VBrowser Overview

About

The layout of the VBrowser resembles that of standard file browser. Logical Folders or "ResourceFolders" can be recognized by the "World" icon with a small folder in front of it. Remote locations links to grid services can be recognized by the small 'computer' icon or the shortcut like icon indicating a link to a remote resource.

More screenshots.

Resource locations

New resource locations can be added by specifying the (remote) location on the grid. Resources are identified by a URI (Universal Resource Indicator).

Server Configurations

Some server configuration have specific settings allowing experienced users to fine tune their resource configurations in an interactive way.


By presenting the user the allowed options, complicated grid configurations can be done as simply as just selecting the right entry from a drop down menu.

VBrowser plugins

The VBrowser is an extensible platform which allows extra 'plugins' to be installed which enhance the browsing capabilities. One class of VBrowser plugin is the 'viewer' plugin.
These 'viewers' can display standard or custom data types, when a user for example clicks on the icon representing the custom data types, the right plugin or viewer is selected based on the mimetype associated with that data type.

Standard (integrated) plugins

Custom application plugins

Installing custom plugins

  • Download the custom plugin (or viewer)
  • For system wide installation, unzip in your vlet installation directory: VLET_INSTALL/lib/plugins
    (replace VLET_INSTALL with your vlet installation location)
  • For user installation, unzip in your $HOME/.vletrc/plugins directory
  • Create the 'viewers' directory if this doesn't exist yet.
  • Some plugins require extra software to be installed or require some customization.
  • The unzipped directory in the viewers directory should be in the form of a java package name.
    For example: nl.uva.vle.app.vtk.viewer.NiiViewer

Plugins releases/downloads

See the releases page for additional plugins.
The vlet release 'vlet-all' already contains application plugins developed for and by the vlemed and AID subprograms of VL-e.