factFUSE

A user-space file system that allows users to interface with LDP servers and mount them to the local file system. factFUSE uses factlib.js to manage provenance information according to the FactDAG Model and provides UI Extensions to view and manage this information directly from the file system. It implements an easy-to-use commit system to synchronize local changes to the LDP while creating and preserving provenance.

factFUSE Demo

Usability Study

To evaluate the usability of factFUSE and the adoption of version- and provenance management principles by inexperienced users, we conducted a user study. If you are interested in the results of the study, visit the wiki pages.

Installation

Pre-Builds

The easiest way to use factFUSE is to download the latest version from the release page.

The macOS version ships as a mountable disk image. Simply mount the volume and follow the instructions:

The Linux version comes as a tar archive. It contains an executable AppImage and a .desktop file for the context-menu utilities. To launch the Linux version, execute the AppRun link inside the directory.

Building from source

Requires node and npm to be installed. Works on macOS and Linux.

Set up the npm registry for factlib.js

echo @i5:registry=https://git.rwth-aachen.de/api/v4/packages/npm/ >> .npmrc

For information on the installation on factlib.js and on how to setup a LDP with factlib.js, see here.

Install all dependencies for nodegui according to https://github.com/nodegui/nodegui.

Clone this repository, install the required dependencies and rebuild the fuse-native node native extensions for inclusion in the build.

git clone https://git.rwth-aachen.de/i5/factdag/factfuse.git
npm install
npx qode `which npm` install fuse-native --build-from-source

Then run and wait for webpack

npm run webpack

Finally build the application using

npm run build

You can find the finished build under ~/factfuse/deploy/<darwin or linux>/build/

Using the context-menu utilities

The OS-specific utilities can be found in /contextmenu. If you want to use the utilities, please make sure that the specified paths point to your factFUSE installation.

For macOS: The macOS utilities can be installed with Automator. If factFUSE is not in your Applications folder: Open the Automator Quick Action, change the Shell Script variable loc to point to the location of the factFUSE app.

For Linux: Use FileManager-Actions for the Linux utilities. (sudo apt-get install filemanager-actions) Open the .desktop file with FileManager-Actions and select the 'View History' Action. In the 'Command' Tab, change the working directory field to point to your factFUSE directory that contains the AppImage.

Running factFUSE from source

The following npm-scripts can be used inside the cloned project folder:

• npm run webpack : Run webpack before manually using the project and leave the process running.
• npm run init : Starts factFUSE and opens the configuration GUI.
• npm run build : Builds an app from source.

Getting started - A Tutorial