Connecting to a MGX server

Figure 2.1: Screenshot of the client application right after startup.

After installation, the MGX application is already preconfigured to connect to the MGX server instance hosted at CeBiTec, Bielefeld University. In case a different MGX server should be used, the default server can be changed choosing Tools $\rightarrow$ Options from the menu and navigating to the MGX server tab (2.2). While the site name can be freely chosen by the user, the server URL has to be entered as provided by the site administrators.

Figure 2.2: A different default server instance can optionally be configured in the MGX server tab, which is available from the Tools $\rightarrow$ Options menu.

Figure 2.3: The first button in the menu toolbar will bring up the login dialog, allowing to connect to the configured server; the login screen also reflects the name of the current server.

All communication between the MGX user interface and the MGX server is encrypted using the standardized SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol, ensuring confidentiality of unpublished data and protecting the integrity of login credentials. After successfully logging in, a new window is automatically opened. The MGX Explorer window lists all available projects a user is allowed to access, including both public as well as private projects. Projects are easily opened or closed by simply expanding the corresponding nodes in the Project Explorer window (2.4).

Figure 2.4: After successful login, the Project Explorer component will automatically open, showing a list of MGX projects available to the current user. Shown is just one project, MGX_Demo, with “User” access level indicated behind the project name.

Figure 2.5: Divided into three different parts, a MGX projects offers (from top to bottom) dedicated storage for files to be used by analysis pipelines, managed reference sequences (including annotation data, if available) and general project data containing metadata as well as sequence datasets.

Each project contains metagenome datasets as well as structured storage (2.5), where user-provided databases can be uploaded to be used in custom analysis pipelines (Chapter 3).