A molecular project often begins on one person’s machine, but the questions it raises rarely stay there. A colleague may need to inspect a structure, a group may need access to shared documents, or collaborators may need to coordinate cloud jobs. The difficult part is not always the science: it is knowing where to begin and which collaboration workflow to follow.
SAMSON’s sharing guidance is organized around a useful distinction: SAMSON Connect provides the account and website context, while the Collaboration guide covers profiles, groups, permissions, shared documents, and shared jobs. Starting in the right place can save time and help prevent a common source of confusion: looking for team-management steps in a page intended for account or download tasks.
Choose a route before you share
First, identify what you are trying to make possible. Are you setting up an account, finding downloads, or accessing the Marketplace? Begin with SAMSON Connect. Do you want someone to access a document? Follow the document-sharing path. Are you organizing a group or working out access to shared jobs? Continue to Collaboration.
The recommended reading order is:
- SAMSON Connect for website sections, account context, downloads, extensions, and shared resources.
- Share documents when you need to share documents on SAMSON Connect or download documents that have been shared.
- Collaboration for profiles, groups, permissions, shared documents, and shared jobs.
This sequence is especially useful when you are setting up collaboration from scratch. If your account is already in place, you can go directly to the collaboration information you need rather than treating every page as a prerequisite.
A practical pre-sharing check
Before inviting others into a workflow, write down what they need to do. Do they need to obtain a document, work within a group, or access a job? That simple distinction gives you a starting point for navigating the documentation. It also helps you explain the intended workflow clearly to collaborators, rather than sending a broad link with no context.
- Account, downloads, or Marketplace: start with SAMSON Connect.
- Document sharing or downloading: go from SAMSON Connect to Share documents.
- Groups and permissions: go from SAMSON Connect to Collaboration.
- Documents and jobs together: review the document-sharing workflow, then the collaboration guidance for shared documents and jobs.
These routes help separate related but different tasks. For example, someone who only needs account settings or downloads may not need to read about collaboration yet. Conversely, if the goal is to coordinate group access or job visibility, the collaboration guide is the relevant destination.
Keep the scientific workflow connected
Sharing is often only the handoff, not the end of the work. Once a document is opened or downloaded, the next step may be to inspect or edit its contents. The documentation points to Work with structures for that stage. If the shared work involves cloud-job workflows, paths, or analysis, continue to Simulate and analyze. For scripted documents or workflow automation, see Automate and extend.
Thinking of collaboration as a sequence—account context, sharing, then scientific work—makes it easier to find the right instructions and communicate the next step to a teammate. For the complete overview and its suggested paths, read the Share and collaborate documentation.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.