Sharing GWS data via HTTP

This article describes how data in a GWS can be shared via HTTP. it covers:

  • What is HTTP data sharing?
  • Public access set up
  • Restricted access set up

What is HTTP data sharing?

Specific parts of JASMIN Group Workspaces (GWSs) can be made available via HTTP, so that:

  • data can be shared with users who do not have JASMIN accounts
  • common clients such as wget, curl, client libraries and web browsers can be used to access the data via a commonly-supported protocol.

In this respect, the service should be regarded as another data transfer tool. However it must be arranged in advance between the Group Workspace manager and the JASMIN Helpdesk. It involves:

  1. A member of the workspace creating a  public directory and placing data inside it
  2. The GWS manager making a request to the JASMIN Helpdesk to request that this specific GWS is configured to be shared via HTTP.

Both these steps need to be completed in order for the GWS to be visible via HTTP. By default, GWSs are not visible by HTTP.

Once a GWS has been made available, it is publicly visible by the entire internet: please bear that in mind.

The following sections below describe how to set up restricted and unrestricted access to your "public" directory. If you require access control then see the section on password-protected access below. [Note: this is currently possible, though not recommended, only because the current webserver configuration permits this (now deprecated) means of restricting access. Future revisions of the service may remove or change the way access restrictions can be imposed].

This facility is not to be used for hosting project websites. It is provided as a simple means for specific data files to be made available to a wider audience than members of a Group Workspace, using a convenient data transfer protocol (HTTP). Likewise, it is not recommended to build tools or front-end applications relying on this service as a dependency if they are to be operated as a production or (near-)real-time service. The JASMIN team reserves the right to apply rate-limiting (by project and/or IP address) or to remove GWSs from the service if they are considered to be causing problems for the network or other parts of the service infrastructure.

Projects considering web-based solutions for showcasing or disseminating their data via more complex tools or with specific availability requirements should consider requesting an external tenancy in the JASMIN Community Cloud, or indeed other service providers if more appropriate, but should be prepared to do the necessary design, development, operation and maintenance of those services themselves.

Public access set up

In some cases the GWS manager may want to make some files and directories available over HTTP so that users (perhaps a wider audience than just the membership of the GWS) can access the data via a web browser or other HTTP-based tools. This can be done by creating a public directory in the top-level directory of the GWS, for example:

$ cd /group_workspace/jasmin/foobaa/ 
$ mkdir public 
$ chmod -Rf 755 public

You should then contact JASMIN Support and ask for this directory to be made visible via the gws-access server. The JASMIN team will configure this change and your public directory will then be visible from:

https://gws-access.jasmin.ac.uk/public/foobaa/

Note: The URL of this service has recently changed (June 2020). A redirect is in place from the old URL of https://gws-access.ceda.ac.uk, so the change should be transparent to existing users, but please use the new URLs beginning with https://gws-access.jasmin.ac.uk/ to avoid any problems for example with HTTP clients that are unable to handle redirects.

Please see the section below if you wish to control who can access the content of one or more of the sub-directories within your  public directory.

Restricted access set up

In order to restrict access to your "public" directory, and/or any sub-directories, you will need to create an ".htaccess" file within it. In turn, the ".htaccess" file must point to a ".htpasswd" file which lists the usernames and encrypted passwords that have read-access to that directory.

NOTE: This method of access control is entirely independent of the SSH login accounts used on JASMIN and would be the responsibility of the GWS Manager to maintain. It is not secure by modern standards and not particularly recommended as it adds complication for GWS managers and users, but is an option for some basic access control if no other options are available. Future revisions of the service may revise or remove this feature.

In order to create the ".htpasswd" file, you will need access to the "htpasswd" command. This is available on the transfer servers xfer[12].jasmin.ac.uk

You can then create the ".htpasswd" file as follows (using the example of a Group Workspace called "foobaa"):

$ export GWS=/group_workspaces/jasmin/foobaa/ 
$ cd $GWS
$ mkdir -p public 
$ cd public
$ htpasswd -b -m -c $GWS/public/.htpasswd i_am_a_user i_am_a_password

Before this will work, you also need to create a ".htaccess" file which you could do as follows

$ cat >.htaccess <<EOL 
AuthType Basic 
AuthName "Password Required" 
AuthUserFile /group_workspaces/jasmin/foobaa/public/.htpasswd 
Require valid-user
EOL

Finally, change the permissions on these files:

$ chmod 644 .htaccess .htpasswd

Now, you can test that you get prompted for the username and password by visiting

https://gws-access.jasmin.ac.uk/public/foobaa/

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