Dev Diary 4: Unboxing the new release of the EOSC Portal

 

After our previous update on the precious contributions to our requirements gathering efforts from EOSC thematic and regional projects, this time we are welcoming a pivotal milestone for our project, as we introduce the highly-anticipated release of the EOSC Portal. 

Over the past few weeks, EOSC Enhance partners have incorporated this initial feedback and worked on key features of this release, featuring new functionalities for both service providers and users. 

Let’s delve deeper into the EOSC Enhance journey and get to know some of the main updates from this release.

The enhanced Catalogue and Marketplace

The restyling and enhancement of the EOSC Portal Catalogue and Marketplace was a central piece of our work throughout Year 1 of the project. 

The search function has been improved, including the possibility to visualise individual offers from services in the search bar already while typing.

We have applied a more user-friendly interface to the presentation of resources, offering a clearer overview as well as easier access to specific information, and also added a guided tour of the new layout for users who browse the website for the first time.

New functionalities for providers

EOSC Enhance unified the previously separate databases of resources from eInfracentral, the EOSC Portal Marketplace and EOSC-hub service catalogue into a single EOSC Portal database.

We have also introduced the Provider and Resource Profiles 3.0, consequently updating the EOSC Portal Marketplace and Catalogue to be compatible with these new profiles. This was a key step towards making the future inclusion of data and training resources more simple.

Providers are now able to onboard their organisations as well, and once approved can work together with the EOSC Portal Onboarding Team to offer their resources on the Portal. Providers are going to be more involved in the process through the Providers Dashboard, in line with the collaborative nature of the European Open Science Cloud.

Thanks to the upgraded API component, it will be easier to incorporate resources from existing catalogues, facilitating integration between the EOSC Portal and thematic and national initiatives.

Tutorials and community engagement 

The EOSC Enhance team also coordinated several additions to the EOSC Portal Content Component, aiming to improve the overall user experience and the dissemination of the core updates in this EOSC Portal release.

We have added the section “Using the Portal”, featuring an expanding collection of tutorials on different topics to help both new and existing users. Another relevant insertion is the “Providers Documentation”, where the Onboarding Team provides an overview of the guidelines for providers as well as resources. Use cases can now also be submitted directly by providers and published on the website after being evaluated by the EOSC Portal Editorial Board.

EOSC Enhance representatives will present the EOSC Portal Release 1 through a series of webinars, starting on Thursday 3 December at 11:00 CET.

Watch the recording and discover the new EOSC Portal!


 

27 November 2020