A molecular modeling project rarely stays on one computer or with one person. A collaborator may need a structure, a cloud-job result, or the ability to update a shared document. But sharing too broadly can expose work to people who do not need it, while sharing too narrowly can slow a project down. A practical solution is to decide what each resource is for, who needs it, and what level of access they should have before you share it.
SAMSON Connect provides controls for sharing documents and cloud jobs, as well as groups that can help organize collaborators. The key is to treat access as part of your project workflow—not as an afterthought.
Start with the audience
Before publishing a document or sharing a job, ask: should anyone be able to find and use this, should access be limited to people with a link, or should access require explicit permission? SAMSON Connect offers three visibility options for documents:
- Public: everyone can use the document, while editing requires access rights.
- Hidden: anyone with the link can use it, while editing requires access rights.
- Restricted: using or editing it requires access rights.
These options help match visibility to purpose. A document intended for general use may be public. A link shared with a known set of collaborators may suit a hidden document—but remember that anyone with the link can use it. For work that should only be available to people with granted access, choose restricted visibility.
Separate viewing from editing
Being able to use a shared resource is not necessarily the same as being able to edit it. Document owners can manage visibility and grant access rights to users or groups. Owners and editors can change document settings. This distinction is useful when a collaborator needs to inspect or use a resource, but should not be responsible for changing its details.
For a project with several collaborators, groups can make access easier to manage. You can create public or private groups, add members, and manage group roles and membership end dates. A group owner can invite someone by searching for a username, full name, or email address. If an invitee does not yet have a SAMSON account, the owner can enter their email address to invite them.
Instead of thinking only in terms of individual shares, consider whether the people working on a project belong in a project group. You can grant document access directly to a group, which gives you a clearer place to manage membership as the team changes.
Remember that jobs have their own access settings
Cloud jobs run from SAMSON—including jobs using tools such as AlphaFold, NVIDIA BioNeMo services, or GROMACS—are accessible through SAMSON Connect. Jobs can be public, hidden, or restricted, and their default visibility is Restricted. That default is worth keeping in mind when a collaborator cannot access a job: the job may need access rights to be granted.
Job owners can grant access to users or groups. Owners and editors can change job details such as the name and notes. You can also open a job to access its files and use the context menu to download them. In practice, this means you can share the result without assuming that sharing a related document has also shared the job: check the permissions for each resource separately.
A simple sharing check
- Identify the resource. Decide whether you are sharing a document, a cloud job, or both.
- Choose visibility deliberately. Public, hidden, and restricted have different audiences; hidden means anyone with the link can use the document.
- Grant the right access. Share with specific users or, where appropriate, a group. Keep editing permissions distinct from the need to use or view a resource.
- Review membership. Group owners can manage roles and membership end dates, helping keep access aligned with the project team.
- Check each resource independently. Document access and job access are managed separately.
When you publish a document from SAMSON, you can provide its name and description and choose its visibility. Published documents can then be managed from the Documents section of your SAMSON Connect user menu. The total size limit for uploaded documents varies by SAMSON plan, so check your plan if a large project file will not fit.
For the detailed controls and screenshots, see the SAMSON collaboration documentation.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.