| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision |
| submission_guide [2014/01/13 18:04] – scmfcl | submission_guide [2023/03/16 12:11] (current) – [Extremely Large Files/Archives] scmfcl |
|---|
| ====== Submission Guide ====== | ====== Submission Guide ====== |
| |
| This explains how to submit the deliverables for your final year project. All deliverables must be submitted via PATS, except for physical artefacts ([[Submission Guide#Physical Artefacts|details below]]). For details of what needs to be included for the various deliverables, please see the guidelines specific to your final year project module. All submissions must contain at least one PDF file in the document section or they will not be accepted by PATS and so submission cannot be completed. | 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. |
| |
| ====== Online Submission ====== | 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. |
| |
| PATS enables you to submit nearly all parts of your project online. Each submission consists of a collection of files under the following sections: | 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. |
| |
| * **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. | 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. |
| * **Appendix files**: These are additional PDF files, not part of the document files, that form an extended appendix of your report. Including files here is optional and you can instead add a normal appendix to the document files. What is most suitable mainly depends on the nature of the files and your specific project. | |
| * **Archive files**: These are file archives to provide the sources or any other content collections such as a set of images, test cases, survey data for your project, that are relevant to your report. The archives can contain any file type and can have any arbitrary hierarchy. You can upload zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2 or tar.xz archives only. But for compatibility any non-zip file will be converted to a zip file. Providing files here is optional, but at least final report submissions are likely to require at least one archive, e.g. for the sources of your software. | |
| * **Other files**: Here you can upload any other files to support your report. This is provided to enable you to submit any special files for your project in special formats, etc. as an alternative to submitting these in an archive. Typically these would be files standing on their own in a special file format. | |
| |
| Note that, of course, not all file types need to be included with each submission. What is suitable depends on your project and your report and please discuss with your supervisor what you should be submitting if you are unsure. | 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. |
| |
| To add files to these sections, press the related [Upload] link which opens a separate upload dialog. You can select more than one file at once to upload into a section in that dialog before you press the "Upload" button. Once you have uploaded a file you can view its type, file size, MD5 and SHA1 checksum via the provided link. You can use the MD5 or SHA1 checksum to verify the integrity of the file (also see [[checksums]]). You can further rename, delete and move the file up or down in the list in each section. You cannot move files between sections. | ===== File Submission ===== |
| |
| After you have uploaded at least one file to the document 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. **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 cannot actually mark them. | 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 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 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 can see any of the files you have in the submission area and your current and previous submission archive. |
| |
| 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. | 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. |
| |
| The system will keep the current and the previous submission archive. You can delete these archives at any time before the deadline and also download the archives to verify their contents. If you wish to check the archive before completing the submission, select the "Preview Submission" button. | 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). |
| |
| **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 they files you may also use the MD5 or SHA1 [[checksums]].** | 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. |
| |
| 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 (unless you delete them). | 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. |
| |
| See the [[PDF Guide]] for information on how to create a PDF file. | **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 available for demonstration at the oral examination and your report should contain sufficient information to rebuild these. Any manually created 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. This applies in particular to large soft system models drawn manually. | 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. |
| |
| In addition to the digitised version, the documents larger than A4 should also be handed in by the submission deadline to the COMSC office in a suitable envelope. On the envelope clearly write your name, the title of your project and the names of your supervisor and moderator. The document will not be archived, but used by your supervisor and moderator to decide your mark and will be available at the oral examination. It will be returned to you after the oral examination. | If you have any problems with this, discuss them with your supervisors and potentially with our IT Service Desk. |
| |
| Assistance is available to create digital versions of such large documents from Frank Langbein and also the computer support officers. If you cannot take any suitable images of the document, contact them for assistance (to take one or multiple photos and merge them, etc.). | ===== Extremely Large Files/Archives ===== |
| | |
| | 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 ====== | ====== Submission Problems and Peace of Mind ====== |
| |
| After you submitted your files on PATS as an archive (not just | 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: |
| uploaded them into the submission area) your project report or plan counts as | |
| submitted and you do not have to do anything else. 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, the Internet connection 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: | |
| * Put all the files you wish to submit into some archive file (similar to the submission archive generated by PATS). | * Put all the files you wish to submit into some archive file (similar to the submission archive generated by PATS). |
| * Compute an MD5 checksum of this archive file and store the checksum in a separate file. | * 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. |
| * Carefully preserve the archive you have submitted or intend to submit in its original form and the MD5 checksum file. For this you may for instance burn it on a CD or DVD. | * 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. |
| * Send the MD5 checksum to LangbeinFC@cf.ac.uk in an e-mail with the title "Final Year Project MD5 Checksum" from your university e-mail account. The e-mail must be sent before the submission deadline and all e-mails will be acknowledged. If you do not have e-mail access, print out the MD5 checksum and hand it in at the COMSC office with your name and project title (again latest by deadline, but note that the closing times of the office on the day). | * 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. |
| |
| While the procedure is optional it avoids any problems arising fromthe online submission. If you provide an MD5 checksum, then the following applies: | 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 from that storage. Ensure the file is not modified (in particular, after you created the checksum). |
| * If you have submitted your project online, we will contact you by e-mail in case the MD5 checksum you have submitted does not match the checksum of the submission archive. In this case the submitted archive may be replaced by the archive with that checksum. This is to ensure the integrity of the archive. | * 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). |
| * If for whatever reason you did not manage to submit the project online by the deadline, the MD5 checksum (submitted before deadline) can be used to verify that the archive has been generated before the submission deadline. In this case you can hand-in the archive (e.g. on a CD or DVD) or upload the archive later. Obviously the late submitted archive must produce the same MD5 checksum. You will automatically be contacted if you have send an MD5 checksum and no archive has been submitted. This is to avoid problems that may arise from server problems, network connection problems, etc. | * 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 have never had to use this approach. |
| For details on how to generate MD5 checksums, etc. please see [[checksums]] | |
| |
| ====== Recommended File Types ====== | ====== Recommended File Types ====== |
| |
| You are free to use any file types as long as they are suitable for | 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: |
| the submission section. However, in general we recommend the following | * Documents: Whenever possible, use PDF. Note the main report must be in PDF format in the document files section. |
| file formats, unless there is a good reason for your project to use a | * 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. |
| different format: | * 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. |
| | * Images: The JPEG or PNG formats are preferred for compatibility. An image quality of 90% is usually sufficient for JPEG. |
| * Documents: Whenever possible use PDF. You may include the original document files used to generate the PDF in the "Other" section. Note, the main report and the appendices must be in PDF format. | * 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). |
| * 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. | * 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. |
| * Images: The JPEG or PNG formats are preferred, for compatibility. An image quality of 90% is usually sufficient for JPEG. | |
| * Video: Use QuickTime, MPEG or DivX formats. The H.264 and MJPEG codecs are preferred, for compatibility and quality. Usually the resolution does not have to be greater than 720p (1280x720 pixels). | |
| * 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. | |