Integrations

Now that you’ve installed a Dataverse installation, you might want to set up some integrations with other systems. Many of these integrations are open source and are cross listed in the Apps section of the API Guide.

Getting Data In

A variety of integrations are oriented toward making it easier for your researchers to deposit data into your Dataverse installation.

GitHub

GitHub can be integrated with a Dataverse installation in multiple ways.

One Dataverse integration is implemented via a Dataverse Uploader GitHub Action. It is a reusable, composite workflow for uploading a git repository or subdirectory into a dataset on a target Dataverse installation. The action is customizable, allowing users to choose to replace a dataset, add to the dataset, publish it or leave it as a draft version in the Dataverse installation. The action provides some metadata to the dataset, such as the origin GitHub repository, and it preserves the directory tree structure.

For instructions on using Dataverse Uploader GitHub Action, visit https://github.com/marketplace/actions/dataverse-uploader-action

In addition to the Dataverse Uploader GitHub Action, the Integrations Dashboard also enables a pull of data from GitHub to a dataset.

Dropbox

If your researchers have data on Dropbox, you can make it easier for them to get it into your Dataverse installation by setting the dataverse.dropbox.key JVM option described in the Configuration section of the Installation Guide.

Open Science Framework (OSF)

The Center for Open Science’s Open Science Framework (OSF) is an open source software project that facilitates open collaboration in science research across the lifespan of a scientific project.

OSF can be integrated with a Dataverse installation in multiple ways.

Researcher can configure OSF itself to deposit to your Dataverse installation by following instructions from OSF.

In addition to the method mentioned above, the Integrations Dashboard also enables a pull of data from OSF to a dataset.

RSpace

RSpace is an affordable and secure enterprise grade electronic lab notebook (ELN) for researchers to capture and organize data.

For instructions on depositing data from RSpace to your Dataverse installation, your researchers can visit https://www.researchspace.com/help-and-support-resources/dataverse-integration/

Open Journal Systems (OJS)

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project to expand and improve access to research.

The OJS Dataverse Project Plugin adds data sharing and preservation to the OJS publication process.

As of this writing only OJS 2.x is supported and instructions for getting started can be found at https://github.com/pkp/ojs/tree/ojs-stable-2_4_8/plugins/generic/dataverse

If you are interested in OJS 3.x supporting deposit to Dataverse installations, please leave a comment on https://github.com/pkp/pkp-lib/issues/1822

Renku

Renku is a platform that enables collaborative, reproducible and reusable (data)science. It allows researchers to automatically record the provenance of their research results and retain links to imported and exported data. Users can organize their data in “Datasets”, which can be exported to a Dataverse installation via the command-line interface (CLI).

Renku documentation: https://renku-python.readthedocs.io

Flagship deployment of the Renku platform: https://renkulab.io

Renku discourse: https://renku.discourse.group/

Amnesia

Amnesia is a flexible data anonymization tool that transforms relational and transactional databases to datasets where formal privacy guarantees hold. Amnesia transforms original data to provide k-anonymity and km-anonymity: the original data are transformed by generalizing (i.e., replacing one value with a more abstract one) or suppressing values to achieve the statistical properties required by the anonymization guarantees. Amnesia employs visualization tools and supportive mechanisms to allow non expert users to anonymize relational and object-relational data.

For instructions on depositing or loading data from Dataverse installations to Amnesia, visit https://amnesia.openaire.eu/about-documentation.html

SampleDB

SampleDB is a web-based electronic lab notebook (ELN) with a focus on flexible metadata. SampleDB can export this flexible, process-specific metadata to a new Dataset in a Dataverse installation using the EngMeta Process Metadata block.

For instructions on using the Dataverse export, you can visit https://scientific-it-systems.iffgit.fz-juelich.de/SampleDB/administrator_guide/dataverse_export.html

RedCap

RedCap is a web-based application to capture data for clinical research and create databases and projects.

The Integrations Dashboard enables a pull of data from RedCap to a dataset in Dataverse.

GitLab

GitLab is an open source Git repository and platform that provides free open and private repositories, issue-following capabilities, and wikis for collaborative software development.

The Integrations Dashboard enables a pull of data from GitLab to a dataset in Dataverse.

iRODS

An open source, metadata driven data management system that is accessible through a host of different clients.

The Integrations Dashboard enables a pull of data from iRODS to a dataset in Dataverse.

Integrations Dashboard

The integrations dashboard is software by the Dataverse community to enable easy data transfer from an existing data management platform to a dataset in a Dataverse collection.

Instead of trying to set up Dataverse plug-ins in existing tools and systems to push data to a Dataverse installation, the dashboard works in reverse by being a portal to pull data from tools such as iRODS and GitHub into a dataset.

Its aim is to make integrations more flexible and less dependent on the cooperation of system to integrate with. You can use it to either create a dataset from scratch and add metadata after files have been transferred, or you can use it to compare what is already in an existing dataset to make updating files in datasets easier.

Its goal is to make the dashboard adjustable for a Dataverse installation’s needs and easy to connect other systems to as well.

The integrations dashboard is currently in development. A preview and more information can be found at: rdm-integration GitHub repository

Embedding Data on Websites

OpenScholar

OpenScholar is oriented toward hosting websites for academic institutions and offers Dataverse Project Widgets that can be added to web pages. See also:

• Adding Widgets to an OpenScholar Website (Dataverse collection level)

• Adding Widgets to an OpenScholar Website (dataset level)

Analysis and Computation

Data Explorer

Data Explorer is a GUI which lists the variables in a tabular data file allowing searching, charting and cross tabulation analysis.

For installation instructions, see the External Tools section.

Compute Button

The “Compute” button is still highly experimental and has special requirements such as use of a Swift object store, but it is documented under “Setting up Compute” in the Configuration section of the Installation Guide.

Whole Tale

Whole Tale enables researchers to analyze data using popular tools including Jupyter and RStudio with the ultimate goal of supporting publishing of reproducible research packages. Users can import data from a Dataverse installation via identifier (e.g., DOI, URI, etc) or through the External Tools integration. For installation instructions, see the External Tools section or the Integration section of the Whole Tale User Guide.

Binder

Researchers can launch Jupyter Notebooks, RStudio, and other computational environments by entering the DOI of a dataset in a Dataverse installation at https://mybinder.org

A Binder button can also be added to every dataset page to launch Binder from there. Instructions on enabling this feature can be found under External Tools.

Additionally, institutions can self host BinderHub (the software that powers mybinder.org), which lists the Dataverse software as one of the supported repository providers.

Renku

Researchers can import datasets from a Dataverse installation into their Renku projects via the command-line interface (CLI) by using the dataset’s DOI. See the renku Dataset documentation for details. Currently Dataverse Software >=4.8.x is required for the import to work. If you need support for an earlier version of the Dataverse Software, please get in touch with the Renku team at Discourse or GitHub.

Avgidea Data Search

Researchers can use a Google Sheets add-on to search for Dataverse installation’s CSV data and then import that data into a sheet. See Avgidea Data Search for details.

Discoverability

A number of builtin features related to data discovery are listed under Discoverability but you can further increase the discoverability of your data by setting up integrations.

SHARE

SHARE is building a free, open, data set about research and scholarly activities across their life cycle. It’s possible to add a Dataverse installation as one of the sources they include if you contact the SHARE team.

Geodisy

Geodisy will take your Dataverse installation’s data, search for geospatial metadata and files, and copy them to a new system that allows for visual searching. Your original data and search methods are untouched; you have the benefit of both. For more information, please refer to Geodisy’s GitHub Repository.

Research Data Preservation

Archivematica

Archivematica is an integrated suite of open-source tools for processing digital objects for long-term preservation, developed and maintained by Artefactual Systems Inc. Its configurable workflow is designed to produce system-independent, standards-based Archival Information Packages (AIPs) suitable for long-term storage and management.

Sponsored by the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), this technical integration enables users of Archivematica to select datasets from connected Dataverse installations and process them for long-term access and digital preservation. For more information and list of known issues, please refer to Artefactual’s release notes, integration documentation, and the project wiki.

RDA BagIt (BagPack) Archiving

A Dataverse installation can be configured to submit a copy of published Datasets, packaged as Research Data Alliance conformant zipped BagIt bags to the Chronopolis via DuraCloud, to a local file system, or to Google Cloud Storage.

For details on how to configure this integration, see BagIt Export in the Configuration section of the Installation Guide.

Future Integrations

The Dataverse Project Roadmap is a good place to see integrations that the core Dataverse Project team is working on.

The Community Dev column of our project board is a good way to track integrations that are being worked on by the Dataverse Community but many are not listed and if you have an idea for an integration, please ask on the dataverse-community mailing list if someone is already working on it.

Many integrations take the form of “external tools”. See the External Tools section for details. External tool makers should check out the Building External Tools section of the API Guide.

Please help us keep this page up to date making a pull request! To get started, see the Writing Documentation section of the Developer Guide.