# Registration

Registering for TOAR gives you the ability to

  - save your preferences,
  - keep a history of your data processing requests
  - process larger requests and download more data. 

The TOAR data infrastructure comes along with different levels of access to the TOAR data and its services:

  - **Anonymous users** have limited data downloads and analyses (e.g., max 5 time series, no gridded or statistic products).
  - **Registered users** get higher limits: up to 10 time series at once, 250 per month, and access to statistics and gridded products (worth to up to 12 TBU's per month).
  - **TOAR users** (scientists involved in TOAR activities) can request elevated privileges (e.g., up to 500 time series at once, 12 TBU per requests and up to 120 TBUs per month).
  - **Power users** (e.g., lead authors of TOAR assessment papers) get “no limitations” on TBUs.

TBU are TOAR Billing units, which are used to manage the costs of a request through the duration in years and the number of requested time series.

## How to register

  - Go to the TOAR Dashboard.
  - click the Login/Register button
  - Log in using Helmholtz ID with your institutional account or ORCID, Google account.

## Becoming a TOAR User

After logging in, click on "YourName's profile" (top right).
Your profile window will open:

![the profile window](/images/registration_tu1.jpg)

In the profile window, select the "Register as TOAR user" option.
A registration form will open:

![registering step 2](/images/registration_tu2.jpg)

The "Send Registration" button will be deactivated as long as nothing is entered in the text box.  
Please describe here why you want to become a TOAR user; also include a short introduction of yourself and your involvement in TOAR.
When you are ready, click on "Send Registration".

![registering step 3](/images/registration_tu3.jpg)

After the registration request has been successfully sent, the ‘Send Registration’ button is deactivated to prevent duplicate registrations.

![registering step 4](/images/registration_tu4.jpg)

The same applies to the 'Register as TOAR user' button on the first tab of the user profile.  

Registration is a manual process.  
The application is read and the new user is added to the system.
You will then receive an activation link by email. You must click on this link to complete the registration process. Once this has been done, your profile will show that you are now a TOAR user:

![registering step 5](/images/registration_tu5.jpg)

For more help, contact support@toar-data.org.

## Settings

![user settings](/images/registration_settings.jpg)

This modal window allows you to customize the visual appearance of the dashboard to suit your preferences or report requirements.

### Marker Color

This setting controls the color of the station dots that appear on the map.

 - **Hex Code Input**: The text box displays a hex code (e.g., #004176). You can type a specific color code here if you know the exact shade you want.
 - **Color Picker**: The blue square next to the text box is a color picker. Click it to open a palette where you can visually select a new color.

### Map Style

This dropdown menu controls the background look and feel of the map tiles. There are two map styles available:

 - **carto-positron**: This is a popular, light-colored, minimal map style that makes the station markers pop and focuses attention on the data.
 - **open-street-map**: This style provides a standard, detailed view of streets, cities, and infrastructure. This is often useful if you need to show the exact physical location of a station relative to nearby roads or landmarks.

Once you have made your changes:

 - **save settings**: Click this button to apply your new color and/or map style choices immediately. The changes will also persist for your future sessions.
 - **close**: Click this to exit the modal. If you haven't clicked "save settings" yet, your changes will be discarded.

## History

![user history](/images/registration_history.jpg)

This tab acts as an **Activity Log** or **Session History**.  
It records every specific view, analysis, or data request you have made during your session. This is particularly useful for reproducibility and sharing your work with colleagues.

The table displays two main pieces of information for every action you've taken:
*   **Visited At:** The date and timestamp of when you performed the action.
*   **URL:** The specific web address generated by the dashboard at that moment.

### How to Use the History Log

#### Reproducing a Previous View (Replay)
The primary use case for this tab is **reproducibility**. Because TOAR is a web-based tool, it can sometimes be difficult to remember exactly which filters or map zoom levels you used to find a specific station.  
Clicking a URL link ending in `/dashboard?...` from the table will reload the dashboard to the exact state it was in when you clicked that link (including map center, zoom level, and selected stations).

#### Direct API Access
Some URLs in the list begin with `https://toar-data.fz-juelich.de/api/v2/`. These are direct links to the backend API (Analysis Service, TOARgridding).  
If the link is still active, you can click it and will be directly taken to the results (or to a status page if the results are not yet available).
If you look closely at the provided log, the service URLs are marked with **`(outdated)`**. This is a specific status for the **Analysis** and **Gridding** services, and it indicates the following:
Both the analysis and gridding services operate asynchronously. When you submit a request, you receive a task ID. The status URL associated with this ID will automatically redirect you to the download link once processing is complete. Since the calculations are performed in real time, it may take several hours for the result to be ready. They are kept three days to be downloaded. If the processing finished more than three days ago, the result has been deleted, and the URL no longer works.

#### Sharing your work with colleagues
Copy any URL of your history and share it with your colleagues.

**To Close:** Click the blue **"close"** button at the bottom right to return to the dashboard.