Mediaflux Explorer (HTTPS Protocol)

Owned by Andy Tseng
Mar 21, 2024
5 min read

The Mediaflux Explorer is a Java application that you run on your desktop computer. It interacts with the Mediaflux server via the secure HTTPS protocol. This application complements the standard web-based Mediaflux Desktop interface. The focus of the Mediaflux Explorer is uploads, downloads, queries and sharing of data.

The HTTPS protocol is the most robust way to move data in and out of Mediaflux.  This is because uploads and downloads are atomic (one transaction - the server is told what to expect) and because it is very difficult to corrupt an HTTPS data stream.

Explorer 1.5.1 and later have support for symbolic links.

Getting Mediaflux Explorer

You can download Mediaflux Explorer installers below.  See the change notes for a detailed list of changes.

Notes on installation

The Windows and macOS versions are standard installers.  The Linux version is packaged as a zip file.  To install it, unpack the contents of the zip file and follow the instructions in the README.txt.

Windows

Installing over an old version (such as the 1.3.x series) will result in a non-working Explorer installation.  Either uninstall the older version first or select a different install location on the Destination Folder page of the installer.


macOS

Installing over the old version of Mediaflux Explorer will simply replace it.

Linux

Extract the zip file to a new location that doesn't already exist.  Note that the installation directory cannot be inside another directory that contains "bin" anywhere in its path (e.g. it's safe to install in /home/user/mediaflux-explorer but not in /home/user/bin/mediaflux-explorer).

If you are running on Linux on a High DPI screen, Explorer may appear with very small text and widgets.  You can make these larger by adding GDK_SCALE=2 to be beginning of the command.  e.g.

GDK_SCALE=2 ~/mediaflux-explorer/bin/mediaflux-explorer


How to Run the Mediaflux Explorer

Once you have installed the Mediaflux Explorer, start it in the usual way:

  • For Windows, select it from the available program menus
  • For macOS, double-click Mediaflux Explorer in the Applications folder (or if your security preferences don't allow, right click and select "Open")
    • The Explorer is now signed/notarised and trusted by Apple so you should have no further difficulty opening it. However, we have, on occasion seen macOS claim the Application (and even sometimes the .dmg) is 'Damaged' and can't be opened.   This is usually because there are extended attributes associated with those files (reason unknown - it appears to be something in the receiving computer environment).  The solution to this is to use a command line tool to remove the extended attributes.

      • Start the Terminal Application and then enter into the Terminal window

        cd /Applications
sudo xattr -cr Mediaflux\ Explorer.app
  • For Linux, execute mediaflux-explorer/bin/mediaflux-explorer in the command-line or double-click if you have a graphical File Browser

Log in to Mediaflux

Enter the following details into the GUI:

  • left-hand top entry box (the protocol) : https 
  • middle top entry box (the host) : mediaflux.researchsoftware.unimelb.edu.au
  • right-most entry box (the port) : 443

Now you are ready to log in.

University of Melbourne Staff/Student Account (Active Directory)

You can login to Mediaflux directly with your University of Melbourne institutional credential. To login with your UniMelb credential:

  1. For the Domain field, enter unimelb (for staff account-holders) or student (for student account-holders)

  2. For the User and Password fields, please enter your UniMelb username and password (same ones you use when login to University's Themis system), and click “Sign In”

Below is the screenshot shows the example of login using a UniMelb staff account:


Using a Local Account

If you have been provisioned with a local Mediaflux account (i.e. you are not using your institutional account), you will also have been provided with the details for Domain, User and Password. Just enter them and click Sign In to login.



Below is the screenshot shows the example of login using a local account (in this case the local account domain is called 'VicNode'):

Using Mediaflux Explorer

See the How to videos for more information on using Mediaflux Explorer.


NB: if you use the Explorer via a right click (on a folder) to make a new child folder (collection), use ONLY 'Create Sub Collection', do NOT use 'Create Sub Collection Asset'.

How to Quit Mediaflux Explorer

You can either close the application or select Quit after clicking on the Mediaflux from the menu-bar on the top.

Sinks in Explorer

Sinks are a way of sending data directly from the Mediaflux server to a remote location.  They are integrated into the Mediaflux Explorer client.  Data can also be transformed on the fly (e.g. in Neuroscience we often transform DICOM to some other format as the data are sent to a sink). While sinks can be convenient, we don't recommend them for transferring large datasets.  In this case the Mediaflux Unimelb Command-Line Clients are a better choice as they can transfer using multiple threads and are restartable.

Sinks have one of these types:

  • scp
  • sftp
  • ftp

Sinks can be provided pre-configured with the scp/sftp/ftp server details (for example the scp2spartan sink) or generic sinks are available for you to fill in all details.  We typically have sftp and scp sinks defined.

To access from the Explorer:

  • Right click on a folder (namespace) or file (asset)
  • Select Send to sink
  • Select a sink (e.g. scp2spartan)
  • Fill in the details. You will need a minimum of
    • server/port (if not pre-configured)
    • your username for the server you are sending to
    • your password (or private key) for the server you are sending to
      • If you use a private key, if the key has a passphrase, you must supply that too
      • The matching public key must be installed on the destination server in the .ssh/authorized_keys file
      • Private keys can be of maximum 2048 bits
    • optionally a path to put the data in (defaults to your home directory of the server you are sending to)

Also see the Sinks video on the Mediaflux Explorer how to videos page.