deriva-client

The deriva-client package bundles an application suite of Python-based client software for use with the DERIVA platform. These tools provide functions such as:

1. Authentication services for programmatic and non browser-based access.
2. Bulk import and export of catalog assets and (meta) data.
3. Catalog configuration, mutation and administration.
4. Tools for working with bdbags, a file container format used by DERIVA.
5. Tools for working with minids, a lightweight identifier format used by DERIVA.

Installed Applications

Command-Line Interface (CLI) applications

Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications

Installer packages for Windows and MacOSX

Pre-packaged installers of deriva-client for Windows and MacOSX are available. These installer packages include a bundled Python interpreter and all other software dependencies and are recommended for Windows and MacOSX users who are looking for a more traditional "turnkey" installation that does not require them to install Python and manage Python software package installations.

Download the installer packages here.

Installing deriva-client from PyPi via pip

For users who already have Python installed and are comfortable installing Python software via the pip application, deriva-client can be easily installed along with all of it's dependencies directly from PyPi using basic pip commands.

Installation Prerequisites

• A Python 3.8 or greater system installation is required. The latest stable version of Python is recommended.
• Verify that the appropriate Python 3 interpreter can be invoked from a command shell using the python3 command. This can be tested simply with the following command:

python3 --version

Installation Quickstart

The following commands can be used to perform a venv-based virtual environment installation to the current working directory.

Mac/Linux

The following commands assume a BASH (or compatible) command shell is used. For a different command interpreter (e.g. CSH), invoke the source command on the appropriate activation script in the virtual environment's bin directory.

python3 -m venv ./deriva-client-venv
source ./deriva-client-venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install deriva-client

Windows

The following commands assume a Windows Command Prompt command shell is used. For a Powershell shell, the activate.ps1 activation script should be invoked instead.

python3 -m venv .\deriva-client-venv
.\deriva-client-venv\Scripts\activate
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install deriva-client

IMPORTANT NOTE: Python virtual environments versus user environments

While a virtual environment installation is generally the safest way to install and isolate multiple software packages, it also must be activated before use and deactivated after use. If this requirement is too cumbersome, the recommended alternative is to install the software into a user environment instead. See the complete installation procedure below for more information.

Installation Procedure

• For MacOSX and Linux systems which include Python as a core part of the operating system, it is highly recommended to install this software into a virtual environment or a user environment, so that it does not interfere or conflict with the operating system's Python installation. The native Python3 venv module, the virtualenv package from PyPi, or the Anaconda Distribution environment are all suitable for use as virtual environments.

• Instead of using a virtual environment, it is also possible to install the software into a user environment using the --user argument when invoking pip install.

• Recent versions of pip, setuptools, and wheel are recommended. If these components are already installed, updating them to the latest versions available is optional.

Installation Sequence

1. Create and/or activate the target virtual environment, if any. This step is specific to the type of virtual environment being used.

2. Update pip, setuptools, and wheel (optional).

   1. For virtual environments execute the following (ensure the environment is active):

      python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
      

   2. For user environments execute the following:

      python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
      

   3. For Linux system python installations it is recommended to use the system's package manager such as dnf, apt, or yum to update the following packages: python3-pip, python3-setuptools , and python3-wheel.

3. Install deriva-client directly from PyPi using the pip install command.

   1. For virtual environments execute the following (ensure the environment is active):

      pip install deriva-client
      

   2. For user environments execute the following:

      pip3 install --user deriva-client
      

   3. For system-wide python installations (only do this if you understand the complexities involved):

      pip3 install deriva-client
      

IMPORTANT NOTES: Using pip to install software into system-wide Python locations

• Many newer Linux (as well as MacOSX) distributions contain both Python2 and Python3 installed alongside each other. In these environments, both the python interpreter and pip are symbolically linked to the system default version, which in general results in python and pip being linked to the Python2 versions.
• Python3 versions are commonly accessed via python3 and pip3. If you are working outside of a Python3 virtual environment and installing either to the system-wide Python location (not recommended) or a user-based location (e.g. with the pip --user argument), then you must substitute pip3 for pip when issuing pip installation commands.
• Also note that when installing into the system Python location via pip on Linux/MacOSX, the commands must be run as root or the sudo command must be prefixed to the command line.
• When using the --user flag with pip3, please be aware that due to various shell implementation differences between operating systems and/or local policy configurations, the executables for each installed program may not automatically be found on the search path by default. Therefore, it may be necessary to manually add the installed executable directory to the search path, which may be an operating system, distribution and/or shell specific procedure.
  • On Linux/MacOSX systems, the default executable installation location is generally ~/.local/bin/.
  • On Windows systems, the default executable installation location is generally %systemroot%\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python3{x}\Scripts.

Source Code

The source code and additional documentation for the primary components of deriva-client can be found at the links below:

• deriva-py
• deriva-qt
• deriva-workbench