Authors: Alexander Straumal, Marina Shakiba, Juliane Schleifer, Marian Bruns, Michael Luke
Creation Date: 25-03-19
Last updated: 2025-04-03 by JS
Contact: Michael Luke ([email protected])
Hello MaterialNeutral1 Projects,
The PMD Data Portal serves the sustainable storage of your project data. Here you will find a brief guide that shows how you can utilize the key functions of the PMD Data Portal. This is explained through 3 user stories. User Story 1 demonstrates how to search for data and explore the Data Portal. User Story 2 is dedicated to consuming or downloading datasets. User Story 3 focuses on how to deposit your own datasets in the Data Portal. Additionally, example formats for data storage are provided. Beyond these simple user stories, the Data Portal offers many additional features to generate semantic descriptions and knowledge graphs of your data, as well as to store them in RDF format in a Fuseki triple store. If you are interested in this, please feel free to contact us directly or utilize the offered web meetings (dates will be arranged). Good luck with using the PMD Data Portal.
Welcome to the MaterialDigital DataPortal - your one-stop-shop for uploading, managing and sharing material datasets!
In a world where FAIR data plays an increasingly important role, we offer you a user-friendly 'portal' where you can share and organize your data securely and efficiently. The MaterialDigital platform team has been working with the MaterialDigital community since 2019 to develop de facto standards. These can be used across domains in the area of semantic interoperability, workflows and IT architecture and infrastructure in materials science and tool technology.
We know that handling and sharing (large) amounts of data can be challenging. That's why we offer you our DataPortal: This builds on the intuitive interface of CKAN. It allows you to upload, categorize and manage your datasets with ease. Whether you are a researcher, a company or a data enthusiast, our platform is designed to meet your needs to find and use shared datasets.
Our features include:
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Easy data management: upload your datasets in different formats and manage them in one place.
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Secure storage: Your data is safe with us. We use the latest security standards to protect your information
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Flexible sharing: Share your data sets with colleagues or the public, according to your needs.
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Analytical tools: Use our integrated tools to analyze your data and gain valuable insights.
At MaterialDigital, we believe in the power of FAIR data and shared structures and approaches.
Join our community and experience how easy and effective data management can be!
Your PMD Team
Contact us here for more information, support and exchange.
In order to use the user specific functinalities (e.g. Data upload, creation of groups, ...) of the DataPartal you first need to create an account on the PMD Website.
The direct link to the SingUp Page can be found at the PMD Web page.
There you will be guided through the sing up process and relevant data is inquired.
The same credentials are then used when you want to sign into the DataPortal. Use the button Sign in with SSO and the information for the PMD SSO are taken over as they are saved within the PMD SSO.
As a visiting user, I would like to explore what kind of material data I can find on the PMD Data Portal and if there is data available for the material I am interested in.
If you enter the following address in your browser, you will be directed to the PMD Data Portal: https://dataportal-demo.material-digital.de/
The Log In button in the right-hand corner indicates that you are a visiting user with limited access to the DataPortal. If you would like to access the site as a registered user, please go to the following section to find out how to register: Link to section.
On the landing page you have different options for searching the datasets of the DataPortal.
If you have already a specific topic in mind that you would like to explore, just use the free text search bar. You can use the free text search bar for an unfiltered search of our datasets. When using the search function, please note the following points: There is no translation available, the keywords will be found in the language in which the dataset was created. We recommend that you enter your search in English. Use quotation marks "" to search or filter for an exact word or group of words. You will get a better match. (Funktion nochmal prüfen!)
Our DataPortal also offers you a pre-filtered search. Simply click on the following areas to start a search:
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Datasets - This search will list all published datasets
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Resources - This search includes all resources contained in the datasets
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Organizations - This search will show you the providers of the datasets
By clicking on the respective search field, you can directly access the results of the database. The overview functionalities and keywords can be used to “browse” the website and familiarize yourself with the published datasets and resources.
Clicking on datasets will display all available datasets. To further narrow your search: use the tags and filter options on the left sidebar.
Clicking on resources will display all the individual files that are part of the datasets uploaded to the DataPortal. They hold the data itself.
Use this function to discover the datasets provided by a certain organization. Full names and partial names (e.g. Kupfer for KupferDigital) lead to the desired result.
On the landing page, you will also find the most common tags related to the available data set. Click on the tag to directly display all results for the corresponding keyword.
Whether you entered a search term yourself or clicked a tag, all results are displayed in a list. Sorted by the highest match. With the help of the sidebar, the search can be further fine-tuned. E.g. Formats, or specific organizations can be narrowed down further.
You can now also sort the results displayed by relevance, name or date last edited. 
Your selected filters can be deselected by clicking on the “x”. 
By clicking on the desired dataset in the main display area further information about the dataset will be provided.
If there are any questions in regards to CKAN along the way there is always the chance to explore the CKAN Website, which can either be found here (https://ckan.org/) or at the bottom of the DataPotal page under Powered by ckan.
As a visiting user, I found some interesting datasets and I want to digest/consume them, for further analysis.
In the given scenario all functionalities are explained based on the dataset [42CrMoS4 Tensile Tests Fraunhofer IWM] (https://kit-pmd-4.ydns.eu/dataset/42crmos4-tensile-test-iwm). This dataset offers a wide range of different resources.
Once you have narrowed down your search explained in Story 1, you have several options to consume the data.
After clicking on the dataset, the “Dataset Overview Page” will appear with information about the dataset such as:
- main contact person for the dataset
- publishing organization
- creator of the dataset
- and others
In this example, we are looking at a dataset that has been published by another person. Therefore, only the tabs Dataset and Groups are displayed. An additional "FUSEKI" tab will appear when viewing a record you have uploaded. How you can upload your own datasets will be explained in the chapter 3.
The icons associated with the resources indicate the different formats in which your the selected dataset is available. In this example we have CSV, Jason, TTL, TXT and more.
In order to get a better overview of the data the button "Explore" offers further options depending on the resource format. You can "Preview" the file in your browser, "Download" it directly, or "Create a Mapping".
We suggest to click on the option Preview. Which takes you to the Detail Page of the Dataset and its different Resources.
The functionalities Download and Create Mapping are further explained underneath the description of the detailed page for the dataset.
There are different buttons at the top of the explore page, depending on the format you selected in the previous step. The buttons shown in this example are available for CSV files.
You will always find the URL, a short description of the record and the source code at the top of the page.
Annotate:: : The process of assigning information to linguistic data (especially corpus data, with linguistic information) is called annotation. Only when this process has been completed can meaningful evaluations be made. The emphasis in this case is on the enrichment with linguistic information.
Transform: Run Transformation, if allowed and not done before, by clicking here a Turlk file is created. This file lists all annotations to the dataset. You can use if for further semantic operations.
Download: Provides a cleaned download of data. For some resource formats there is a dropdown menu embedded in the download button. Here you have the option to choose between different download format options.
Data API: An API or Application Programming Interface is a messenger or a middleman that lets computer programs securely access data from one another.
Underneath the Dataset Description a preview of the data is displayed. Below shown is the preview for the CSV file but this can also vary depending on the selected format.
Further down on the page indicated by “Resource” another functionality can be found. Here you can see which resource is selected and also switch between the different data formats/resources.
The Data Dictionary is also an optional function which is displayed at the moment because the format CSV is selected.
The picture below highlights two more areas of interest on the detail page. Area 1 (Resources) was already previously seen on the picture before. This area shows you which resource is currently selected. Here you have the option to switch between the different resources associated with the selected dataset. The dataset highlighted in grey is the one currently selected and all shown information on this detail page is referred to.
Shown area 2 – Additional Information- also can be found on each Detail Page of the dataset. Here is the information shown for the resource selected on the left.
If you do not need additional information about the different resources, there is also the possibility to download resources on the Dataset Overview Page. Right Clicking on Explore and selecting Download either directly starts the download or takes you to the respective data source.
By clicking on the option Create mapping for a given resource of the dataset you will be guided to the following page. Create a rule bases mapping by filling the form below. It will query the given metadata file and the graph template by the Class IRI set for subjects and objects. When clicking "Start Mapping" select widgets will spawn allowing you to map a subject to an object. The resulting YAML file will contain a ruleset for each of the assertions made, and when run create triples connecting the subject meeting the condition by the predicate IRI given. Download the file, make changes if needed and upload it to the "mappings" group here in CKAN if you want to make use of the automated mapping process applying the mapping.
Groups: The Group functionality is relevant for looged in users. The button Groups takes you to so far established groups. You can use CKAN Groups to create and manage collections of datasets. This could be to catalogue datasets for a particular project or team, or on a particular theme, or as a very simple way to help people find and search your own published datasets. Groups are meant to be used by the community of users of a site.
Follow: The the Follow function is only relevant for by logged in users.
If there are any questions in regards to CKAN along the way there is always the chance to explore the CKAN Website, which can either be found here (https://ckan.org/) or at the bottom of the DataPotal page under Powered by ckan.
As a registered user, I want to add data to the data portal. I want to make the data accessible to the public and relate the associated project, owner and publisher to the data set to make the data findable and accessible while keeping a clean track of its provenance.
Prerequisites: You need a functional material-digital Account for logging in via the single-sign-on. Also, you need to be member with at least "Editor" privileges in at least one organization on the dataportal to add data sets. Please note, that you can provide a very detailed description of your data. Thus, we will only point to the most important categories of information in this guide.
You can start the process of adding data from two places: either, you click on "Datasets" on the top left. Then, above the search bar you find the "Add dataset" button:
The other way here is to click on "organizations" (right beside "Datasets"), select the organization for which you want to add a dataset ( and where you have at least "Editor" privileges).
Then, under "Datasets you find again the "Add dataset" button.
After clicking on the button, you are presented with a form, in which you may fill in various information regarding your data set. Note that mandatory information is marked with a red star. The associated fields must be filled for successfully uploading your data. In the following we will only cover a few important options offered here.
A title, keywords and a description of the datset need to be entered at this point.
The keywords enetere here will be associated with tags under which you can find the data set!.
You will be provided with suggestions while typing.
In case there is no matching existing tag, a new one will be created for you.
In this section information regarding contact information, like an URI, mail address etc. for a contact person is entered. You may add additional fields if necessary.
You can also add a Publisher and the Creator of the data set by filling similar fields.
Among the following fields, especially the license, the organization and the visibility are particularly important.
The organization is mandatory and a data set cannot be added without filling this field.
The visibility lets you control whether the data set is publicly visible to anyone on the internet ("Public") or only to registered users of the dataportal ("Private").
Of course you can also add a release date, modification date, a version number (including further version notes), a release frequency and more information on the data set's provenance.
Now you will be guided through the process of adding all files associated with your data set.
During the upload process you are presention with different options to choose from:
- add single files and provide a detailed description on their contents.
- add a wide variety of information such as a name for the file, its mime-type, size, license, URL to only resources, creation date etc.
- provide files via upload from your local drive or by providing a link to an online resource.
- provide tabular data by using the "Table Designer".
Fields that are not filled manually may be filled with auto-generated, default values.
After providing the information for a file, you are offered the option to add further files and provide their details.
You can also select the "Multi Upload" option and add files via drag-and-drop.
The process is completed by clicking on "finish".
After the upload is concluded the overview-page of your data set displayed.
