Getting Started#

Basic Concepts#

Enthought Edge brings several capabilities together into one product. Before getting started, it's useful to review them briefly. The basic parts of Edge are:

  • An internal data store, using a file/folder metaphor

  • A collection of data connectors, which you can use to connect Edge to vast quantities of pre-existing data in your organization

  • The Analysis App (JupyterLab), where you can write notebooks to analyze data, and instantly access Edge's files and data connectors from Python

  • The Data App, where you can browse & edit files and connector data interactively

  • A Search tool, which you can use to rapidly locate data of interest

  • A fast, modern API you can use for analysis or building custom applications

Logging in#

Go to https://edge.enthought.com, and you should see a page prompting you to log in. Clicking on "Login" will prompt you to enter the username and password for your Enthought account:

../_images/edge_login.png

Scientific Workbench#

Once you've logged, in the Scientific Workbench will be displayed. This is where applications (custom or built-in to Edge) are shown. Edge ships with two built-in applications: the Analysis App (built on JupyterLab), and the Data App.

../_images/edge_home.png

Using the Analysis App#

Click on the "Analysis" tile to launch. This will take a few minutes as the application starts. When it finishes, you should see a customized version of JupyterLab:

../_images/edge_analysis.png

Jupyter notebooks#

From here, you can create Jupyter Notebooks. There is a predefined object in each notebook, called edge:

../_images/edge_notebook.png

As you can read in Working with Files and Working with Data Connectors, this built-in object gives you access to a vast amount of data accessible via Edge's API. That includes uploaded files and other data, as well as remote data sources Edge has been connected to.

For example, here's how you can list uploaded files and folders in Edge's internal storage:

>>> edge.files.list()
['Example Folder',
 'Experiments.txt',
 'Imported Data',
 'My Data',
 'Projects',
 'data.csv',
 'data_cleaned.csv',
 'image001.png',
 'image002.png',
 'image003.png']

Cloning a remote repository#

If you have a repository hosted on a version control service such as GitHub or GitLab, you can clone it into your workspace by using the built-in git extension.

Clicking on "Git" in the top menu brings up the option to "Clone a Repository", which will then prompt you to enter the URI to your repository.

../_images/clonerepo.png

Note

If your repository is not publicly accessible, you will see a prompt asking for your credentials to the version control service. It is recommended that you use enter a "personal access token" instead of your password.

../_images/gitcredentials.png

Instructions on how to generate a personal token are available for GitHub. and GitLab.

If you are using a different service, check their documentation for more information.

Installing Python packages#

A large number of Python packages are pre-installed. You can also install different ones; open a terminal from the Jupyter launcher page and use edm or pip commands to install:

$ edm install somepackage
$ pip install somepackage

Note

If you have a notebook open, you can get the launcher page back via the large blue "+" button at top left:

../_images/edge_analysis_launcher.png

We recommend using edm unless the package you want isn't available from Enthought's repository. edm-installed packages have been extensively tested to make sure they work together. You can read more about EDM in the official EDM docs.

If you get into trouble, shut down any running notebooks and run the reset-edge command from the terminal. This will restore your package set to the "factory default" settings:

$ reset-edge

Resetting Edge will:

  * remove all custom Python packages and environments
  * restore your Python packages to factory default

You will NOT lose any files or notebooks.

Continue and reset Edge (y/n)?

Using the Data App#

Clicking on the "Data" tile will launch the Data App, which allows browsing of data uploaded to Edge or available through a data connector.

../_images/edge_data_app.png

For details on using the built-in file browser in the Data App, see Working with Files.

For details on creating and managing data connectors in the Data App, see Working with Data Connectors.

Using the Search Tool#

Clicking on the search icon in the left sidebar will bring you to the Search tool. This allows you to search data known to Edge. Currently files and filenames in Edge's internal storage are indexed:

../_images/edge_search.png