Project and session integration

A project helps track recordings from one mouse—or a cohort of mice—throughout a study. It becomes especially useful for longitudinal experiments, where each subject has several sessions and those sessions should share a consistent image reference.

Projects do not require special Save Folder names or a fixed data-folder tree. A small UMITProjectBinding.umitlink file in each bound Save Folder points to the matching project, subject, and session information. Moving or renaming a data folder therefore does not change the scientific identity of its session.

Project information is centralized under the umIT project root in the current user's profile. Display that root in MATLAB with:

getUmitFolder();

Use the project-management interfaces.
Although the project root folder is accessible, use Project Manager and Project Binding Manager or the project-management classes to create, edit, move, bind, or repair project information. Avoid editing the files in the project root by hand.

Project
  ├── Subject
  │     ├── Session
  │     └── Session
  └── Subject
        └── Session

Each level has its own descriptive metadata. A subject can also own an image reference, allowing all of its sessions to be aligned to the same spatial coordinates.

Project creation is optional for a single-recording pilot, but it is highly recommended when an experiment grows to several animals or repeated sessions. Use Project Manager and Project Binding Manager to create and connect the records. A bound project is required by Image Reference Manager and Image Alignment Tool.