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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I become a new user to the portal?​

You have to register first. New users can be added by a Site Manager or Administrator using the ‘People’ menu. Read more in Adding New Users.

2. I forgot my password, what do I do now?​

A Site Manager or Administrator can change your password. Once logged in with the new password, click your username on the blue panel and then change the password to your own choice via the ‘Edit’ button.

3. How do I upload new data on the portal?​

New data can be added to the portal by selecting ‘Dataset’ under the ‘Add content’ menu. Read more in Create a dataset.

4. How do I delete data on the portal?​

Data can be deleted by the Site Manager or the Content Creator who added the dataset. Click on the dataset, then click the ‘Edit’ button and scroll down to find the ‘Delete’ button. To delete a resource, click the dataset then the individual resource, click ‘Edit’ then scroll down to find ‘Delete’ button. Read more in Editing or Deleting a Dataset.

5. What types of files can I store on the portal?​

A large range of file types can be uploaded to the portal or zipped folders can be uploaded for multiple files (e.g. shapefiles). Uploading spreadsheet data in CSV format and spatial data in GeoJSON format enables you to create charts and maps from these data in the portal. Read more in Adding a Dataset.

6. Can I produce graphs from the portal?​

Yes, the portal has a chart builder accessed under the ‘Visualizations’ menu. Read more in Creating Visualizations.

7. Does the portal have analysis capacities?​

No, the data portal is a place to store, access and visualize datasets. Analysis is done by the user in other applications and there are excellent free ‘opensource’ options available (e.g. R statistics platform, QGIS). However, the portal is a great place to store analysis results!

Resources can be files held on remote server and linked to the portal. When adding a resource, select the ‘Link to Remote File’ option and paste in the website URL l (e.g. http://example.com/gold-prices-jan-2011.csv). Read more in Step 2: Add Resources.

9. Can I add audio or video to the portal?​

Audio and video files can be uploaded to the portal in zipped folders. Video and audio displayed on an external website can be opened in the portal by adding a resource, selecting the ‘Embed External Resource’ and pasting in the website URL. Read more in Step 2: Add Resources.

10. What is metadata?​

Metadata is information about the data. Read more in Step 3: Additional Metadata.

11. Why tag datasets?​

Tags are keywords that help portal users locate a particular dataset. Read more in Tagging Datasets.