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Stories from the trenches of how new features and improvements are making it easier to do work on Terra.

• Ontology and automation: a powerful DUO for streamlining data access

  Life as a biomedical researcher is a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment you're marvelling at how technology has revolutionized the field -- SO. MUCH. DATA. -- and the next, you're tearing your hair out at how antiquated some of our processes st...
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• Improving Job Manager functionality on Terra

  We can probably all agree that the main point of running analyses in the form of workflows is to automate as much of it as you can. So when something goes wrong, you want to be able to identify the nature of the problem as quickly and easily as po...
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• Workflow worries to working WDLs in under a week

  How insightful feedback about the GATK showcase led to a flurry of updates and the creation of a suite of format conversion tools Last June, just as we were putting the final touches on the teaching materials for a 4-day GATK workshop that we were...
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• Upgrade to the workflow system coming soon: heads up on possible side effects

  When you launch a workflow in Terra, there's a lot that happens behind the scenes to get the work done. Usually you don't need to care about any of it, but we're about to release a system upgrade that may cause some of your workflows to fail where...
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• The most Terra-fic features for FireCloud veterans

  In case you haven't met us yet, Beri and I (Sushma) are part of the Frontline Support Team here, aka the real humans behind the FireCloud and Terra forums and helpdesk. We're on deck every day answering questions and helping troubleshoot problems,...
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• New file paths for TARGET and TCGA workspaces

  Heads up if you use the TARGET and/or TCGA data workspaces: we're planning an update that will change the paths to the data files. This will disable access to the original files in any clones of the original workspaces that retain the old paths, a...
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• Testimonials from FireCloud and Terra users

  The following testimonials have been freely provided by researchers working in Terra or its earlier incarnation, FireCloud.  Read on to see how how specific features of the platform enabled their work.    The best of both worlds: testing locally,...
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• FireCloud to Terra transition coming May 1st

  Last month we were excited to announce that FireCloud is getting a big upgrade, including a new and improved user interface called Terra. As a reminder, going forward we'll use the name "Terra" to refer to the overall platform that you use to get ...
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• Terra as a platform/Co-branded projects

  The vision of Terra is to enable the next generation of collaborative biomedical research. To that end, there are several co-branded projects that exist independently on the platform - AnVIL, Data STAGE, and FIreCloud, for example. Each co-branded...
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• CRDC and other cloud resources

    Below is a summary of Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) cloud resources, and how they meld together to advance cancer research. For more comprehensive information, see the CRDC website. Terms and helpful lin...
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• Next steps for the platform that powers FireCloud

  We are excited to announce that we’re rolling out a new and improved user interface that addresses much of the feedback you’ve shared with us over the past three years. Using the new interface will not require you to change anything and should mak...
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