View source for Contributions:SecondaryBCI2000Controller

==Synopsis==
An extension that controls one or more secondary BCI2000 instances from the GUI of a primary one.

==Location==
http://{{SERVERNAME}}/svn/trunk/src/contrib/Extensions/SecondaryBCI2000Controller

==Versioning==
===Author===
*Jürgen Mellinger (mellinger@neurotechcenter.org) 
===Version History===

===Source Code Revisions===
*Initial development: 6819
*Tested under: 6819
*Known to compile under: 6819

===Known Issues===
*Log windows of primary and secondary BCI2000 instances will initially have the same location, hiding each other and possibly leading to confusion. The same applies to operator main windows if secondary instances are not hidden by calling "Hide Window" from the secondary batch file(s).

==Functional Description==
The extension will start up one or more secondary instances of BCI2000, and synchronize data file storage and operation state between the instances. This is useful to record from two or more different data sources at the same time, when online processing of secondary data sources is not required. In later analysis, data from the multiple sources may be aligned in time using BCI2000 time stamps found in the data files.

==Integration into BCI2000==
Compile the extension into your source module by enabling contributed extensions in your CMake configuration. In your root build folder, run <tt>Configure.sh.cmd</tt> in order to bring up the CMake GUI; there, enable EXTENSIONS_SECONDARY_BCI2000_CONTROLLER.

Once the extension is built into the source module, enable it by starting the source module with the <code>--SecondaryBCI2000=1</code> command line argument.

==Usage==
When the SecondaryBCI2000Controller extension has been enabled in the system at compile time, you will find a <tt>BCI2000TwiceStartup.bat</tt> batch file in your BCI2000 batch folder. Double-click it to start BCI2000.

Startup configuration of secondary BCI2000 instances is done in the files <tt>BCI2000SecondaryStartup.bat</tt>, <tt>BCI2000Secondary2Startup.bat</tt>, etc.
You may load identical or different configuration parameter files in the startup batch files.

Data file location is synchronized between BCI2000 instances. Secondary instances use identical file names to the first one, with an appended <tt>_1</tt>, <tt>_2</tt>, ... before the file name extension.

==Parameters==
The SecondaryBCI2000Controller extension is configured in the ''Source'' tab within the "Secondary BCI2000" section.  The configurable parameters are:

===SecondaryBCI2000===
Enables/Disables the SecondaryBCI2000Controller.

===SecondaryBCI2000Instances===
A matrix with one row per secondary instance.

The first column contains the telnet port that is used to control the secondary instance of BCI2000.

The second column contains the the script that is used to start up and configure the secondary instance of BCI2000. An example script is available as <tt>BCI2000SecondaryStartup.bat</tt> in your BCI2000 batch directory, and is called by the <tt>BCI2000TwiceStartup.bat</tt> batch file.


To tell the second instance that it should refer to the first one for file names, there is a command line parameter:

===IsSecondaryBCI2000===
This parameter must be set to 1 in the secondary instance's batch file: <tt>--IsSecondaryBCI2000=1</tt>

==See also==
[[Contributions:Extensions]], [[User Reference:Operator Module Scripting]]

[[Category:Contributions]][[Category:Extension]]