Indiana University
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At IU, what is RFSWeb and how do I use it?

Note: To keep pace with the growing needs of Indiana University researchers, Research File System (RFS) storage will be migrating in the near future from OpenAFS to a new technology from DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN), based on the General Parallel File System (GPFS). For more, see Information about upcoming changes to the Research File System at IU.

On this page:

Note: The RFSWeb interface is very similar to that of CFSWeb. Therefore, if you used CFSWeb in the past, the RFSWeb interface will be familiar to you.

Introduction

RFSWeb is the web interface to the Research File System (RFS) at Indiana University. If you don't yet have an RFS account, see Applying for your SDA or RFS account

To connect to your RFS space via the web, you will need to have a current web browser that supports secure connections via the SSL protocol. In your browser, go to:

https://rfs.iu.edu/

You will be prompted to log in; enter your ADS domain username and passphrase. After you connect to your RFS space, you will find yourself at the RFSWeb home page, which shows the following:

  • At the top left, your username after "User:" and the name of the folder you are currently in after "Folder:"

  • Two rows of buttons (described below) including New Folder, Upload file, Logout, Delete, Move, Copy, Rename, and Unzip

  • A directory listing of files and folders you have placed in the RFS

The directory listing

The directory listing consists of five columns:

Select A checkbox to select a file or folder (described below)
Column 2 An icon denoting the kind of file stored
Name The names of your files or folders
Size The sizes of your files in kilobytes
Modified The date and time each file or folder was last modified

Sorting the directory listing by name or size

To sort by Name, Size, or Modified, click the column heading.

The RFSWeb toolkit

The RFSWeb toolkit at the top of the screen is a collection of buttons (described below) that allow you to perform various operations, such as renaming a file and creating a new folder. If the directory listing contains more than fifteen items, a duplicate RFSWeb toolkit is provided at the bottom as well.

Note: In these instructions, the terms "directory" and "folder" are used interchangeably.

Navigating folders

Click a directory or folder to enter the folder. Once inside a folder, click the Back button on your browser to return to the previous level. Go up one level by clicking Up one level at the top of the directory listing. Near the top of the screen, next to "Folder:", you will see the complete hierarchy for your current location, for example:

Home > Data > December06 > results.xls

Each folder or file will be a link; click any of the links to go directly to that folder or file.

When you click a filename, the appropriate application for that file type may launch if your browser and operating system understand the file type. For example, if you are accessing RFSWeb under Windows Internet Explorer, clicking files with the .doc extension (i.e., Microsoft Word files) may launch Word within the web browser itself.

Warning: Even though a file may open automatically with the appropriate application (e.g., Word), saving any changes you make to it will not communicate the changes back to the RFS. The RFSWeb interface is intended to be view-only for files; therefore, do not try to edit Microsoft Office files directly within the web interface. If you want to edit Microsoft Office files, or files created with other applications, download them to your local disk first (using the method described below), and then edit the version on your local disk, saving any changes you make to the version on the local disk. After you finish, upload the file back from your local disk to the RFS using the Upload file button (described below).

Downloading files to your computer

Right-click the filename (on a Mac, Ctrl-click), and then select an option to save the file (the exact text of the options will depend upon your web browser). Choose a location to save the file, and then click the appropriate button to save the file to disk.

Using the RFSWeb toolkit

The toolkit near the top allows you to perform a number of useful operations. For a majority of these listed below, you will need to select a file in your RFS space. To do so, identify the file or folder and check the box to its left.

New Folder (Creating folders)

The New Folder button in the toolkit allows you to create a new folder in the RFS folder you are viewing currently. Click New Folder and, on the page that appears, enter the name of the folder you want to create. Then click New Folder.

Upload file (Uploading files from your computer to the RFS)

RFSWeb allows you to upload a single file at a time from your computer to the RFS. The file will be uploaded into the current RFS folder (i.e., the one displayed currently in the web browser). To upload, go to the desired RFS folder, and then click Upload file in the toolkit. On the next page, click Browse, and you will see a window showing files on your computer. Choose the file to upload, and then click Upload file to upload. If a file with the same name exists already in RFS and you want to replace it with the one you're uploading from your computer to RFS, click Overwrite file if it already exists. This will destroy the old file in the RFS and replace it with the file you are uploading.

If you want to upload multiple files at once, use a utility such as WinZip or StuffIt to aggregate them into a single file before uploading. Once the single file is in RFS, you can extract individual files via the appropriate utility when you are connected to the RFS via a mapped drive or network share, or you can use the Unzip toolkit button (described below).

Logout (Logging out of RFSWeb)

The Logout button in the RFSWeb toolkit will take you to a screen that says "To logout, close the web browser window".

The first time you log into RFSWeb, your web browser caches your username and password and uses them for all subsequent logins while your browser is open. To ensure that no one else gains access to your RFSWeb session, close all instances of the web browser you used to access RFSWeb.

Delete (Deleting files or folders)

Warning: Before using the Delete button, make sure that you don't have files or folders selected unintentionally, or else they will all be deleted. If you do end up deleting a file or folder unintentionally, you may be able to retrieve it from your 1day-backup folder.

To delete a file or folder, select it, and then click the Delete button in the toolkit.

Note: Folders are deleted recursively; in other words, all subfolders and files inside the folder you select to delete are also deleted.

Move (Moving files or folders)

The Move button in the toolkit allows you to move a file or folder (preserving its name) from the current folder to another folder in the RFS space. To move a file or folder, select it, and then click Move. Supply a target folder to move to and click Continue. For example, if you have a file called myfile at the top level, and want to move it to the folder myfolder, also at the top level, you would type /myfolder as the target directory name.

Note: Folders are moved recursively; in other words, all subfolders and files inside the folder you select to be moved are also moved.

Copy (Copying files or folders)

The Copy button in the toolkit allows you to copy a file or folder (preserving its name) to another existing folder. To copy a file or folder, select it, and then click Copy. Supply a target directory to copy to and click Continue. For example, if you have a file called myfile at the top level, and want to copy it to the folder myfolder, also at the top level, you would type /myfolder as the target directory name.

Note: Folders are copied recursively; in other words, all subfolders and files inside the folder you select to be copied are also copied.

Rename (Renaming files or folders)

The Rename button in the toolkit allows you to rename a file or folder in the current directory or folder. Select a file or folder to rename, and then click Rename. On the next page, type the new filename and click Continue.

Unzip (Unzipping files)

Note: This section is relevant only when you want to upload multiple files at once by uploading a single archived file created using WinZip under Windows or zip under Unix.

Once you have uploaded an archive file (with a .zip extension) to the RFS using the method described above in the "Uploading files" section, you can select it and click Unzip file. This will extract the files in the current RFS directory or folder.

Note: Be careful when using this feature. UITS recommends simply uploading a zipped file and then extracting files from it when you are on campus and have access to RFS via a mapped drive (Windows) or a network share (Mac).

Accessing project space

To access RFS project space from the web interface, connect to: https://rfs.iu.edu/cgi-bin/share.pl

After you authenticate, click projects, and then click the individual project name.

Other methods of connecting

For information about other methods of connecting to the RFS, see: