List of all access methods

Owned by Andy Tseng
Mar 21, 2024
3 min read

Mediaflux can be accessed through a wide variety of and protocols. The University of Melbourne service currently offers the following methods.  All clients listed here can be found on the Software Downloads page.

We recommend the Mediaflux Explorer (Java client) for new users as it uses a simple drag and drop method for uploading and downloading data.  Other clients may be better suited to specific workflows.

Mediaflux Explorer

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

Mediaflux Desktop

Mediaflux Desktop is a web-browser based mechanism for accessing Mediaflux via the secure HTTPS protocol. It provides a virtual "desktop" with a number of applications that you can run. For example, the Asset Finder (similar in functionality to Mediaflux Explorer), the Metadata Library (create/modify metadata), Access Management (control access permissions on your collection).

While we recommend Mediaflux Explorer as the primary way to interact with your data, Mediaflux Desktop is useful for other tasks such as managing metadata (creating/modifying metadata definitions) and controlling access permissions.

Unimelb command-line clients

The UniMelb upload/download clients are command-line clients using the HTTPS protocol.  These can be particularly useful for those who are used to operating on the command-line, and can be used to upload, download and verify that transfers completed successfully.

Python Client (unofficial)

This Python client module is developed by Research Computing Services.  It is currently unofficial and supported on a best-effort basis.  It allows you to interact with the Mediaflux server through your own Python code.

NOTE

This Python client is NOT provided by Arictecta, the vendor of the Mediaflux software. Just be aware of the risk of lacking official support. 

Compared with the official Mediaflux Java Client library, this (unofficial) Python library has following limitations:

  • ︎️it does not provide connection pooling functions. Users will need to implement its own connection pool to execute concurrent tasks.
  • ︎️it does not support Mediaflux cluster I/O. So it will always connect to the Mediaflux Controller node even if there are Cluster I/O nodes available to improve the network I/O performance.
  • ︎️it does not support retry option to re-execute an operation when encounters a network issue.
  • ︎️most importantly, there is no guarantee that this library will be aligned with future Mediaflux server upgrades.

aterm

aterm (Arcitecta Terminal) is a command-line Java client using HTTPS protocol. It is mainly used for administration, but it can be very useful for end users for doing bulk uploads of directories as it has some advanced features like parallel uploads.

sFTP

Mediaflux assets can be accessed using any standard secure FTP client (e.g. FileZilla, Cyberduck) to access your Mediaflux collection.  We recommend FileZilla.

SMB (Network Share)

SMB Network Shares can be used to mount your Mediaflux project as a network drive.  This is widely supported by common operating systems (macOS Finder, Windows Explorer, Linux).  It is available only within the University of Melbourne network perimeter.

Not all SMB clients are created equally. The Windows Explorer client is among the best, the macOS Finder client is among the worst.

NFS (Network Mount)

NFS is a distributed filesystem protocol that allows a client computer to access files over a computer network.  If you are running a UNIX or Linux server, it is possible to /wiki/spaces/KB/pages/5474252.  Please contact us to request access.