CERNBox, CERN’s collaboration hub, is an integrated platform dedicated to storing, sharing and collaborating on documents and data. The CERNBox team is committed to ensuring that every user has an excellent experience using the platform.

A new CERNBox Web user interface will be released on 24 October in response to the valuable feedback received from the CERNBox user community. Aligned with the latest version of the upstream product, ownCloud, it introduces a new, more intuitive and efficient design. The new system retains all of the previous version’s features while also including the terabyte of storage space and the security and confidentiality assurances provided by the CERN Data Centre. In addition, a number of highly requested features are being rolled out: 

• An option to open and edit files with Microsoft Office 365 and Markdown (CodiMD), as well as Draw.io and text editor. In addition, several viewers are available, including PDF viewer, Media viewer, IFC viewer, Jupyter Notebook viewer and Root viewer. CERNBox can also be used to access data, code and files with the SWAN Data Analysis service.
• The new CERNBox supports collaboration with external partners by introducing social and lightweight accounts. Unlike normal CERN accounts, these do not have storage associated with them. They can, however, be used to collaborate on shared resources and projects.
• URLs become universal. It is possible to simply copy a file’s URL and share it directly with someone else. They will be able to open it, provided that they have the necessary permissions.
• Sharing single files was a much-requested feature and is now possible. You can share with both viewer and editor permissions.
• Projects get their own trashbins. You can recover project files by right clicking on a project and then on “Open trashbin”.

In addition to these updates, more features and improvements are in the works, including:

• Integrations with other services (Indico already available)
• An improved search tool
• Auditing and reporting/notifications
• Back-up restore UI

So far, community feedback has been collected through different channels, such as the CERNBox User Forum, Service Now, dedicated workshops and second line support feedback. We encourage you to keep contributing your ideas and feedback to the continuous improvement of CERNBox through Service Now. 

Documentation on CERNBox can be accessed here.