Commands: FileMan
The
main function of filemanager of EMEGS is to help you in managing large
folder structures containing EEG or MEG data files of a number of
subjects,. More specifically this involves renaming files, copying files, deleting files, finding files, creating batch files, creating folders, etc.
All of this can also be done using standard operating system tools
(e.g. the windows explorer), but often these tools do not offer the
possibilty to do this in batch mode, which
means to perform a task automatically on many files. Moreover, this allows
incopy/move/delete you any number of files in varying folders in one
step (this usually takes many more steps using operating system tools,
as most often only multiple objects of one folder can be dragged/copied
to another location). Coping, moving and deleting files is done using
the 'action'-dropdown menu on
the very top of the FileMan menubar. For finding files and creating
lists of filepaths/batchfiles, there is a separate menu section at the
very bottom of FileMan called 'file finder'. There also are separate
sections for file renaming ('file renamer'), creating folder structures
('folder wizard') and averaging ('averager') files. Each funtion type
except the averaging will be described in the following. The 'averager'
is explained in the 'Averaging across
subjects' help section.
Copying, moving and
deleting files: From the action-dropdownmenu select
'movefileto' for copying or moving and 'deletefiles' for deleting
files. The activate the 'batchmode'-radiobutton if you want to work on
multiple files or the 'singlefilemode'-radiobutton if you wish to
perform an action on one specific file. For the batchmode, you then
have to activate either the 'directory'-radio or the 'batchfile'-radio,
to choose between working on alles files in a specific folder or to
work on files in a list. After that push 'choose' in the chosen section
to select either the directory containing the files to work on
(directory mode) or the textfile containing the paths of the files in
the list with one filepath per line of the textfile (make sure to
delete empty (whitespace) lines at the end!). If you have chosen a
textfile containing a list of filepaths, FileMan checks the filepaths
for correct spelling and tells you if all files in the list could be
found. Then, when ready, push 'start'. Caution:
FileMan does not ask you to confirm your choice!!!! If you have
chosen 'deletefiles', all files will
be deleted and possibly not be recoverable. If you have chose
movefileto,
you can choose between moving the files or copying them and then must
select a target location (a folder) to move/copy the files to. When
done, FileMan should give you a 'job done' message.
Finding files / creating
batchfiles (file finder): the file finder always needs a parent
folder, to start searching in. This folder is specified, using
'batchmode/directory/choose'-option of the topmost section of FileMan.
Once you have chosen this folder, it's path is shown in the white space
below the 'directory'-radiobutton. If you then push the search-button
in the file-finder-section, FileMan will list the paths of all files in
this folder in the command window. You could then copy and paste this
output into a textfile.
Moreover, the search results is stored in a memory slot corresponding
the number selected in the 'result slot'-dropdownmenu. Selecting this
number afterwards will cause the slots content to be reprinted in the
command window. Thus, if you are performing multiple searches, set the
result slot to the next value before each search to keep all search
results in separate slots. You can then merge the slot contents using
either the 'zipper '-button or the 'concat'-button. The zipper works
only for slot contents of equal lengths and will 'zip' the slot
contents together, listing the first files of each slot before moving
to the second files of each slot. The concatenator will simply list all
files of the first slot, then all files of the second slot and so on.
Zipping or concatenated filelists are also stored in the current slot,
so if you do not wish to erase any part of a zipped or concatenated
list, first select a higher result slot number.
If you wish to restrict your search to specific strings or characters
in the name of the file, activate the 'use filterstring'-radio and
enter your searchstring in the edit-window on the right of the 'use
filterstring'-radio. This searchstring supports one ore multiple
wildcards ( * ) to designate any number of characters. Thus, if you
wanted to search for files containing the string 'experiment1' you
would enter the searchstring '*experiment1*'. If you want the search to
be case sensitive, activate the 'case sensitive'-radiobutton.
Deactivating the 'full paths'-option will cause FileMan to print only
the filename of each file without its folderposition. The 'include
subfolders'-option decides wether subfolders of the parentfolder are
recursively searched or ignored.
Finding files with almost all the mentioned options (except the use of
multiple wildcards and the case sensitivity) can also be done using the
command line and the dir2batch command.
Renaming files: like
with finding files, before starting the renaming you have to choose the
mode for the operation: wether you want to work on a single file, a
directory or on file of list (batchfile). You do this using the
uppermost section of FileMan - the chosen value in the
'action'-dropdown is irrelevant in this case. Then enter strings in the
the edit-boxes 'find files by', 'Find-String' and 'Replace with'. The
first is similiar to the searchstring you use in the file finder: it
must be found in the filename to select the file for renaming,
otherwise the file is ignored. The two other strings define which
string in the filename will be replaced by which other. The 'copy &
replace'-option creates new file copies that are then renamed. If left
deactivated, existing files will be truly renamed. The 'include
subfolders'-option is only relevant for the directory mode and decides
wether FileMan will recursively descend into subdirectories. After the
renaming procedure, FileMan will open two windows containing the
original and the modified file names.
Creating folder structures:
The folder wizard lets you create a number of folders (NFolders) whith
another number of subfolders (NSub) in each. Select a parent folder
(using the directory mode) in FileMan topmost section, in which
foldercreation will begin. Folders will be named using 2-digit-numbers,
preceded by the 'Prefix'. Push 'create' to start folder creation.