The asinventory app is used to download and upload information to and from ArchivesSpace. It is something that you have to download onto your computer. You can add it to your student folder (labeled with your name in the  “SPE_Students” folder) so that you can use it regardless of which computer you are on, so long as you are logged in with your Net ID. 

To download the asInventory app, you must go to the UAlbany Archives GitHub, the asInventory repository specifically: GitHub - UAlbanyArchives/asInventory: Uploads and downloads file inventories to and from ArchivesSpace

You will then follow the instructions on the page, and download the zip file. Move the downloaded zip file to your student folder and then click inside it. 

Next edit the sample config file local_settings_sample.cfg with your ArchivesSpace credentials and rename to local_settings.cfg. 

• Your user will match your ArchivesSpace robot account (Greg or another archivist should have created a “name_robot” account for batch uploading) 

• Your robot password is typically automatically generated, but you may have changed it after getting access to ArchivesSpace. Make sure that its the right password.

There are three directories that you will primarily be working with: input, output, and complete. 

Input is used to upload inventory spreadsheets. After the sheet has been uploaded, it will be added to the Complete folder but it will not be removed from the input folder. You will have to do that manually. Output is used to download resources or archival objects from ArchivesSpace, as it is where the downloaded files appear. 

To download files

1. To download files you will use “asDownload.exe” 

• Double click “asDownload.exe” 

2. Type “r” for resource (typically collections) or “ao” for archival objects (anything smaller than the collection level). Then hit enter.

• To download a collection that has NO series, user “r” 

  • You will then be prompted to enter the collection ID for the resource you wish to download. 

• To download one series, subseries, or other component at a time, use “ao”. If you use “r” on a collection that has multiple series, you will only export the names of those series, not the folders within them. 

  • You will then be prompted to enter the “ref ID” for the archival object you wish to download. The Ref ID can be found beneath the “Basic Information” section of any archival component: Copy and paste it into the terminal using ctrl+c (copy) and then ctrl+v (paste). Hit enter.

3. If you have successfully downloaded the resource or archival object, it will say “Export Successful” and then “Successfully exported archival object from ArchivesSpace to spreadsheet at \\Lincoln\Library\SPE Students\your namef\asInventory\output.

• You can hit any key to automatically close the terminal window, or enter “y” to open the output folder to see your downloaded file. Note: files with the same name in the output folder will be overwritten. If you wish to compare two versions of the same series, change the name of the spreadsheet and ensure you have a backup in the collection’s metadata folder. 

To upload files 

1. As part of processing the digital collection, you will have had to build a Data Entry Sheet or an asinventory sheet. Once the sheet has been created and formatted to the specifications, you must copy and move it to the input folder in your asinventory app.

2. Before you upload your file, you must first validate it. Running the “validate.exe” will validate the dates within all files within the input folder, so make sure to empty the input folder once you have successfully uploaded a sheet. 

   1. Double click “validate.exe”. 

   2. Opening the program is enough to run it, you do not need to add any additional information.

   3. If the file does not validate, you will need to read the code to see what is wrong with your sheet, it will give you a specific reason and line location within the spreadsheet.

      1. Note: “validate.exe” does not check for spelling mistakes . 

   4. Example of a validation with no errors

3. Once your sheet has been validated, you can now upload it to ArchivesSpace. 

   1. Double click “asUpload.exe” 

   2. Again, it will run on its own, without having to add any information. Running the “asUpload.exe” will validate all files within the input folder, so make sure to empty the input folder once you have successfully uploaded a sheet. 

   3. You can run multiple sheets in the input folder at once, but doing so will increase the time that it takes to complete. You can allow the “asUpload.exe” in the background as you work on other tasks. 

4. Once the asinventory sheet has been uploaded, the file will be copied over to the “complete folder”.

   1.  It will not be deleted from the input folder, you must delete it manually. If you run the sheet again, duplicates will be added to ArchivesSpace. WARNING: files with the same name in this directory will be overwritten.

   2. You will immediately be able to see the uploaded objects in ArchivesSpace.