The purpose of this document is to give you a quick and easy way to get started using the iProject. This document works under the assumption that the iProject server has already been properly installed, your machine has been properly configured for connection, and that a project or multiple projects already exist on the server. For more information on creating projects, please read the section on Creating new Projects). In this document, we'll be using the iReservoir iProject server as an example, though your specific iProject server may vary in name and location.
To log into the iProject, you'll first need to download the application launcher. First, open a Web browser and direct it to the iProject location. In this example, we'll be using www.ireservoir.net. This page can also be reached by browsing to www.ireservoir.com and then clicking the Client Access link.
At this point, you'll be looking at a page that looks similar to the one shown below. From this page, you'll need to download and install the iProject application launcher that pertains to your operating system. Most users will want to click the Windows link. Alternatively, you can just follow this link to download the latest version of the iProject application installer.
The iProject Application Launcher is easy to install, the only step requiring input is choosing a location on your machine to install it. The first picture below shows the installation screen in which you choose the location on your computer to install the iProject client application. The default location is in your Program Files directory under a directory called iProject.
After installing the iProject application launcher, there will be a new iProject icon on your desktop. Double-clicking this icon will launch the iProject. You'll be presented with a progress screen like the one shown in the center of the image below while the iProject begins to make its connection and download the latest version of the client software package.
Once the iProject has been started, you're presented with a login window.
For security purposes, you'll need to enter a username and password before using the iProject. If you don't have a username and password, you'll need to speak with your system administrator or a project administrator to attain one.
Next, you are presented with a window that contains a list of projects.
Your username and password are tied to the projects you can view in the project list, and access to these projects is granted to you by a system or project administrator. First, select a project from the list by left-clicking on it so that it becomes highlighted. Once a project is selected, you can quickly query for its statistics by clicking the statistics button at the bottom of the screen.
The statistics window gives you a quick overview of the project in terms of total number of files and directories. It also gives you a list of the top-level directories in the project. To open a project, simply double-click the project or, once it's highlighted, click the Open Project button.
After selecting a project, the project list window is replaced by a project explorer window, accessible by the iExplorer tab (see picture below). The picture shows a tree representing the file system for that project on the server (data repository). For example, the structure of the file system could be a representation of your workflows where each directory represents a major discipline involved in the completion of a project. The order of the directories represent the order in which the project work would normally progress. iProject is flexible in its capability to represent workflows. It has administrative tools and functions that allow you to create any file system structure you want to best represent your workflows. As an example, the picture below shows a typical directory structure used for an iReservoir.com project.
After selecting a project, the project list window is replaced by a project explorer window as shown above. On the left, you'll find a tree that represents the file system for that project on the server. This tree works just like an expandable/collapsable tree you'd use in Windows Explorer or Linux (clicking the "+" to expand a tree and clicking the "-" to collapse it). To display the contents of a folder, simply select it with a left mouse click. The contents of the highlighted folder are displayed in a File list window in the right pane.
When a folder is selected, you have access to different accessible by right-clicking with your mouse. Two of these options, the Directory Statistics and the Directory Contents, are very useful to explore the project.
The "Directory Statistics" makes a "Statistics" window appear in the right pane (shown below). The Statistics window shows the number of sub-directories, the number of files, and the total size of the files below that directory in bytes.
The "Directory Contents" option makes a Directory Contents window appear in the right pane of the iExplorer desktop. It contains a tree of HTML links to the structure of folders underneath the selected directory. Each link has a short description of the number of sub-folders, files, and the total size in bytes. You can directly go to any folders by clicking its HTML link. Clicking on the HTML link will select and highlight the corresponding folder in the project on the left pane and will open its "Files" list window in the right pane of the iExplorer desktop. You can also save this tree as an HTML file (without the links) to a location on your local machine as reference to the contents of a given project.
Expanding a folder tree allows you to view sub-folders beneath it. These folders may or may not contain files, depending on the level of completion in each discipline. To quickly view whether or not a folder contains files, we've developed a color-coded system to make this quick and easy.
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A yellow folder means that this directory directly contains files. |
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A grey folder means that the directory does not contain any files, and has no files anywhere in its subdirectory tree. |
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A blue folder indicates that the directory does not contain files directly, but a folder somewhere in its subdirectory tree does directly contain files. |
You'll also notice icon bars sitting at the top of the folder tree and file list window. The allow quick access to some of the more often used iProject functions such as Refresh, Delete, Rename, Cut, Copy, and Paste actions.
You can use the iProject search option by selecting the Search tab at the bottom of the screen. A search window will replace the iExplorer window. There, you can search by keywords for Companies, Directories, Files, Messages, Roles, and Users. The search results appear in a table window on the right. When you select a row in the table of results, the items found are displayed in the Text window at the bottom. This window shows any information related to the item you were searching for. Clicking the Display button or double-clicking an item brings back the iExplorer window, and the iProject should find and highlight the item you were searching for. Your search results are still available in the search window and you can toggle back and forth between the iExplorer and the Search windows by using the tabs.
A very important aspect of working on a project is the capability to Quality Control the data. Input data, as well as intermediary and final results, must be reviewed for quality control. For example, spurious data must be found and eliminated or corrected before starting any analysis. Results must be checked for inconsistency with the physics of the phenomenon under study. QC is a very important component of a project, specially when the workflows are all inter-dependent and have feedback loops. In many situations, the results of one workflow are used as input for another workflow. Bad results often indicate bad input data. For complex data sets, it may take more than one iteration over all the workflows before the final results are deemed good enough to be used.
The iProject has been designed with this in mind and integrates many viewers to let you display and look at the data and results without the need for launching specialized applications. The iProject can display many types of files including LAS, SEGY, CONTOUR MAPS, LINE PLOTS and many others. The particular viewer is automatically selected according to the filename extension. Note that common file types such as ASCII, WORD documents, GIF, TIFF, Excel, etc... can also be viewed. Please go to Displaying Files for a complete list and details.
To open a file up in your browser window, you can double-click the file. In the example below, we've chosen to open an LAS file. You can also use the 
icon to open a selected file in a browser window. Top open a file in an internal iProject viewer, first select the file so its highlighted, then click the 
icon.
The iProject can open a variety of data into the internal viewers, as shown below. All of the files that can be opened in the internal viewers are opened in the same way described above.
If you have write-permission to the opened project, you can upload files to it by using the File Transfer option. File Transfer also allows you to download files from a project to your local machine. Selecting the "File Transfer" tab at the bottom of the iProject window will take you to the File Transfer screen.
The File Transfer panel allows you to transfer files between an open project and your local machine. The project can be stored on a remote machine at your site (intranet) or across the world on a remote Internet-accessible site (secure file transfer via Internet). The picture above gives you an overview of the various parts of the File Transfer window.
To upload files to the project from your local machine, first browse to the files on the lower portion of the screen. Select the files or folders you want to upload, then use the upper (server) portion of the window to browse to the location you wish to upload the files to. Once you've selected the files and/or folders to be transfered, and then selected their destination, click the Upload button in the center of the iProject window. To download files to your machine, you would follow these same steps. You'd select the files on the server you'd like to download, select the destinatioon on your local machine, then click the Download button in the center of the window.
You can also assign a status to the files and directories you upload, along with descriptions. The file status options available are Raw for original data, Intermediate for intermediary and working data and Final for final results. In the example below, files are being prepared for upload, they've been assigned the Final status, and are being given the description: "Final results - no additional work needed."
For longer transfers, or transfers with large amounts of data and/or a large number of files, it can be useful to use the Progress screen to monitor the files as they move from their original location to their destination. By clicking the Progress tab, you're taken to the File Transfer Progress screen shown below. Here you're provided with various information. You can see files that are being prepared for transfer and files that are currently being transfered. You can also view various information about the transfer such as the total number of files being copied, the total number of bytes, and you can even view files that have been completed, files that may have failed due to network failure, and files that were skipped (since there were duplicates on the server that you chose not to overwrite.)
The iProject allows you to create reports on activities in a project as well as have the iProject server automatically send you reports as activity occurs. The Activity Details, Latest Activity, and the Summary options under the Reports menu help you to review the file changes in a given folder. by selecting a folder and then choosing one of these report options, you can specify a timeframe and a report will be given to you based on your criteria. You can also elect to be notified by e-mail automatically when activity occurs within a project. An example of this is shown below.
You can also elect to send email notification to yourself and other immediately upon uploading files to the iProject. In the File Transfer area, you simply check the E-mail Notification checkbox, write the message you'd like to send, then choose the recipients of your email. When you upload files with this option, each person on the list you've chosen will receive the message you've entered once the upload finishes.
When you're done and ready to leave the iProject, you select the Logout button at the top of the screen or the Exit option under the Session menu. If you log out while a file transfer is in progress, the file transfer will be terminated. Remember to always check your progress window before logging out if you are not sure that a transfer has been completed.
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