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Gitlab

Imagine a world, where you could …

  • … edit your files and retain a meaningful editing history in a unified way (version control)
  • Work with your data on multiple computers
  • … share your work with selected work groups and lab mates
  • … collaborate with your team on a research project
  • … make research projects more findable by organizing them by institute and work group
  • … let others suggest editions to your work without overwriting changes by mistake (parallel working)
  • … collect background knowledge for your team in project wikis
  • … introduce project management to your work (issues, milestones etc.)

This is Gitlab, a collaboration platform and the central part of NOWA. Gitlab is built around git, a very popular versioning tool. The original purpose of git and platforms like gitlab was source code management, but it can be used for data and documents in many situations. The NOWA website already contains some training materials and blog posts about git and gitlab.

Getting Access to Gitlab

The university of Marburg offers a central gitlab service for its members (staff and students) and researchers within the SFB135 are asked to share their project in the Marburg university gitlab environment.. A central UMR account and a 2FA token is needed for signing in. The CRC members and their work groups from Marburg can join it directly. CRC members from other universities should already be provided with central UMR credentials and 2FA tokens. Otherwise, credentials can be requested from the NOWA support team.

For this, you'll need a staff or students email account at Marburg university. Researchers in Gießen therefore need to apply for an account at Marburg university. Application for this account is done by the data steward of the SFB135. Please send an email with the following information about your person:

  • Your usual uni email
  • First- and last name(s)
  • Your birthday
  • If you want communication in german or english
  • Your status (PhD Student, postdoc, etc.)
  • The dates of your contract (start and end date)
  • Your work address

After application for the account you'll receive an email with the instruction to set up a video call with the HRZ Marburg to verify your account. After this, you'll need to apply for a 2-factor authentication on the website of the HRZ Marburg. After you received your 2-FA, you can log into Marburg university gitlab with your email account, password, and 2-FA.

On Gitlab, the content is organized in hierarchical folders, or groups in Gitlab terminology. Each user has a personal group, but research groups and lectures can also get dedicated groups for their content. This enables fine-grained access control for sharing and collaboration. As soon as you and your group have access to Gitlab, you might want to request a group for your research group.

Tutorials on Git & GitLab

NOWA has offered several workshops on Git & GitLab in the past. You can find the respective tutorials on our tutorial page.