another group.</p>

<p>In OMERO.insight more than one group can be displayed at a time.</p>

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<p class><span class="bold">In OMERO.insight:</span></p>

<p>Select a group in the first tier of the menu to display your data in that group in the data tree.</p>

<p>Select <span class="bold">Show All Users</span> to display all users in the group in the data tree.</p>

<p>Click <span class="bold">Update</span>.</p>

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<p>Use the <span class="bold">Display Users</span> checkbox to see the group's data irrespective of owner.</p>

<p>Checking <span class="bold">Display Users</span> shows the data according to owner.</p>

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<p><span class="bold">In OMERO.web:</span></p>

<p>Select an individual user to view their data in the data tree.</p>

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<p>Select <span class="bold">All members</span> to display all the data from all users in that group.</p>

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<h2>Group and User Selection Version 4 and Version 5</h2>

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<div class="note">
<p class="note-title">Note</p>
<p class="note-text">The Group selection menu shown for OMERO.insight above are from version 4.4.x. The 5.x version of OMERO.insight has a slightly different appearance, and the interaction has been improved.</p>
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<p class="top_link"><a href="#top"><img src="images/back_to_top.jpg" alt="back_to_top.jpg" style="float: right;"/></a></p>

<h2><a name="moving" id="moving"></a>Moving Data Between Groups</h2>

<p>If you are a member of more than one group, you can move data between groups.</p>
<p>Right-click on a project, dataset or one or more images and select <span class="bold">Move to</span> from the menu.</p>
<p>Select the destination group from the options.</p>
<p>Select an existing project and/or dataset as the destination.</p>
<p>Click <span class="bold">OK</span> when done.</p>
<p>If no destination is selected the images will be placed in <span class="bold">Orphaned</span> in the destination group.</p>

<div class="warning">
<p class="warning-title">Warning!</p>
<p class="warning-text">There is a danger that some annotations such as tags and attachments on data being moved between groups could be lost if:
<ul class="bullet-list">
<li>the groups have different permission levels or </li>
<li>the owners of the annotations are in the one group but not the other.</li>
</ul>
</p>
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<h2><a name="admin" id="admin"></a>Admin Tasks</h2>

<p>To change your default group, go to your user settings.</p>
<p>In the <span class="bold">User Settings</span> select the new default group from the drop-down list.</p>
<p>In OMERO.web, click <span class="bold">Save</span>.</p>

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<div class="note">
<p class="note-title">Note</p>
<p class="note-text">The points described below apply only if you are an <span class="bold">Administrator</span>.</p>
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<ol class="step">

<li><p class="first">OMERO.web offers the best interface for Administrative tasks.</p>
<p>Click on the <span class="bold">Admin</span> button on the left in the top toolbar.</p>
<p>To create a new user, select the <span class="bold">Users</span> tab.</p>
<p>Click on <span class="bold">Add New User</span> to bring up the new user form.</p>
<p>Fill in the details and add the groups you wish the user to be in to the <span class="bold">Groups</span> box.</p>
<p>After completing click <span class="bold">Save</span>.</p>

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<li><p class="first">To create a new group, click on the <span class="bold">Group</span> tab</p>
<p>Click on the <span class="bold">Add New Group</span> button.</p>
<p>Enter the details of the group.</p>
<p>Add any users to be owners to the <span class="bold">Owners</span> box.</p>
<p>Add any users to be members to the <span class="bold">Members</span> box.</p>
<p>To add a user to an existing group, click on the <span class="bold">Edit</span> icon and add users as above.</p>
<p>Individual members can also be added to an existing group via their user details page.</p>

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<li><p class="first">Click on the <span class="bold">Statistics</span> tab to see the disc usage for all users on the OMERO server.</p>

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<div class="page-end">
	<p>All Tutorial Material is available on line at: <a href="http://help.openmicroscopy.org">www.help.openmicroscopy.org</a></p>
	<p>The Main OME website is at: <a href="http://www.openmicroscopy.org">www.openmicroscopy.org</a></p>
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