How To Check If Your Local File Is Present In A Particular ProjectID In The NDR

How To Check If Your Local File Is Present In A Particular ProjectID In The NDR

A "Local file comparison" option is available to the right mouse menu on each Files table row. Although this is available to all users, it is primarily to help users with the Data Manager role to compare a file on a computer local to them, to the files held in the NDR without the need to download files.

The comparison is of the file's content, not its name or metadata, so it can identify two differently named copies of the same file. The comparison is performed in the user's web browser, meaning the operation takes place on the user's computer; no data or metadata is uploaded to any other computer system.

The comparison is performed by calculating a SHA512 hash in the user's web browser for a selected local file on the user's computer or network. As the file is read by the web browser the web browser calculates the SHA512 of the file.

The user should first populate the Files Table with files to compare to the local file. Then, once the SHA512 of the local file has been calculated it is compared to all of those in the files table. If the SHA512 matches, then the local file is identical to the selected file.

If the SHA512 does not match the selected file, but does match one of the other files in the Files table, then a “show matching file” button will appear in the side panel. Clicking it will filter the Files table to show the files in the Files Table that matched the local file.

To launch the comparison tool, a user right clicks on a row, which will display the context menu. Clicking on the “Compare Local File to Project Files” will launch a side panel titled “Local file comparison”.

Files Table showing context menu, launched by right mouse clicking on the row in the files table.

The side panel has a “Choose File” button that will launch a file selector window. This allows a user to select the file they wish to compare against the files in the Files table.

Selecting a local file on the user’s computer or network will then start the local reading and SHA512 calculation of the file. The file data is only used in the user's web browser and not sent to the NDR or anywhere else.

Once the calculation is complete, the results are shown below in the side panel.

Files table showing “Local File Comparison” side panel with results where the selected file in the Files table matched the local user selected file.

If the SHA512 does not match the selected file, but does match one of the other files in the Files table then a “show matching file” button will appear in the side panel. Clicking it will filter the Files table to show the matching files.

Files table showing “Local File Comparison” side panel with results where the show matching file button has filtered the files table to only show the file that matched the local user selected file.