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--- submission_guide [2022/10/07 00:27] – [File Submission] scmfcl
+++ submission_guide [2023/03/16 12:11] (current) – [Extremely Large Files/Archives] scmfcl
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Submission Guide ======
-This explains how to submit the deliverables for your final year project. For what to submit check the relevant deliverable section for your project module.
+This explains how to submit the deliverables for your final year project. For what to submit, check the relevant deliverable section for your project module.
-All deliverables must be submitted via PATS, except for physical artefacts. Some larger datasets, videos or similar that are only for general support or context may be provided elsewhere. All submissions must contain at least one PDF file in the document files section or they will not be accepted by PATS and so submission cannot be completed.
+All deliverables must be submitted via PATS, except for physical artefacts. Some larger datasets, videos or similar that are only for general support or context may be provided elsewhere. All submissions must contain at least one PDF file in the document files section, or PATS will not allow you to complete the submission.
-Submission consist generally of **two** main steps: (i) **upload and check all files** for the submission; (ii) **complete submission** by clicking the "Complete Submission" button. Do not forget step (ii). You can submit as many times as you wish before deadline (as long as PATS lets you submit), but only the last submission archive is marked and at most the last two submissions are kept (if you do not delete them). Any files left in the submission area are not marked and it is best to not leave any there to avoid confusion. You can keep the submission files in the submission area and keep updating them and only perform the second step once you are sure all files are complete.
+Submission generally consists of **two** main steps: (i) **upload and check all files** for the submission; (ii) **complete submission** by clicking the "Complete Submission" button. Do not forget step (ii). You can submit as many times as you wish before the deadline (as long as PATS lets you submit), but only the last submission archive is marked, and at most, the last two submissions are kept (if you do not delete them). Any files left in the submission area are not marked, and it is best not to leave any to avoid confusion. You can keep the submission files in the submission area and keep updating them and only perform the second step once you are sure all files are complete.
-After you completed step (ii) we suggest to download and check the contents of your submission archive. In particular the files in the PDF section are merged into a single PDF file, protected/encrypted to avoid modification and completed with any missing fonts as far as possible. During upload PATS provides some tools to check the contents of the files and also merge the files. You may want to check the resulting submitted PDF files for any issues, which can be caused by missing fonts in the original files (this means that even the original files may also not show up correctly on your markers PDF viewers). We are trying to create an archival PDF format (PDF/A) as possible from what you submit to minimise any issues with viewing later on.
+After completing step (ii), we suggest downloading and checking the contents of your submission archive. In particular, the files in the PDF section are merged into a single PDF file, protected/encrypted to avoid modification and completed with any missing fonts as far as possible. During upload, PATS provides tools to check the contents of the files and also merge the files. You may want to check the resulting submitted PDF files for any issues which can, for instance, be caused by missing fonts in the original files (this means that even the original files may also not show up correctly on your markers PDF viewers). We are trying to create an archival PDF format (PDF/A) from what you submit to minimise any issues with viewing later on as much as possible.
-In a submission on PATS we usually expect a report with sufficient evidence to back up your claims such that they can be verified and reproduced. Often the report with sources is sufficient for this. Sometimes you may have some extra data files, videos or images for demonstrations. You only have to submit files you created yourself. There is no need to submit any automatically created files from those files, such as compiled object files or binaries. There is also no need to submit files from a framework or development suite or otherwise obtained assets you are using (these can easily simply be referenced - they do not have to be freely available). Some extra data files may be useful to document computational and analysis results, etc. We do not have to be able to execute your code from what is submitted as it only serves as evidence for what you have done.
+In a submission on PATS, we usually expect a report with sufficient evidence to back up your claims such that they can be verified and reproduced in principle. Often the report with sources is adequate for this. Sometimes you may have some extra data files, videos or images for demonstrations. You only have to submit files you created yourself. No need to submit any files automatically created, such as compiled object files or binaries. There is also no need to submit files from a framework or development suite or otherwise obtained assets you are using (these can easily be referenced - they do not have to be freely available). Some extra data files may be useful to document computational and analysis results, etc. We do not have to be able to execute your code from what is submitted, as it only serves as evidence of what you have done.
-====== File Submission ======
+===== File Submission =====
-For each deliverable PATS has two sections to submit files:
+For each deliverable, PATS has two sections to submit files:
-  * **Document files**: These must be PDF files and each submission must have at least one of these files - this section is for the written report, including any appendices. See the **[[PDF Guide]]** for information on how to create PDF files.
+  * **Document files**: These must be PDF files, and each submission must have at least one of these files - this section is for the written report, including any appendices. See the **[[PDF Guide]]** for information on creating PDF files.
-  * **Support files**: These are any additional files you wish to submit for your project. They are not part of the main report, but for supplementary material or extended appendices for your project. Often these are archives (we try to convert some of them to zip files for compatibility) containing code, data or computational/experimental results. Generally uploading files here is optional, but check what you should be providing with the main report for the deliverable here. For final reports, in most cases we expect to see at least the code. Usually we do not require any binary files generated from sources, etc.
+  * **Support files**: These are any additional files you wish to submit for your project. They are not part of the main report but form supplementary material or extended appendices. Often these are archives (we try to convert some of them to zip files for compatibility) containing code, data or computational/experimental results. Generally, uploading files here is optional, but check what you should provide with the main report carefully. For final reports, in most cases, we expect to see at least the code. Usually, we do not require any binary files generated from sources, etc.
-What is suitable to submit often depends on your project and your report. Please discuss with your supervisor what you should include if you are unsure. Your supervisor and moderator will be able to see any of the files you have in the submission area and your current and previous submission archive.
+What is suitable to submit often depends on your project and your report. Please discuss with your supervisor what you should include if you are unsure. Your supervisor and moderator can see any of the files you have in the submission area and your current and previous submission archive.
-To add files to these sections, press one of the related [Upload] buttons which opens a separate file selection dialog. You have a choice to use the resumable upload function, which allows to continue interrupted uploads, but may not work with all browsers and is in particular suitable for larger files. Instead you can use the standard direct upload, which should work with all browsers, but cannot be resumed. Once you have uploaded a file you can view its type, file size, and checksums (to check if your upload was successful). You can further rename, delete and move the file up or down in the list in each section. You cannot move files between sections.
+To add files to these sections, press one of the related upload buttons, which opens a separate file selection dialogue. You have a choice to use the resumable upload function, which allows you to continue interrupted uploads, but may not work with all browsers and is particularly suitable for larger files. Instead, you can use the standard direct upload, which should work with all browsers, but cannot be resumed. Once you have uploaded a file, you can view its type, file size, and checksums (to check if your upload was successful). You can further rename, delete and move the file up or down in the list in each section. You cannot move files between sections.
-For the files in the document section you can check if there could be potential issues with the PDF files. You can also combine all files in this section into a single file (PATS will do this automatically upon submission completion).
+For the files in the document section, you can check if there could be potential issues with the PDF files. You can also combine all files in this section into a single file (PATS will do this automatically upon submission completion).
-After you have uploaded at least one file to the document files section you can complete the submission. This will generate a zip file containing all the files you have uploaded in all sections, sorted by these sections and in order they are displayed in the submission area. The document files will be combined into a single PDF file. **Your files count as submitted only after you have completed the submission**. While files in the content area are visible to your supervisor and moderator, they do not ncount as submitted nor do they serve as extensions to the submission; they will simply be ignored.
+After you have uploaded at least one file to the document files section, you can complete the submission. This will generate a zip file containing all the files you have uploaded in all sections, sorted by these sections, and in order they are displayed in the submission area. The document files will be combined into a single PDF file. **Your files count as submitted only after you have completed the submission**. While files in the content area are visible to your supervisor and moderator, they do not count as submitted nor serve as extensions to the submission; they will be ignored.
 You can resubmit at any time before the deadline (all deadlines are by 23:00 on the day shown). A resubmission will completely replace the previously submitted files and not extend the previous submission, so always upload all files into the submission area and then submit them all at once by completing the submission. You can delete the archive at any time before the deadline and also download the archive to verify its contents.
-**Make sure you check the contents of any files you upload in the file submission area and especially the contents of the final submission archive.  Files uploaded via the network may sometimes be corrupted and downloading them again to verify their content avoids any problems. To verify the files you may also use the checksums.** See **[[Checksums]]** for further information.
+**Make sure you check the contents of any files you upload in the file submission area and especially the contents of the final submission archive. Files uploaded via the network may sometimes be corrupted, and downloading them again to verify their content avoids any problems. To verify the files, you may also use the checksums.** See **[[Checksums]]** for further information. (Some PDF files and archives are modified for compatibility and so the checksums are not the same as your local files).
-====== Physical Artefacts ======
+===== Physical Artefacts =====
-Some projects may also produce physical artefacts without any digital versions of them. Hardware or similar physical objects do not need to be submitted, but should be suitably demonstrated via videos or similar material showing their function. Your report should contain sufficient information to rebuild these. Any physcail documentation necessary for your project should, however, be included in the archive in a digitised format.
+Some projects may also produce physical artefacts without any digital versions of them. Hardware or similar physical objects need not be submitted but should be suitably demonstrated via videos, images or similar material showing their function. Your report should contain sufficient information to rebuild these. Any physical documentation necessary for your project should, however, be included in the archive in a digitised format.
-Anything that fits on an A4 page or smaller can be scanned and directly included in the report as a figure. For documents larger than A4 we recommend taking photos of these and submit the image files via PATS. If a single photo is insufficient due to resolution limitations you can take multiple overlapping photos of the document and combine these into a single image.
+Anything that fits on an A4 page or smaller can be scanned and directly included in the report as a figure. For documents larger than A4, we recommend taking photos and submitting the image files via PATS. If a single photo is insufficient due to resolution limitations, you can take multiple overlapping photos of the document and combine these into a single image.
-If you are having any problems with this discuss them with your supervisors and potentially with our IT Service Desk.
+If you have any problems with this, discuss them with your supervisors and potentially with our IT Service Desk.
-====== Extremely Large Files/Archives ======
+===== Extremely Large Files/Archives =====
-We have no strict file size limitations for the submissions. But some project may produce or use very large data sets (say >50GB) that are unsuitable for submission on PATS for various reasons. We recommend to discuss with your supervisor what to do with these and if they are needed. Often it may be more suitable to submit them to a public file sharing/archiving site than keeping them on PATS and reference them from your report instead. In some cases they may also not be required.
+We have no strict file size limitations for the submissions. But some projects may produce or use massive data sets (say >50GB) that are unsuitable for submission on PATS for various reasons. We recommend discussing with your supervisor what to do with these and if they are needed. Often it may be more suitable to submit them to a public file sharing/archiving site than keeping them on PATS and reference them from your report instead. In some cases, they may also not be required.
+You may make larger files/archives available outside of PATS if they are mainly supporting or optional data. These should be clearly referenced in the report. Make sure your supervisor and moderator can view these files and provide share links as references in the report so that other examiners (e.g. third markers, external examiners) are able to access them. Ideally, of course, they would be provided via publicly accessible storage without any restrictions.
 ====== Submission Problems and Peace of Mind ======
-After you submitted your files on PATS your deliverable counts as submitted and you do not have to do anything else. You can verify your submission yourself by checking the provided submission archive. We do not expect any problems with the network connection, the server or the integrity of your submitted file. However, to avoid any problems with the integrity of your submission and to deal with any problems arising from the server, Internet connections or anything else that prevents you from submitting the project in time (i.e. on the day of the submission deadline), please follow these instructions:
+After you complete the submission of your files on PATS, your deliverable counts as submitted, and you do not have to do anything else. You can verify your submission yourself by checking the provided submission archive. We do not expect any problems with the network connection, the server or the integrity of your submitted file. However, to avoid any problems with the integrity of your submission and to deal with any problems arising from the server, Internet connections or anything else that prevents you from submitting the project in time, please follow these instructions:
   * Put all the files you wish to submit into some archive file (similar to the submission archive generated by PATS).
-  * Upload the archive on a private online file share, such as your onedrive linked to your university account (this is the best option, if possible), google drive, dropbox, etc. It is important that you cannot change the timestamp on this file yourself.
+  * Upload the archive on a private online file share, such as your onedrive linked to your university account (this is the best option, if possible), google drive, dropbox, etc. It is important that you cannot change the timestamp of this file yourself on the file-sharing site.
-  * Keep this file unmodified with a verifiable timestamp on the site (at least until you get your mark returned). As the timestamp can serve as a verification that you created the file before deadline, you can later on share this with your supervisor, moderator and project coordinator if there is a problem with your submission.
+  * Keep this file unmodified with a verifiable timestamp on the site (at least until you get your mark returned). As the timestamp can serve as a verification that you created the file before the deadline, you can later share this with your supervisor, moderator and project coordinator if there is a problem with your submission.
-  * If for some reason you cannot upload your files onto PATS you can also share this file immediately (before deadline) with the project coordinator who will fix and complete your submission on PATS.
+  * If, for some reason, you cannot upload your files onto PATS, you can also share this file immediately (before the deadline) with the project coordinator, who will fix and complete your submission on PATS. Also, send an e-mail to the project coordinator with more information about the project, what happened, etc., so they can properly set up your project files on PATS.
+Generally, sharing files with the project coordinator before the deadline works well to resolve any issues. But note that it may take some time until we can get back to you to sort out the problem.
-If for some reason you are unable to submit your files online anywhere, there is a further offline alternative of this process, as last resort:
+If, for some reason, you are unable to submit your files online anywhere, there is a further offline alternative to this process as a last resort:
-  * Put all the files you wish to submit into some archive file (similar to the submission archive generated by PATS). Store this somewhere safe so you can produce this file in person or later on via some file sharing mechanism online via that storage. Make sure the file is not modified (in partciualr after you created the checksum).
+  * Put all the files you wish to submit into some archive file (similar to the submission archive generated by PATS). Store this somewhere safe so you can produce this file in person or later on via some file-sharing mechanism online from that storage. Ensure the file is not modified (in particular, after you created the checksum).
-  * Create a checksum of this file (see **[[Checksums]]**) and send this checksum to your supervisor, moderator or project coordinator. It must arrive before deadline. It can be send by e-mail or given in-person with your full name and student id. You can also give it to someone at the COMSC office. Tell them to forward this to the project coordinator. Note that it may be hard to reach anyone in person, so this does not work as a last minute option (e-mailing the checksum before deadline would of course work).
+  * Create a checksum of this file (see **[[Checksums]]**) and send this checksum to your supervisor, moderator or project coordinator. It must arrive before the deadline. It can be sent by e-mail or given in person with your full name and student id. You can also give this to someone at the COMSC office. Tell them to forward this to the project coordinator. Note that it may be hard to reach anyone in person, so this does not work as a last-minute option (e-mailing the checksum before the deadline would, of course, work).
-  * The project coordinator will then be in touch to arrange receiving the actual file from you and get the data onto PATS. The file must have exactly the checksum you submitted before deadline or it cannot be accepted.
+  * The project coordinator will then be in touch to arrange to receive the actual file from you and get the data onto PATS. The file must have precisely the checksum you submitted before the deadline, or it cannot be accepted.
-So far we never needed had to use this.
+So far, we have never had to use this approach.
 ====== Recommended File Types ======
-You are free to use any file types as long as they are suitable for the submission section. However, in general we recommend the following file formats, unless there is a good reason for your project to use a different format:
+You can use any file type as long as they are suitable in the support file section. However, in general, we recommend the following file formats unless there is a good reason for your project to use a different format:
-  * Documents: Whenever possible use PDF. Note, the main report must be in PDF format.
+  * Documents: Whenever possible, use PDF. Note the main report must be in PDF format in the document files section.
-  * Sources: Sources, interpreted files, HTML files, etc. should usually be plain text files encoded in ASCII, UTF-8 or ISO 8859-1 (latin1). Other standard text encodings may be used, if necessary.
+  * Sources: Sources, interpreted files, HTML files, etc., should usually be plain text files encoded in ASCII, UTF-8 or ISO 8859-1 (latin1). Other standard text encodings may be used if necessary.
-  * Images: The JPEG or PNG formats are preferred, for compatibility. An image quality of 90% is usually sufficient for JPEG.
+  * Jupyter, matlab, etc. notebooks: consider if these are really suitable for the purpose (e.g. PDF files generated from them may be more suitable for showing analysis results) and make sure you submit them completely, including any separate data needed. They may not be viewable by your markers in any case, so are best treated as optional files for completeness/evidence of your work only.
-  * Video: Use MP4, MKV or WEBM container formats. The H.264/AVC and AV1 codecs are preferred, for compatibility and quality. Usually the resolution does not have to be greater than 1080p (1920x1080), 720p (1280x720 pixels) is often sufficient; 1440p (1920×1440) only if high resolution is needed. For larger video files consider if they should be provided outside of PATS and shared with your supervisor and moderator (e.g. panopto).
+  * Images: The JPEG or PNG formats are preferred for compatibility. An image quality of 90% is usually sufficient for JPEG.
-  * Audio: Use OGG or MP3 for lossy compression or FLAC for lossless compression. For MP3 a sampling rate of 32kbps is sufficient for voice and analog tape recordings, 128 to 192kbps should be used for CD quality and 192 to 320kbps should be used for complex audio sources (containing a broad spectrum of frequencies). For OGG a quality 0 is sufficient for voice, quality 6 should give you roughly good CD quality and higher qualities (up to 10) should be used for complex audio sources only.
+  * Video: Use MP4, MKV or WEBM container formats. The H.264/AVC and AV1 codecs are preferred for compatibility and quality. Usually the resolution does not have to be greater than 1080p (1920x1080); 720p (1280x720 pixels) is often sufficient; 1440p (1920×1440) or larger only if high resolution is needed. Large videos may be hosted outside of PATS (e.g. on panopto), but make sure they are accessible with the information provided in the report and are not just available to your supervisor and moderator (see extremely large files above).
+  * Audio: Use OGG or MP3 for lossy compression or FLAC for lossless compression. For MP3, a sampling rate of 32kbps is sufficient for voice and analogue tape recordings, 128 to 192kbps should be used for CD quality and 192 to 320kbps should be used for complex audio sources (containing a broad spectrum of frequencies). For OGG, a quality 0 is sufficient for voice, quality 6 should give you roughly good CD quality, and higher qualities (up to 10) should be used for complex audio sources only.

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