Getting Started

Publisher makes existing file and table data available over GA4GH APIs. Publisher users fall into two categories: administrators and data consumers. Administrators use Publisher's web-based interface to connect and organize data into Collections, which are then shared according to access policies. Data consumers access Collection data via software that implements the same GA4GH standards, for example Explorer for interactive data discovery and analysis, or the DNAstack Python library for more involved analysis notebooks.

This guide is for Publisher administrators.

Prerequisites

Start by identifying the existing sources of data that you would like to make available via Publisher.

Supported data storage backends

Publisher can connect to data stored on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and some on-prem or vendor-neutral systems:

Files:

• Amazon S3

• Azure Blob Storage

• Google Cloud Storage (GCS)

• Any unauthenticated HTTPS URL

Tables:

• BigQuery

• PostgreSQL

Main steps involved

Typical use of Publisher involves the following steps:

• Sign in to Publisher's web interface

• Connect one or more data sources, populating Publisher's library with tables and files

• Create named Collections of tables and files

• Define access policies

• Share Collection metadata, tables, and files according to the desired access policies

You can find detailed instructions on how to perform each of these steps in the corresponding documentation, listed above and in the left-hand menu under the Publisher section.