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Saving and loading Protocols

Introduction

One of the most useful aspects of protocols is that you can save them to a file and then create new experiments based on the saved protocol. For example, let's imagine that you have a plusmaze and a water-maze in your lab. You could easily create two protocols one for each type of apparatus and then simply load the relevant protocol whenever you want to perform an experiment.

Building a library of protocols

You can think of saved protocols a little like books in a library. When you want to perform an experiment you go to the library and take out the relevant book. However, rather than removing the book itself, you take a photocopy of it. This has the advantage that you can annotate the copy without changing the original in the library. Of course, you might decide that your annotations are so useful that your copy should be added to the library as a new 'original'.

This is exactly how saved protocols work. When you want to create a new experiment based on a protocol you simply load the appropriate protocol into your experiment file. This copies the information from the protocol into your file which means that, should you want to, you can alter the protocol in the experiment without altering the original protocol file. Also, just like for the book, you can save an altered protocol thus 'adding' to the library - see figure 1.

Figure 1. When you load a protocol into an experiment, you load a copy - alterations don't affect the original. If you want to you can save alterations to a new protocol file so the updated protocol can be used in other experiments.

Saving a protocol

It's important to understand that you don't have to save protocols. Normally an experiment's protocol is stored inside the experiment's file and is saved whenever you save your experiment.

What you do when you specifically 'save' a protocol is you extract just the protocol from the experiment and save it on its own. This saved protocol isn't actually any use until it's loaded back into an experiment - see figure 2.

Figure 2. Ordinarily a protocol is saved within an experiment's file. If you save a protocol on its own then it must be loaded into an experiment before it can be used.

To actually save a protocol you should click the Save protocol button in the ribbon bar - this will open the Save protocol window where you can specify a name for the protocol file and select where the file should be saved. In fact, ANY-maze will automatically suggest the protocol's name as the file name, although you can change this if you want to.

Loading a protocol

Loading a protocol into an experiment will replace any existing protocol that the experiment contains. Because this could have serious repercussions on the results of any tests, the system won't let you load a protocol into an experiment which has actually been started, i.e. one which includes at least one performed test. However, this is really a minor restriction because you'll most often want to load a protocol into a brand new experiment.

To load a protocol you should click the Load protocol button shown in the ribbon bar - this will open the Load protocol window where you can choose the protocol file you want to load.

In fact, as you'll most often want to load a protocol into a new experiment ANY-maze includes some short-cut methods to create a new experiment and load a protocol directly into it.

Figure 3. Selecting a protocol document will create a new experiment and load the protocol into it.

Figure 4. Double clicking a protocol file is a convenient way to open ANY-maze, create a new experiment and load a protocol - all with one action.

In fact it's not strictly necessary to save a protocol to a protocol file in order to load it into an experiment - you can actually load one experiment's protocol directly into another experiment. To do this click the Load protocol button in the ribbon bar and in the Type of file list in the window which opens select ANY-maze experiment files - you'll then be able to select an experiment to load the protocol from. Doing this has no effect on the experiment from which the protocol is loaded.

Editing a saved protocol

Having saved a protocol to a protocol file you may find that you need to edit it. For example, you might need to correct a mistake, or you may wish to add something such as a new zone or calculation.

Editing a protocol file is very simple:

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T0729