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AD Workbench User Guide

Overview

The ADDI AD Workbench consists of the following components:

  • Portal Page: a single portal containing links to all AD Workbench resources.
  • Data Registry – Catalogue: lists catalogue entries for all AD data as part of ADDI.
  • Data Registry – Library: lists dictionary entries per dataset table for all AD data as part of ADDI.
  • Data Selection: offers data selection/querying capabilities per Hub (UK and US) for researchers to select relevant subsets of data they would like to analyse in the Workspace.
  • Data Authorisation: approval service to approve requests to transfer data to a Workspace. Currently, Aridhia will handle data authorisation requests.
  • Workspaces: secure and compliant environment for researchers to analyse selected or uploaded data.

Hubs

There are currently two ADDI Hubs where components and data are hosted: the UK and US.

  • US: hosts Data Selection configured against the C-PATH CPAD dataset as well as Data Authorisation and US Workspaces.
  • UK: hosts Data Selection configured against a synthetic EPAD dataset as well as Data Authorisation and UK Workspaces.

Note: the Catalogue and Library services are defined as ‘global’ resources due to these containing metadata for all AD platform datasets regardless of location.

Workflow

The following describes a typical workflow for a standard user in the AD Workbench:

  • Sign up via a self-service process at https://portal.addi.ad-datainitiative.org
  • Navigate to the Catalogue and Library to view dataset metadata via catalogue entries and dataset dictionaries (i.e. field-level metadata)
  • Upon identifying a dataset of interest, navigate to the region-appropriate Data Selection Tool to select the relevant subset of data you would like to analyse further in a Workspace.
  • Request Approval for this data selection to be transferred to your Workspace. ADDI Data Stewards will approve your transfer request, after which you will receive an email and visual confirmation your selection can be transferred to your Workspace.
  • Perform Transfer of your data selection to your Workspace.
  • Navigate to your Workspace to analyse your data.

Further details of each component and these steps are outlined in the sections below.

Signup Process

An AD user can sign up via a self-service process at https://portal.addi.ad-datainitiative.org. This will ask for basic details (Name, email, etc.) and require you to verify your email as well as provide a mobile number for Multi-factor authentication (MFA) purposes.

Once signed up, Aridhia will add you as a member to your appropriate Workspace (based on your domain) and notify you when this is complete. Afterwards, you will now be free to access all AD Workbench resources!

Data Registry – Catalogue

The Catalogue lists instance-level metadata for all datasets available to ADDI. This includes metadata such as:

  • Dataset Name
  • Dataset Description
  • Metadata provided by the AD platform
  • Links to the dataset dictionary or dictionaries hosted in the Library (see section below)
  • A link to the Data Selection Tool (in situations where the dataset is selectable via the Data Selection Tool).

Data Registry – Library

The Library lists field-level metadata (i.e. dictionaries) for all datasets available to ADDI. A dataset may have one or more dictionaries dependent on its structure, number of tables, etc. A dictionary includes metadata such as:

  • Dataset Name
  • List of fields
  • Field types (including Lookup tables for relevant field values)
  • Field descriptions
  • Field constraints

Data Selection

Projects/Workspace Mappings

When navigating to Data Selection, you will see the ‘Projects' page when you login. Each of these projects maps to a Workspace located in a specific Hub. For example:

  • a project named demo (UK) maps to a Workspace named demo located in the UK, and,
  • a project named demo (US) maps to a Workspace named demo located in the US.

The project selected here will determine the destination Workspace that your selected data is transferred to.

To further clarify and give an example:

  • You have navigated to the Data Selection tool hosted in the US (https://selection.westus2.addi.ad-datainitiative.org) which is linked to C-PATH CPAD data.
  • In your Data Selection Tool, you will see two projects, e.g. demo (UK) and demo (US).
  • By selecting and working in the demo (US) project, any data selected and transferred from this project, will be sent to your US Workspace named demo, i.e. a US → US transfer
  • Similarly, by selecting and working in the demo (UK) project, any data selected and transferred from this project, will land in your UK Workspace named demo, i.e. a US → UK transfer

Similarly, if you navigated to the Data Selection tool hosted in the UK (https://selection.uksouth.addi.ad-datainitiative.org/), you can send data to your US Workspace by working in the demo (US) Workspace.

Query Creation

Once you have selected the correct Project to work in, you will be presented with a Queries page. To add your first query, select ‘Add Query’ and name it.

This will create a new empty query which you can then click to start selecting data.

Selecting Data

The data selection page will show 4 distinct panes:

  • Source Tables: the tables and fields of the dataset.
  • Output Columns: ‘drag and drop’ your field selections here and confirm your 'Expression’ values to build your query.
  • Filter Conditions: any required filters on the data (e.g. Gender = ‘Male’).
  • Preview: a preview of your data selection.

Note: fields can be de-identified both in the user interface and when data is transferred to the Workspace. When adding datasets to the service, please inform Aridhia if you require them to be de-identified.

Requesting Approval

Now that you have defined your data selection, navigate back to the ‘Queries’ page. Here you will see your query needs approval for transfer:

To start the process of transferring your selection to a Workspace, you must ask for approval by selecting ‘Request Approval'

This will send an approval request to the Data Authorisation service (below) that is reviewed by ADDI Data Stewards. You will see your query status shows ‘Requested approval for transfer’

Data Transfer

Upon approval by ADDI Data Stewards, you will receive an email notification and visual confirmation where you can see your query status is now ‘Ready for transfer’

Select your query and the ‘Perform Transfer’ button to start the transfer. Once the transfer is complete, your query status will show ‘Transferred'. You can now navigate to your appropriate Workspace to view the data (see Workspaces section)

Data Authorisation

When you request approval to transfer your selection to a Workspace, the ADDI Data Stewards will receive an email of your request. These data stewards can login to the Data Authorisation service (preview below) to view your request and approve or deny where necessary.

As mentioned, after review and approval, you will receive an email and visual confirmation your selection can be transferred to your Workspace.

Workspaces

In your Workspace, there are a number of tabs. Your transferred data will reside at the following location:

  • The Files tab (indicated by a document icon) → Blobs (Menu header) → QueryBuilderExports (folder)
  • You can now analyse transferred data using the ‘Analyse Data’ option from the list on the right of the screen.