Glossary

Application

In SODAR, a group of views and actions related to a specific functionality are called an application, or app for short. In the SODAR UI, applications can be recognized by their links in the project sidebar or the user dropdown, as well as URL patterns. Applications can either be project specific or site-wide applications. The most prominent applications in SODAR are Sample Sheets, Landing Zones, and the Timeline.

Assay

In the context of SODAR, assay refers to assays as defined in the ISA-Tab specification. For more information, see Metadata Recording.

Assay Plugin

SODAR internally uses assay plugins to determine how assay shortcuts and links to iRODS data are determined and presented to the user. For more information see metadata_advanced.

HPO

The Human Phenotype Ontology.

IGV

The Integrative Genomics Viewer.

Investigation

Investigation is the topmost structure in the ISA-Tab format. An investigation can contain one or more studies. SODAR supports one investigation per project. For more information, see Metadata Recording.

iRODS

The Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System.

ISA-Tab

The TSV-based file format for the ISA Framework specification.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation, the format used for providing data in e.g. sample sheet editing.

Landing Zone

User-specific file area with write access. Used for uploading files which will then be transferred into the read-only sample data repository.

Markdown

Lightweight text-to-HTML markup language for creating formatted text. Used in e.g. project ReadMe documents.

REST API

An application programming interface following the representational state transfer (REST) principles.

Sample Data Repository

Read-only file area containing the sample and study data files accessible through sample sheets. Files are uploaded here through landing zones.

Sample Sheets

Project study design and sample metadata, presented in a tabular form and grouped into studies and assays. Based on the ISA Framework and enhanced with SODAR-specific links, shortucts and additional features.

SODAR

System for Omics Data Access and Retrieval.

Study

In the context of SODAR, study refers to studies as defined in the ISA-Tab specification. For more information, see Metadata Recording.

TSV

Tab-separated Values. A data format used e.g. by the ISA-Tab specification.

UUID

Universally unique identifier. Used in SODAR to refer to all relevant objects in the system.

WebDAV

Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning. Used in SODAR to provide web-based access to files, mount iRODS collections as network drives, provide random access to large files and link files to external tools such as IGV.