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Data Download

Downloading data from datasets you have been granted access to is a two stage process:

  • The download is prepared through the Data Portal. The corresponding dataset is selected and the download potentially restricted to individual files from the dataset. At the end of this process, a download token is generated and shown to the user.

  • Subsequently, the CLI tool GHGA Connector is used to perform the actual file download using the previously generated download token and the user's Crypt4GH key pair.

Prerequisites

To perform a file download from GHGA, users are required to have genreated a Crypt4GH keypair. The public key will be used to encrypt both the download token and the actual files that are downloaded. For information on how to generate a Crypt4GH keypair please refer to the official Crypt4GH documentation.

Download Preparation

After a user has been granted access to a dataset, the user initiates a data download by creating a download token in the Data Portal. A single download token can be generated to download either a single or multiple files from a dataset. The download token is then passed on to the CLI tool GHGA Connector to perform the actual download.

  1. Navigate to the GHGA Data Portal.

  2. Visit your profile page to see the datasets you have access to.

    Dataset access link

  3. Navigate to the dataset list and select your dataset of interest to be downloaded.

    Select dataset

  4. Fill the form with the necessary information in order to create a download token. Specifying one or multiple file IDs is optional, if not information is provided the entire dataset will be downloaded. A Crypt4GH public key must be provided before submitting the form.

    Token form

Download using GHGA Connector

The GHGA Connector is a command-line tool that facilitates interaction with the file storage infrastructure of GHGA. Data downloading is carried out using the GHGA Connector.

For further information on how to use the command-line tool, please refer to the GHGA Connector documentation.