UserDoc: Sponsors

Documentation - Sponsors

Introduction

A sponsor in BeeHub is an entity that allocates a budget for its sponsored users. When a user places a file in BeeHub, the file must be placed in some storage space. The different sponsors provide their storage spaces to their users, and so can the users deposit their files in those storage places.

A sponsor can be considered as somebody who pays for storage space and who allows his selected users (his sponsored users) to use that booked storage space.

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NOTE: Confusion between groups and sponsors

Groups and sponsors are independent from each other. A group is a set of users. They can get, as a group, rights assigned on different resources (files and folders) in BeeHub. Coincidentally, in BeeHub they also get a root folder with the same name as the group, where they can easily build their own cooperative space. But each file from each user in the group will have a sponsor, and this sponsor will be one of the file owner's sponsors. The file will then take space from the sponsor's quota.

On the other hand, a sponsor is a decision maker. It chooses who to sponsor (so, in that sense, it constitutes a group of users) and therefore whose files it pays for. But it cannot get access rights assigned on resources or share resources itself. A sponsor does not get any addressable root folder, so there is nothing like a common place for a sponsor to deposit its files so that all people from a sponsor can share their files.

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Using sponsors

Users

In order to deposit files in BeeHub, a user must be at least sponsored by one sponsor. At this time, whenever you become a BeeHub user you are automatically assigned the default sponsor e-infra. If you upload a file, then this file will automatically get sponsored by the only sponsor that you will have: e-infra.

You can see your sponsors by clicking on the Sponsors option on the main menu bar of the BeeHub web site (which will bring you to https://beehub.nl/system/sponsors/). The tab My sponsors will let you see which your sponsors are.

To request a sponsor to sponsor you, in the Join tab you must look for the sponsor you want to join (you can filter the list by typing in part of its name in the search box). Then, when you find it, click on the Join button for that sponsor. The sponsor administrators will receive a notification that you want them to allow you to be sponsored by them, and they can react by approving or rejecting your request. Whichever the outcome, you will get a notification back whenever they have done it.

You can change your default sponsor by editing your user_profile. Click on the top-right corner of the screen on your user name, and on the drop-down menu choose Profile. On the tab My profile you can choose your Default sponsor out of the sponsors that are actually sponsoring you.

Resources

Every resource in BeeHub is also sponsored by a sponsor (note that both files and folders are resources). You can see which sponsor is sponsoring a resource on the listing of the Files tab. The last column is labeled Sponsor.

To change a resource's sponsor, click on the name of the current resource's sponsor, so that a dropdown list will appear with all the sponsors that you can choose from. When you click on a sponsor from that list, the resource will effectively have the new sponsor.

Only the resource owner can change a resource's sponsor. You can only choose sponsors for a resource that are actually sponsoring you.

WebDAV and sponsors

• You can see your default sponsor by querying for property <ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/>. For example, with cURL:

  `curl -n -X PROPFIND --data '<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:prop><ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/></D:prop></D:propfind>' -L https://beehub.nl/system/users/john_doe``

• You can list all your sponsors by querying for property <ns:sponsor-membership xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/">. For example, with cURL:

  curl -n -X PROPFIND --data '<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:prop><ns:sponsor-membership xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/></D:prop></D:propfind>' -L https://beehub.nl/system/users/john_doe

• You can see a resource's sponsor by querying for property <ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/>. For example, with cURL:

  curl -n -X PROPFIND --data '<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:prop><ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/></D:prop></D:propfind>' -L https://beehub.nl/home/john_doe/file.txt

• You can change your default sponsor by setting the value for property <ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/>. For example, with cURL:

  curl -n -X PROPPATCH --data '<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:set><D:prop><ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"><D:href>/system/sponsors/your_sponsor</D:href></ns:sponsor></D:prop></D:set></D:propertyupdate>' -L https://beehub.nl/system/users/john_doe

• You can change a resource's sponsor by setting the value for property <ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"/>. For example, with cURL:

  curl -n -X PROPPATCH --data '<D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:set><D:prop><ns:sponsor xmlns:ns="http://beehub.nl/"><D:href>/system/sponsors/your_sponsor</D:href></ns:sponsor></D:prop></D:set></D:propertyupdate>' -L https://beehub.nl/home/john_doe/file.txt

Becoming a sponsor

When you become a sponsor, you get your own storage quota and you get to decide who can use it. Currently, the way to become a sponsor is to submit a request via the form at https://e-infra.surfsara.nl.