How to make a workflow RO-crate?

More info about workflow RO-crate specification can be found in our Workflow-RO-Crate section.

1. Using the WorkflowHub website

The most convenient way to make a workflow RO-crate at this moment is by making use of WorkflowHub capabilities. The website is able to generate RO-crates based on an uploaded/referenced workflow file and some general metadata that is requested through a form. After the workflow is registered for more info about this topic) it is possible to download the RO-crate with the download button. The generated RO-crate, basically a zip file, will contain these elements:

• JSONLD file
  JSONLD serving machine readable metadata including:
  • Author
  • Contents and structure
  • Project
  • Original URL
  • License
  • Publisher
  • Date Published
  • creativeWorkStatus
  • Programming Language
  • Based on

  The metadata properties are based on the BioSchemas workflow profile .

• HTML file
  A web page serving the metadata in a human readable way.
  • Original URL
  • Author (creators)
  • License
  • Contents

• Main Workflow file
  The workflow file itself if uploaded.

• Main Workflow Diagram (optional)
  A diagram visualizing the steps in the workflow if uploaded or generated out of the CWL.

• Main Workflow CWL Description (optional)
  This file can be included if supplied by the user.

2. Making one offline yourself

We are working on a python package at this moment to wrap your own RO-crates. This will allow you to not be bounded by the file limitations of the WorkflowHub website (workflow + CWL abstract and/or diagram), and will make it possible to automate the RO-Crate generation. The python package can be found in ResearchObject/ro-crate-py.