Artifact Upload

File uploading is necessary for report submission and slides sharing. These files are called “artifact”. Only students of a project can upload these artifacts.

The process involves three storages:

  • projects database table

  • files database table

  • IPFS

Uploading artifacts starts with user submitting a file via browser. A file controller receives it and add to the file system, IPFS. After adding the file, a CID is generated by IPFS and returned to the controller. Consequently, metadata about the file, including the CID, is added as a row in the table files. The database management system, RethinkDB, generates a primary key for this row, which is then added to project artifact revisions.

@startuml hide footbox autoactivate on skinparam sequenceParticipant underline actor ":User" as usr boundary ":Artifact Upload Form" as form control ":File Controller" as ctl entity ":Project" as db_prj entity ":File" as db_file collections ":IPFS" as ipfs usr -> form : // submit a file() form -> ctl : // send form() ctl -> db_prj : // check permission() ctl <-- db_prj ctl -> ipfs : // add to file system() ctl <-- ipfs : // return CID ctl -> db_file : // save file metadata() ctl <-- db_file : // return database key() ctl -> db_prj : // add artifact() ctl <-- db_prj form <-- ctl usr <-- form @enduml

Figure 28 General message sequence for artifact uploading.

In case of uploading files for other purposes, such as including a picture in a comment, is similar to the flow described above. However, the primary key is not stored in the project, and the link to the stored file is returned instead.