CPS class-specific instructions

Caution

Note - the following instructions will only work for CPS classes.

These instructions describe the process of opening a CPS JupyterLab environment on the Open OnDemand (OOD) Discovery web portal and accessing class work directories.

Note

Due to problems with launching OOD on Safari, we recommend using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge browsers instead for best experience.

Open the CPS JupyterLab environment

Important

The class instructor needs to fill in the: Discovery Classroom Use Request You will only be able to find your class resources if a request was already made.

In a web browser, go to http://ood.discovery.neu.edu. Login with your NU credentials.

Under the Courses menu, select your Class Name (For example: ALY3070 JupyterLab):

Select the default options and click Launch. Wait until the session is successfully created and ready to be launched (turns green).

For more control of the session, modify Time for the session time (in hours), Memory to get more memory in GB, and the Working Directory where JupyterLab will launch.

Note

If Working Directory is left blank, the session will launch in the main class folder (in this example /work/cps/ALY3070). Alternatively, start the session directly from your personal working directory by entering: /work/cps/ALY3070/students/[username], where [username] is your username on Discovery. The instructions below assume the field is left blank.

Click Connect to Jupyter to open JupyterLab:

This will open a JupyterLab interface in another tab.

Select Cancel when prompted with the Build Recommended option:

The package jupyterlab-dash does not require a build, and will not work when build is enabled.

Access CPS class directories

After you are connected to a CPS JupyterLab session on OOD, you can access any shared class directories and your private class directory.

You can navigate between the class folders using the left menu. Your instructor may share files in this directory:

For instance, file Example.ipynb can be viewed using Python Jupyter Notebook (but not edited or removed).

Navigate to the students directory, where you will see another directory under your username:

Enter your personal class directory (here, username mariana.levi is shown):

Now you can create and edit Jupyter Notebook files.

Open a new Python Notebook session from the Launcher menu by clicking the Python 3 (ipykernel):

A new file will be created inside your directory called Untitled.ipynb. You can rename it by right-clicking on it and using the Rename option:

This Python notebook has ready-to-use Python packages needed for your class.

Note

Permission Denied errors: Do not attempt to create, edit or write files that are outside of your personal student directory. Most “Permission Denied” errors are due to directories or files having read-only access permissions.

Submit CPS class assignments

Important

Due to the write-only access permissions on the assignments directory, it is required to use the command line interface (Linux Terminal) to submit assignments. Using other methods, such as the JupyterLab interface or OOD File Explorer, currently does not work.

To submit your assignment (for example, named: Assignment1.ipynb) to the assignments directory, open the JuypterLab New Launcher by clicking the File top menu option, and then selecting New Launcher:

Click on the Terminal option under Other to open a Linux terminal:

Navigate to your personal directory by typing the following command (change the class name from ALY3070 to your class name accordingly):

cd /work/cps/ALY3070/students/$USER

Where $USER is a saved shell variable for your username. You can optionally also replace it with your username.

Check that your assignment file is visible in the command line by typing ls. Then, Copy the assignment file to the assignments directory with this command (replace Assignment1.ipynb with your file name):

cp Assignment1.ipynb ../../assignments

To remove an existing assignment, type (replace Assignment1.ipynb with your file name):

rm ../../assignments/Assignment1.ipynb

Close the Terminal tab when done.