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Page Revision: 2011/08/04 14:59
Description
Each experiment designed with EventIDE has an internal storage called Library. Any type of stimuli, such as pictures, sounds and videos can be loaded into the Library from files. Then the library content is stored together with the experiment structure in a single eve file, so you don't need to be concerned about migration of your experiment on different computers.
The Library is organized similar to a hierarchical file system on a computer. Each stimulus is represented by a single item, called the resource. Resources are shown in sorted lists where you can also make nested folders in order to have a custom storage structure. Each resource is unique but you always can replicate certain resource content, e.g. by making multiple copies of the same image.
Practical Use
At any moment you can load new resources, delete unused ones and, most importantly, update the resources that are already used in an experiment. It allows you to easily change your stimuli without modification of the experiment itself.
The storage capacity of the library is limited only by the available disk space but storing very large files, like movies can affects responsiveness of GUI.
Resources have different types which can be used by different elements, for instance, the Rendered element is capable to visualize any resource with a static graphical content. The Audio clip element can play only the audio resources. Different elements can recognize and use only resources of the appropriate type.
Adding Resources
Different resources (see supported file types under specific Elements sections) can be imported into the library from external files using the main menu command
Library-Add Resources. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop files into the Library Panel from a Windows explorer (and, visa versa, if you need to export a certain resource to a file). EventIDE attempts to detect a type of each imported resource by analyzing its file content. If the type cannot be detected this way it is determined by the file extension. If the type is still unknown importing is aborted.
Once resources have been added to the Library they can be viewed on the right hand side of the EventIDE main window in the
Library panel. From there they can be attached to the designated element. Use drag and drop from the library panel to the element panel. To initiate the drag and drop, press the left mouse button and hold it pressed over the selected resources. When the mouse cursor changes its shape to the cross, move a mouse to the designated element in the Element panel and drop the dragged resources. Multiple items can be dragged to a single element (provided that it has an appropriate element type e.g. image or sound) and the element supports the resource lists. You can easily see which resources are currently in the element resource list by clicking on the arrow next to the element's name.
Copy & Paste
You can easily copy and paste resources from one element to another, using windows copying commands. Within a single element, if it supports the resource lists, any single resource can be selected as an active one either in GUI or by designated index property of an element. Using the drag and drop inside of the element resource list you can change the indices and order of loaded resources in the list.
The resources can be also copied and pasted inside of the Library using general window commands. Also you can move the selected elements inside of the Library, using the same drag and drop operations, it is described above.
XAML scripts
XAML scripts are the special type of resources that can be not only imported from the .xaml files but also directly created in EventIDE. Use the menu command
Library-Custom XAML resource, under which you can choose one of the predefined shapes, or select the
Blank option and start your own XAML script. The pop-out editor for a XAML resource with a dynamic preview becomes available if you press a rectangular icon located on each XAML resource in the Library.