The concept of projects was introduced to retain the products of the CCD frame calibration and reduction even when another data sets were processed; it allows one to revert back to the data that have been already processed without necessity of processing them again.
The project type is one of the project settings. It was introduced to optimalize the user interface when a specific task is performed - for example, when one is making a master flat frame, some of the tools, like the light curve dialog or the find variables dialog, can be kept from the menus and the toolbar, because they are not used in this context. The Project settings dialog is affected by the choice of the project type as well. The dialog presents only parameters that that used in the selected task.
When a new project is created, the program asks one to specify a type of the new project. You can change the type afterwards in the Project settings dialog. Plase note, that choice of the project type only affects visibility of user interface controls, a full set of configuration parameters is always kept in the project - no data are lost when you switch between project types.
The Muniwin program allows one:
All configuration parameters that affect the data processing are retained in the project, allowing one to work with multiple configurations efficiently. When the projects settings are changed, the program updates the project. There is one exception to this rule - if the project is opened in the ‘read-only’ mode, the new settings are kept in the memory, but the project file is not changed.
User-defined Profiles allows one to efficiently cope with a situation where using multiple distinct project settings is necessary. The profile keeps the set of configuration parameters; during the creting of a new project, the initial configuration is loaded from a profile. See the Profiles section for more information.
The project consists of a set of files and folders, all of which are stored in a single base directory. A main file, called project file, is found in the base directory and it is distinguished by the “cmpack” extension. The project file keeps the project settings and a table of frames. Files that are created during a data processing are stored in a separate folder; it’s name is derived from the project file name with a suffix “-files”.
No special action is necessary to make a copy of a project; copy a project file, a directory with the “-files” suffix and all files that resides in it.
Restoring is also easy; just copy the files and directories to a folder and make sure that you have the ‘read-write’ access to the project file, the directory with “-files” suffix and also to all files that resides in it. When you open a project from a read-only location, e.g. DVD, the program detects the situation and gives a warning; it allows you to open the project in the ‘read-only’ mode; in this mode, it is allowed to make outputs, e.g. light curve, but operations that would change the data files are disallowed.
When a project is opened more than once, the program detects this situation and notifies a user. It allows one to open the project in the ‘read-only’ mode; in this mode, it is allowed to make outputs, e.g. light curve, but operations that would change the data files are disallowed. The file-based locking mechanism used should work over the network in most situation, although this is not guaranteed in all configurations.