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About

elab2ARC is a browser-based tool for converting eLabFTW experiments and resources into the Annotated Research Context (ARC) format. It retrieves protocols, administrative metadata and attachments via the eLabFTW API, organises them into an ISA-compliant ARC and pushes the result to the DataHUB or another Git host.

Why is elab2ARC needed?

Section titled “Why is elab2ARC needed?”

Many researchers rely on electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) to document their experiments due to their flexibility in handling free-form text and supporting data files up to 100 MB. However, when metadata standardization becomes necessary or when raw data files exceed the file size limit, other research data standards, such as Annotated Research Context (ARC), may be required.

ARC offers robust metadata annotation tools and customizable templates that help standardize the unstructured content typically found in ELNs. Additionally, ARC supports large files up to 10 GB, making it an excellent complement to ELNs like eLabFTW, which are not designed to handle raw data storage or larger file sizes.

Manually transferring metadata from ELNs to ARC can be both error-prone and time-consuming. elab2ARC automates this step. It is designed to be used when a project (or a part of it) is completed: you keep documenting in eLabFTW as usual and convert the finished entries into an ARC with a few clicks, without changing your daily lab routine.

Features of elab2ARC

Section titled “Features of elab2ARC”
  • Experiments and resources: converts eLabFTW experiments as well as resources (e.g. samples, reagents, equipment).
  • ARC conversion: each entry becomes an assay (or study) with protocol, dataset and ISA metadata.
  • Runs in your browser: retrieval, conversion and Git operations happen client-side; no installation is needed.
  • Optional LLM-assisted annotation: a large language model can turn free-text protocols into ISA annotation tables (samples, process steps, parameters) as an editable draft.
  • Flexible targets: pushes to the DataHUB by default; custom GitLab instances and GitHub are also supported.
  • Version history: every conversion is a Git commit, so re-converting an entry never silently overwrites earlier states.
  • Other input formats: besides eLabFTW, HTML or Markdown files (also several files in a ZIP archive) can be used as input via the advanced settings.
  • Multi-instance support: works with any eLabFTW instance you have access to.
  • Self-hosting: a Dockerfile and docker-compose configuration are available in the repository.

Guides

Section titled “Guides”