Storage GUI
===========


Creating a Storage GUI
----------------------

To create a storage GUI subwindow:

1. Launch *lys* and open the ``proc.py`` file (press Ctrl+P).

2. Add the following code to define a class for the storage GUI subwindow and save it (press Ctrl+S).

.. code-block:: python

    from lys.widgets import LysSubWindow
    from lys_instr import DataStorage, gui

    class Window(LysSubWindow):
        def __init__(self):
            super().__init__()
            storage = DataStorage()
            storageGUI = gui.DataStorageGUI(storage)
            self.setWidget(storageGUI)
            self.adjustSize()

Calling ``Window()`` in the *lys* command line launches the GUI subwindow as follows:

.. image:: /lys_instr_/tutorial_/storage_1.png


Click **File** (icon) to select the data-saving directory ("Base Folder"). 
By default, this is the directory from which you launched *lys*.
You can enter a "Folder Name" and "File Name" (without extension) directly.

The "Enabled" checkbox toggles data saving on or off.
The "Numbered" checkbox enables automatic numbering in file names:
the number specified in the spin box is appended to the file name (e.g., "yourDataFolder/yourFileName_0.npz", "yourDataFolder/yourFileName_1.npz").
Data is saved in NumPy ndarray format (.npz).


Connecting Storage to Detector
------------------------------

In practice, a storage is used to save data acquired by a detector.
Simply connecting a storage instance to a detector instance using the storage's ``connect()`` method enables automated data saving.

Using the same detector instance as on the previous page, you can create a GUI for connected storage and detector:

.. code-block:: python

    from lys.widgets import LysSubWindow
    from lys.Qt import QtWidgets
    from lys_instr import DataStorage, dummy, gui

    class Window(LysSubWindow):
        def __init__(self):
            super().__init__()
            detector = dummy.MultiDetectorDummy(frameShape=(256, 256))
            storage = DataStorage()
            storage.connect(detector)               # Connect storage to detector

            detectorGUI = gui.MultiDetectorGUI(detector)
            storageGUI = gui.DataStorageGUI(storage)

            VBox = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout()          # Create a vertical box to hold the two GUIs
            VBox.addWidget(storageGUI)              # Add storage GUI to the box (upper)
            VBox.addWidget(detectorGUI)             # Add detector GUI to the box (lower)

            w = QtWidgets.QWidget()
            w.setLayout(VBox)
            self.setWidget(w)

            self.adjustSize()

The GUI layout is constructed using standard *QtWidgets* conventions (in the last 2-7 lines of the code above); 
you can ignore these details for now in this tutorial.

Calling ``Window()`` in the *lys* command line launches the combined GUI subwindow as follows:

.. image:: /lys_instr_/tutorial_/storage_2.png

On each acquisition event, the storage instance automatically saves the acquired data to the specified path.

For real applications, you need to connect the data storage instance to a device-specific detector instance.