Download

Overview

Click the “Files” tab to see what is available for download.

A padlock icon indicates that you do not have permission to access the files.  Authorised users should try signing in.

If the collection contains folders, you can click on a folder to navigate to its contents.

There are several ways to download files.  The next section contains an overview to help you select the method that will work best for you, with links to more details on how to use them.

Selecting a Download Method

There are four main ways to download files from the DAP.  Which one you should choose depends on the DAP collection you’re accessing and what your needs are.  Below is a summary of the methods to help you choose.

Download files individually

You do this by clicking the download icon for the file you want to download.

Good for:

• Downloading individual files that are too big to be downloaded as a zip or tar file, i.e. over 10 GiB for zip and 8 GiB for tar.
• Downloading a small number of files.

Bad for:

• Downloading many files.
• Remembering where you downloaded the file from.  This method does not download any metadata that you can refer to later.
• Maintaining the folder structure of the collection you want to download.  You may have to create folders yourself that you can download the files to.
• Downloading very large files when you don’t have much storage space.  Some web browsers will use temporary storage to download the file and then transfer the temporary file to the location you select.  This can cause problems if your system is low on space.
• Download speed.  For many purposes this method is fine, but it is not the fastest method that is available.  If you are downloading more than one file at a time your overall speed may improve.

Download all files as zip or tar files

For collections under 10 GiB in size for zip and 8 GiB in size for tar, you can do this by clicking the “Download” button and selecting the relevant option.

Good for:

• Downloading all files in one operation (provided the total file size does not exceed 10 GiB for zip and 8 GiB for tar).
• Maintaining the folder structure of the collection you want to download.  When you extract the downloaded zip file, all the folders and files will be where they are supposed to be.
• Remembering where you downloaded the file from.  The zip or tar file will contain some metadata with the licence conditions and an XML file with citation information.  Some reference management software packages (e.g. Zotero) can import the XML file.

Bad for:

• Downloading more than 10 GiB for zip files and 8 GiB for tar files.
• Download speed.  This is not the fastest method that is available.

See Download all files as Zip archive or Download as TAR archive for guides on these methods.

Select files and folders to download as zip or tar files

You can select the files and folders you want, then click “Download” to do this.  You can download up to 10 GiB as a zip file and 8 GiB as a tar file.

Good for:

• Downloading a subset of the collection.
• Maintaining the folder structure of the collection you want to download.  When you extract the downloaded zip file, all the folders and files will be where they are supposed to be.
• Remembering where you downloaded the file from.  The zip or tar file will contain some metadata with the licence conditions and an XML file with citation information.  Some reference management software packages (e.g. Zotero) can import the XML file.
• Downloading smaller collections in one operation.

Bad for:

• Downloading more than 10 GiB for zip files and 8 GiB for tar files.
• Download speed.  This is not the fastest method that is available.

See Download selected files as Zip archive for a guide on how to use this method.

Download files via an S3 Client

You can use S3 compatible software to download the files.  Click the “Download” button and select the relevant option to do this.  It is not necessary to select files or folders first, selections will be ignored.

Good for:

• Downloading one or many files from any collection.
• Downloading very large files, or collections with many files.
• Remembering where you downloaded the file from.  Your S3 client will see a “data” and “metadata” folder.  The metadata folder contains the licence conditions and an XML file with citation information.  Some reference management software packages (e.g. Zotero) can import the XML file.
• Download speed.  S3 clients that can download multiple files at once, plus download large files in multiple parts concurrently, can achieve faster download speeds than the other available methods.  You may need to modify your software’s settings to get the best results.

Bad for:

• Organisations that won’t let you install the required software.
• Simple cases.  While it’s a perfectly fine option, for a small DAP collection the other options may be simpler to use.

See Download Using S3 Compatible Software for guides on how to use this method.  There are guides for several S3 compatible software clients that run on a range of operating systems.